NEW YORK—Burson-Marsteller has named Helaine Klasky chair of its US public affairs and crisis practice. Klasky worked at GE for more than seven years serving as chief communications officer for GE Energy Management, and creating and then leading GE’s global public affairs function. She also served as senior adviser for GE Business Innovations. Before GE, Klasky spent eight years as chief communications officer and associate vice president at Yale University and was deputy assistant secretary at the US Department of the Treasury.

WASHINGTON, DC—Raisa Sheynberg, a national security and economic policy expert and former director for trade and investment at the National Security Council, has joined APCO Worldwide as as a director in the firm’s global solutions practice. Sheynberg most recently served as director for international economic affairs at the NSC, where she advised senior White House officials including the National Security Advisor, the director of the National Economic Council, and the White House chief of staff. Earlier, she was senior advisor in the terrorism and financial intelligence office at the Department of the Treasury.

SEATTLE—WE Communications has appointed Matthew Ashworth as general manager and senior vice president for the agency's Seattle office, a newly created role. Ashworth joins WE with 20 years of experience in public relations in the consumer, corporate, government and emerging business sectors. He most recently served as vice president, technology, at Porter Novelli, where he led the technology practice for the agency's Seattle office. Before that, he managed communication strategy for business and partner sales at T-Mobile USA.

NEW YORK—Executive creative director Tom Eslinger has been named as Burson-Marsteller’s first-ever global chief creative officer. He will be responsible for the integration of strategy, planning and analytics across all traditional, digital and mobile platforms as well as emerging platforms like virtual, augmented and mixed reality. Before joining Burson-Marsteller, Eslinger was consulting executive creative director for visual effects and virtual reality firm Framestore’s integrated advertising efforts. Before that, he spent 13 years in the Saatchi & Saatchi network.

NEW YORK—Hampton Shaddock has joined Zeno Group as executive vice president and US healthcare lead based in New York.  Formerly of PRx Advocacy and Burson-Marsteller, Hampton brings experience in ally development, advocacy relations and patient engagement to the Zeno team.

NEW YORK—Financial public relations specialist Montieth & Company has added several new senior advisors: Ambassador Paul Frazer, former Canadian Ambassador to the Czech Republic and Slovakia: Paul Kaplan, of counsel at Locke Lord; Helio Fred Garcia, president of the crisis management firm Logos Consulting Group; and Julian Boulding, president of the European-based marketing firm thenetworkone.

LOS ANGELES—Coherency, a marketing insights and strategy agency, has added Lisa Schumacher as senior vice president of client engagement. Schumacher comes to Coherency from Startup Institute Chicago, where she served as managing director of the education startup. Earlier, she was senior vice president of strategic accounts for C Space, an Omnicom research agency.

NEW YORK—Steinreich Communications Group has added SuJin Oh as account manager, working in the firm’s consumer products practice. Oh has more than 25 years of public relations and journalism experience, most recently spending nearly a decade at Finn Partners. Prior to that, she handled media relations for The Asia Society. Earlier in her career, she was a staff reporter at the Korea Times.

ST. LOUIS—The Vandiver Group has promoted Andrew Likes to senior vice president. Likes began working at TVG in 2006 and has served in a variety of roles in his 11-year tenure, most recently as vice president. He specializes in crisis communications, media relations, training and video production.