Holmes leaves BBC to join B-M corporate unit

Burson-Marsteller has lured BBC deputy head of corporate

communications Alison Holmes to join its corporate department.

Holmes will join B-M in August as the first director of strategy and

corporate communications, reporting to managing director Martin

Langford.

Her role will be to advise on corporate communications across the

company, as well as working with specific clients. No details on the

size of her team or names of clients are yet available.

Holmes worked briefly for B-M in 1993. She joined the BBC in July 1997,

initially to work on its communications strategy for introducing digital

implementation plans, then to her current position, where she led the

communications team on the licence fee review.

For the past six months, she has been on secondment as head of PR for

BBC News. Prior to the BBC, Holmes was campaign manager for the Liberal

Democrats, where she directed the work of the general election planning

team during the 1997 general election.

B-M London managing director Allan Biggar also has a background in the

Lib Dem party, where he met Holmes. She said: ’Having known Allan for

many years, I am keen to be part of the team he is building.’

- Jamie Shea, chief spokes-man for NATO and press secretary to the

secretary-general, is understood to have accepted a non-executive

directorship at B-M, as tipped by PR Week (2 June).