GENEVA—Victoria Dix, until recently managing director of the Swiss operations of Cohn & Wolfe, is joining oil trading company Trafigura Beheer as head of media relations. In this newly-created role, Dix will be responsible for setting the media relations governance and strategy for Trafigura, its associates and affiliated companies worldwide.

She will report to Mark Eadie, who was brought in two years ago to lead a newly-established corporate affairs function.

Trafigura made headlines at the end of 2009 after it attempted to use the courts to suppress documents related to the dumping of toxic waste in Africa. The so-called superinjunction, which prevented UK media from reporting on the charges, was circumvented by social media and led to criticism of the company and its law firm Carter Ruck.

Since then, the company has been fined for illegally exporting waste to Ivory Coast and most recently linked to oil supposedly "looted” from South Sudan.

“This is a fascinating industry to join at a time when the supply and demand of the world’s energy resources are constantly in the headlines,” says Dix. “Geneva has become the leading city for the commodity trading business and the finance of commodity trading, with a third of the world’s trade in crude oil and products.”

Dix joined Cohn & Wolfe London in 1995 as an Account Director, leading the VISA International account. She went on to co-run the corporate division, creating the agency’s crisis and issues management offering. In 2001, she was given the opportunity to set up Cohn & Wolfe’s Swiss operation, which she has led for mpore than a decade.

Trafigura is one of the world’s leading international commodity traders, specializing in the oil, minerals and metals markets, with 81 offices in 54 countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and North, Central and South America. Founded in 1993, the company is owned by its founding shareholders and senior management.