NEW YORK—Ruder Finn has hired Dushka Zapata to head the agency’s west coast operations, as it seeks to expand its presence beyond its New York headquarters. The firm lost its San Francisco and Los Angeles offices during the spin-off of Finn Partners, a sister agency and part of the Ruder Finn Group.

Dushka will play a key role in establishing the Ruder Finn San Francisco office and building an integrated communications team across the west coast. He will become managing director, Ruder Finn San Francisco, a newly created position. The firm will focus its energies on the west coast in key areas of expertise including technology, innovation, healthcare, corporate and consumer brands.

Dushka was most recently executive vice president and head of the San Francisco office for Ogilvy & Mather, where she oversaw the agency’s full offering in San Francisco. Before joining Ogilvy, Zapata was executive vice president for Edelman, where she was deputy general manager of the Silicon Valley office.