PRAGUE—Maxim Behar, who leads Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ Bulgarian affiliate M3 Communications, has been named chairman of Hill+Knowlton Strategies’ Czech office. Behar is an treasurer and executive board member of ICCO (the International Communications Consultancy Organization), two-term president and now deputy president of the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum, and president of the Bulgarian Association of PR Agencies. M3 was named Eastern European Consultancy of the Year by this publication last year.

PARIS—Bertrand Cizeau, formerly director of brand, communications and advertising for Cetelem, the personal finance group of BNP Paribas, has been appointed deputy director for brand, communications and quality for the BNP Paribas Group. He is succeeded in his personal finance role by Marianne Huvé-Allard, formerly head of brand and communications for BNP Paribas corporate and investment banking and has been succeeded by Bruce Hedgcock. Jean-François Boutringain, has been appointed chief operating officer, for brand, communications and quality for the BNP Paribas Group, in charge of coordinating teams and resources.

LONDON—Bell Pottinger has expanded its senior team with the appointment of Peter Roberts as the group’s new head of issues and crisis management. He joins from Hill & Knowlton, where he was a senior associate director of the issues and crisis management practice. Roberts was previously head of communications for BBC News, playing a lead role in response to some of the biggest PR issues to have faced the corporation in recent years, including the kidnapping of news correspondent, Alan Johnston and the Hutton affair.

LONDON—Liverpool Vision, the economic development company for the city of Liverpool, has appointed Seven Hills as lead marketing and communications partner on the first Global Entrepreneurship Congress to be hosted in Europe. Seven Hills will develop the brand identity, secure headline event content, and deliver a media relations campaign ahead of the Congress in March.

LONDON—Newgate Public Relations, a capital markets and corporate reputation consultancy founded by former Citigate Dewe Rogerson chief Jonathan Clare, has appointed senior BBC business journalist Martin Greig as an associate director. Greig has spent the last 11 years as a senior business news producer with BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme and has also edited BBC Radio 5-Live’s Wake up To Money programme and produced BBC Radio 4’s You & Yours programme.

COPENHAGEN—Axon Communications, the healthcare subsidiary of Canada’s National PR, has named Tina Hahn as vice president, based in Copenhagen. In addition to advising existing clients, Hahn will be responsible for developing business with the international head offices of pharmaceutical and medical device companies based in the Nordic region. Prior to joining Axon, Hahn was director of global medical marketing for Coloplast, a medical device manufacturer.

LONDON—Financial sector communications specialist Cicero Consulting has appointed Mike Robb, who joined the firm early in 2011, as head of media relations, and Chris Jackson, who has been with the company since 2007, as head of digital, expanding its services to include specialist media and digital teams.

ESHER—AD Communications, the Surrey-based international marketing and communications agency for the print, publishing and visual communications sectors, has expanded its PR team with the appointment of Brad Girtz. Prior to joining AD Communications, Brad held a PR management role for mobile app development company Billy Creative and earlier had stints in print, online and broadcast journalism and media production, both in the UK and the US.

BASINGSTOKE—England Squash & Racketball has awarded a public relations management contract to Sportsmad Media. The Hampshire-based agency will represent the governing body for squash and racketball, which is currently promoting a number of high-profile championship events including the British Junior Open in Sheffield at the beginning of January, and the return to London of the Allam British Open in May.