SAN FRANCISCO—WCG has hired Silicon Valley public relations veteran Tim Marklein as practice leader to grow its technology business practice and direct the company’s expanding analytics function, which provides digital and social measurement and metrics to clients.

Marklein joins WCG from Weber Shandwick, where he mostly recently founded and led that global firm’s measurement and strategy practice and developed several systems and services for in-depth analysis across brand, reputation, media, messages and audiences.

Marklein has worked with leading technology companies such as HP, Oracle, Cisco, Adobe, Verisign, PayPal, Hitachi and Juniper Networks. Prior to Weber Shandwick, he led global public relations for HP’s $30 billion enterprise business and was director of corporate PR following the HP-Compaq merger. He previously spent 10 years at Silicon Valley agencies Applied Communications and Jennings & Company.

According to Jim Weiss, chairman and CEO of WCG, “Because of our expertise and interest in innovation and science, investing in a technology practice is a natural extension, since the leaders in this industry are based on the same principles. Technology, like healthcare, is a foundational business in the global economy.”