PALO ALTO, CA — FleishmanHillard executive Vanessa Yanez has left the firm after five years to join HP as head of communications. 

Yanez was most recently SVP/senior partner at Fleishman, managing several client relationships including Visa, Avaya, Fitbit and HP. Prior to Fleishman, Yanez led the Dell business for Axicom and held in-house roles at HP and Sun Microsystems. 

Yanez starts work at HP on March 7 reporting to the company's new chief communications officer Karen Kahn and will be based at the Palo Alto headquarters. Her global responsibilities will including strategic media, financial and crisis communications.

She will also look after innovation and thought leadership programs, along with corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability and culture communications.