PRAGUE—Jan Simunek, CEO for Central and Eastern Europe, Russia & CIS region at Grayling, is now assuming the CEO role for the firm’s Germany, Austria and Switzerland region in addition to his current responsibilities. Sigrid Krupic, former managing director of Grayling's Austria operation located in Vienna, is promoted to CEO, Grayling Austria. Simunek has been with Grayling for almost two decades, holding country management positions in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Krupic was managing director in Grayling Austria for almost five years before being appointed CEO.

LONDON—Golin has appointed Tom Parker as director in its corporate media team, reporting into Nick Bishop, head of corporate. Parker was previously corporate communications manager at Sainsbury's, where he worked corporate communications campaigns including financial results, crisis communications and executive profiling. Prior to that he spent three years as a press officer for Eurostar.

LONDON—Pernod Ricard UK, a leader in the global wines and spirits industry, has appointed Cirkle to handle the trade PR across its wines and spirits portfolio. Representing iconic brands that include Absolut, Chivas Regal, Havana Club, Jameson, Malibu, Campo Viejo and Jacob’s Creek, the win follows a competitive pitch.

MOSCOW—Ellen Pinchuk, currently international projects director at Mikhailov & Partners, has been named deputy CEO of the company. In her new role she will be responsible for the future expansion of Mikhailov & Partners’ presence on the international markets. Mikhailov & Partners established its international projects department when Pinchuk joined in 2009 and is now running projects in China, the United States, Bangladesh, Vietnam and other countries.

LONDON—Following a competitive pitch, international champagne house G.H.Mumm has appointed
Talk PR’s global team to handle its PR strategy in connection with the brand’s partnership with Formula 1. Talk PR will be devising a global strategy that will support Mumm’s sponsorship within key markets. The agency has already started work with the May 2014 Grand Prix in Monte Carlo.

LONDON—Hanover Communications has been appointed by Shire’s UK operating company, to support its activity in rare diseases policy across the UK. Hanover will work with Shire, a leader in the development and marketing of orphan drugs, to examine new systems for assessing and commissioning medicines for orphan diseases, and how the increase of specialised medicines will impact the future of healthcare in the UK.

LONDON—easyProperty.com has appointed Good Relations following a competitive multi-agency pitch. The campaign will launch easyProperty.com through consumer and trade media with a launch event, press office and on-going consumer PR activity later in the year. The account team will be headed up by new hire, senior associate director Helen Rainford and will be supported by a consumer PR team as well as drawing on property and lifestyle PR expertise from sister agency TTA Property.

MUNICH—häberlein & mauerer has added WMF, a full-range supplier of cutlery, cookware, household knives, kitchen aids and home and dining accessories, as a new client. The agency is responsible for WMF’s consumer business. The new account, which includes the brand services PR and social media, will be handled by the food unit at the agency’s Munich office.

LONDON—Aspectus PR has appointed Sophie Hodgson as head of technology. Hodgson will focus on rapidly growing and developing the technology team through the acquisition of new business. Prior to joining Aspectus, Hodgson ran her own communications consultancy and was previously a board director at Speed Communications. She has worked on a broad spectrum of clients including Bloxx, Compuware, Informatica, Qinec and Virgin Media Business.

LONDON—Atomic PR has been appointed by SGI, the high-performance computing specialist, to drive a brand awareness campaign across the UK and Germany. "We've worked with Atomic on projects over the past 18 months and we've always been very impressed with their understanding of the niche market we operate in," says Jason Coari, director of international marketing, EMEA/APAC.

LIGHTWATER, SURREY—éclat Marketing, a technology PR agency has been appointed by Boldon James, a provider of data classification and secure messaging solutions and a wholly-owned subsidiary of QinetiQ, to raise awareness among customers and the media and analyst community across Europe.