CHICAGO—GolinHarris has appointed Elizabeth DeLuca (pictured) as director in the consumer practice in its Chicago office. Deluca will join the agency’s “connector” community and will be responsible for helping to lead GolinHarris’ work for Walmart. She will report to Amy Kennedy, executive director in Chicago. She joins GolinHarris from Rubenstein Communications and previously spent more than three years overseeing public relations and marketing efforts for retailer Kohl’s.

NEW YORK—The CHR Group, an independent marketing services holding company, has added Jonathan Zaback as chief strategy officer. Zaback will report to CEO Peter Clark and work with him and the other partners to identify and vet acquisition targets across the full marketing services spectrum, work with the business unit leaders to set a cohesive strategy, and work with clients to ensure quality client service. Zaback was most recently chief communications officer at SpecOps Communications and before that held positions at Finn Partners, Emanate PR and Burson-Marsteller.

LOS ANGELES—Ben Atkins has been named co-lead of the digital practice at Chandler Chicco Companies, where he will drive innovation, best practices, and digital/social integration across Chandler Chicco’s agencies. Prior to Chandler Chicco, Atkins was at Amgen, where he worked as corporate communications director of digital and social media. Earlier, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Novartis, including head of news and social media communications.

GRAND RAPIDS, MI—Lambert, Edwards & Associates has added Derek DeVries and John VanderHaagen as senior associates to its Ripple+Affect digital and social media team. DeVries was previously marketing associate for 834 Marketing & Design, while VanderHaagen most recently worked as the social media sales & marketing manager for the Detroit Red Wings American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. In addition, Abby Hartig has been added as an associate from digital marketing agency Bevelwise.

NEW YORK—Cognito, a full-service public relations and marketing agency for the financial services sector, has named Nabil Ashour as vice president in its New York office. Prior to joining the firm, Nabil was an account director at Ogilvy Public Relations, where he worked for more than five years in both the Dubai and New York offices with clients including Barclays, State Street, the French Ministry of Finance, The Carlyle Group and BlackRock.