David Issmer has been hired as an MD to head the newly established Berlin office and lead the German public affairs practice. Before joining Teneo, Issmer led a team of regulatory and public affairs experts at international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer.
He started his career as head of an MP office in the German Federal Parliament, followed by stints at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and the Federal Council of Germany. He also worked in public affairs and political relations roles at recycling group ALBA.
Dominik Cziesche will also join as a managing director in the firm's German office in January.
An independent consultant for the past several years, Cziesche has advised clients from the private and public sectors on reputation, crisis and change comms. The former Der Spiegel staff writer served as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Group, a director at Brunswick, and deputy chief of staff to the former opposition leader in the Bundestag and current President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
The appointments follow the formal launch of Teneo's business in Germany this summer, led by Felix Schoenauer, a former partner at Hering Schuppener.
Elsewhere, Alexandria Hicks, a former media lead for FleishmanHillard’s Brussels office, has been appointed by Teneo as an MD in the Belgian capital.
Hicks has nearly 20 years of experience in policy and political campaigns, strategic comms, public affairs and reputation management in Europe, the UK, Australia and the US. She began her career working for Members of Parliament in Australia and the UK.
Other recent appointments at Teneo in Europe include Rolf Benders, who is to join as a managing director in the firm's Frankfurt office in January.
Benders previously led external and internal engagement as head of comms in continental Europe for international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. His career also included communicating for the European Central Bank during the set up of the European Banking Union and as US correspondent in New York City for Handelsblatt, Germany’s business and financial daily. Benders also led the Capital Markets team for Reuters in Frankfurt.
Earlier, Teneo hired Caroline Cohen, formerly head of investor relations for Europcar Mobility Group, as a managing director in the Paris office. Cohen, who joined the firm on 8 November, previously worked for Eurazeo, Merrill Lynch Bank of America, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken and Deutsche Bank
The series of appointments come in the aftermath of Teneo's acquisition of Societer, a French firm focusing on sustainable leadership, to boost its overseas operations.
Teneo has made a number of senior hires during 2021, a year that saw the resignation of former CEO Declan Kelly after he admitted to acting inappropriately while drunk at a charity concert.
New hires have included Ursula Burns, former chief executive of Xerox, who became chairwoman in July.
That same month Teneo announced the appointment of Martin Drummond as a senior managing director in the London office, to lead its valuation advisory services practice. Another senior managing director hire, in Brussels, was Julia Staunig, previously of Danske Bank, where she led the strategy execution, risk management and sustainability teams at the corporate level. The group also appointed Annika Engineer as a managing director in New York.
In Asia, Teneo appointed new managing directors for Singapore and Hong Kong: Yvonne Koh and Patricia Heiberger, respectively. Teneo launched its Restructuring arm in APAC last month.
The group announced a new UK leadership last summer, with Nick Claydon named chief executive of the UK strategy and comms operation. Moving the other way more recently have been former political heavyweights Amber Rudd and Sir Craig Oliver, who have both joined Finsbury Glover Hering, and Paul Durman, now at Brunswick.
Teneo, one of the biggest corporate comms consultancies, with about 30 offices globally, sold a majority stake to UK-based CVC Capital Partners in 2019.
