STOCKHOLM—Norwegian public relations giant Geelmuyden.Kiese has been named PR agency for travel equipment giant Samsonite. The luggage company will work with Geelmuyden.Kiese and House of Communication, its sister company specialized in lifestyle communication. Marta Nord from Geelmuyden.Kiese Stockholm will lead the Scandinavian team, which will be delivering both strategic and operational solutions.

LONDON—Lewis PR has appointed Giles Peddy to the new role of group managing director UK. Peddy will oversee the UK's complete portfolio of services and capabilities, work with senior leadership colleagues to drive commercial growth, and continue to develop the furm’s team. He will report to Chris Lewis, CEO and founder. Peddy was most recently UK deputy managing director at Hotwire Public Relations.

BRUSSELS—Ogilvy Group Belgium has promoted Laure Van Hauwaerthas to the newly created role of director of institutional communications, managing integrated campaigns including work for the European Commission’s DG Environment and other institutional clients. Van Hauwaert most recently served as director of corporate and consumer communications at Ogilvy Public Relations.

LONDON—Gavin Davis has been promoted to managing director of Pelham Bell Pottinger, the financial and corporate communications arm of the Bell Pottinger Group. Davis joined Pelham in 2005 soon after the company’s inception and has over 15 years of financial and corporate communications experience both in the UK and Australia. 

LONDON—Four bgb, the travel division of Four Communications, has been appointed by Singapore Tourism Board as its UK public relations agency. Four bgb will work alongside STB’s team in London and its other global PR agencies to develop key messages and strategic campaigns in the UK market. The agency remit includes launching a number of travel, lifestyle, MICE and social campaigns for STB during 2013 and beyond.

DUBAI—Bell Pottinger Private has appointed Tim Wilkinson as partner and promoted Tristan Peniston-Bird to managing director, based in Dubai. Wilkinson was previously communications advisor to the Prime Minister of Kuwait, based in the seat of government in Kuwait City. Peniston-Bird transferred from the firm’s Pelham Bell Pottinger business, based in London. He joined Bell Pottinger from Marsh, the risk advisory company, and earlier worked at Gavin Anderson.

MUNICH—Max Hohenberg has been made a partner at Communications & Network Consulting (CNC), a strategic communications consultancy and part of the Publicis Groupe. Hohenberg has been working at CNC for more than 10 years and has acted as spokesperson for the Liechtenstein government in Vaduz. He has also spent the last few years increasing CNC's presence in Austria, and at the moment is also temporarily heading up CNC's office in Paris.

LONDON—Global social media agency We Are Social has appointed Jerome Courtial as head of strategy.  Courtial was previously lead global planner at Wieden & Kennedy Amsterdam, working as a global planning director on Coca-Cola and Nokia. Before this, he was engagement planner at BBH London. More recently, he worked as strategy director at Saint and a freelance planning director for agencies R/GA and Sid Lee Amsterdam. Courtial will now oversee planning and strategy responsibilities across the firm’s client portfolio.

LONDON—Cloudreach, a fast-growing cloud computing consultancy, has appointed Berkeley PR to educate the technology and business press about cloud computing. The agency was brought in on a retained basis to promote the British-owned company in the UK. The brief is to deliver thought leadership content within the cloud computing sphere and maintain a steady stream of news pieces as the company continues to grow.