INTERNATIONAL: H&K promotes Greek MD to head Middle East

DUBAI: The head of Hill and Knowlton’s Athens office, Jim

Donaldson, is moving to head the agency’s three-office Middle East

region.

Donaldson takes over from founding regional director Nigel Perry, who

becomes vice-chairman, a new position reporting to both the regional

board and Donaldson.

In his new role, Perry, who has led the Middle East operation for 15

years, will seek to expand H&K’s activities in the region as the pace of

privatisation there grows.

Donaldson starts his new job this month. He will be based in Dubai and

has responsibility for the company’s other offices in Bahrain and Saudi

Arabia. He will manage 40 staff in total and report to the regional

board, which is chaired by Khamis Al-Muqla.

Donaldson has been managing director of H&K Greece for three years.

Before that, he was an account director at The Communication Group in

London.

He will be replaced in Athens by Robert Hipkins, who joins from

Ketchum’s London office, where he was a board director. The Athens

office handles accounts including Virgin, BP, Citibank and Enterprise

Oil and counts 20 staff.

H&K’s Gulf clients include Mastercard, Ford, Thomas Cook and

telecommunications company Lucent. Fee income grew 15 per cent last year

to around pounds 1.4 million.

The company is considering opening a second Saudi Arabian office in

Riyadh, along with new offices in Kuwait, Qatar and possibly the Lebanon

and North Africa.