NEW YORK—Carol Ballock has joined Weber Shandwick as executive vice president in the firm’s corporate practice, effective immediately. Ballock will be responsible for generating thought leadership platforms for C-suite executives, as well as helping them raise their visibility and stature among key stakeholders and will oversee the firm’s Voiceboxx and Scoreboxx offerings, which employ speaking engagements, rankings and corporate scorecards to raise executive visibility and build corporate brands. Previously, Ballock was a managing director of the corporate and financial communications practice at Burson-Marsteller.

NEW YORK—MWW Group has appointed Kathy Fieweger as executive vice president, corporate reputation, based in the firm's Chicago office. As vice president, Fieweger managed restructurings, complex transactions and crisis communications. Fieweger previously served as senior vice president at Edelman, where she specialized in crisis and issues management, advising clients on high-risk matters affecting the entire enterprise. Before her tenure at Edelman, Fieweger worked with Financial Dynamics, a division of FTI Consulting, on its special situations team.
 
CHICAGO—Zócalo Group, Ketchum’s word-of-mouth and social media marketing agency, has added Hugo Pérez as vice president and account director of Hispanic marketing. Pérez leads Zócalo Group’s efforts to create and execute word-of-mouth and social media programs specifically focused on engaging the United States’ rapidly growing Hispanic market. His background includes work in various private (Mars), public (NBC Network News), corporate (AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals), nonprofit (American Heart Association) and startup environments.
 
NEW YORK—Ketchum has named Marc Levy as senior VP, insights, and creative catalyst, for its New York office. Levy will expand on the office's creative capabilities and provide creative and strategic counsel to account teams and specialists to evolve program concepts from idea to execution. He returns to Ketchum, where he previously worked in the New York brand marketing practice, after serving most recently as executive VP and creative director for Cohn & Wolfe in New York.
 
ANDOVER, MA—PAN Communications has hired Lauren Iacono as its director of digital strategy. Iacono comes to PAN from Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications where she was the firm’s first associate vice president of digital communications and media services. In her role at PAN, Iacono will be responsible for firm-wide digital media strategy and services, including new offerings to support community building on leading social media platforms, in addition to content creation, video production, measurement and brand analytics, and overall listening, monitoring and engagement.
 
SYRACUS—Eric Mower & Associates has hired Thomas Brede, former press secretary to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to expand its public affairs practice into Western New York. Brede will work out of EMA’s Rochester office and serve as account supervisor.

WASHINGTON, DC—Public affairs firm Beekeeper Group has hired Henri Makembe as partner and head of the interactive division. Makember has worked with Blue State Digital, DCI Group, and Be The Change and is also known for his blog, Local Politechs, where he writes about the ways that state and local political candidates are embracing technology. Immediately before joining Beekeeper Group, Henri spent a month in Benin, Africa, doing training and strategic and technical field implementation to assist a select group of civil society organizations there.

WASHINGTON, DC—North Bridge Communications has hired agricultural communications specialist Dave Ray as managing director to help manage the firm’s food and farm portfolio. Ray comes to North Bridge from the American Meat Institute, where he served as vice president of public affairs for seven years and oversaw media outreach and industry messaging. Ray also advised the industry during crises, including BSE, avian influenza, and product recalls. Ray held a similar role with the Federation for American Immigration Reform prior to joining AMI.

RICHMOND, VA—CRT/tanaka has promoted five staff in three of its offices. Karen de Groot has been promoted from senior account executive to account supervisor in the agency’s Los Angeles office; Catherine Gryp and Emily Valentine have been promoted from account executive to senior account executive in the agency’s Richmond office; Viviana Pinzon and Cassandra Bianco have been promoted from assistant account executive to account executive in the agency’s New York office.