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UK people News in brief (27 july, 2026). People news and moves at Virgin, Merlin, Volkswagen, Burson, M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, Ogilvy, Brunswick, Blakeney, MHP, Portland, Channel 4, Grayling and DRD Partnership. LONDON - Merlin Entertainments has created the new role of senior vice-president of global corporate affairs, appointing former Virgin Group communications director Tamara Pickett (pictured) to lead the function. Reporting directly to chief executive Fiona Eastwood, Pickett will oversee corporate communications, public affairs, employee communications and reputation management across the attractions operator's global portfolio, which includes Legoland, Madame Tussauds, Alton Towers and Sea Life. The newly created role reflects the growing strategic importance of corporate affairs as Merlin continues its international growth strategy. LONDON - Volkswagen UK has appointed Pietro Panarisi as head of PR and communications, with the former Škoda UK communications chief returning to the brand after a decade. Panarisi previously led Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles' press office between 2013 and 2015 before spending 11 years at Škoda UK, where he most recently headed PR and internal communications. He succeeds Mike Orford, who is leaving the business after 25 years with the Volkswagen Group to prioritise family commitments. LONDON - Burson technology leader Charlie Hopcraft has left the agency after 14 years. Hopcraft joined Hill & Knowlton in 2012 before becoming managing director of its UK technology practice and later taking on wider leadership responsibilities across entertainment and commerce. Following the creation of Burson in 2024, she became UK group managing director for technology and entertainment, while also leading the consumer technology practice across EMEA. Last year she added responsibility for Burson UK's client and growth strategy. She said she was now looking forward to opportunities focused on client counsel, campaigns and team leadership. LONDON - M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment has promoted UK chief executive Laura Coller to the newly created role of global chief operating officer as it evolves into a more integrated international network. Coller will retain her UK CEO responsibilities while overseeing the agency's global operating model across sponsorship, PR, social, experiential and content. Meanwhile, long-serving managing partner Ross Watson has been promoted to UK managing director, assuming day-to-day leadership of the UK business. LONDON - Ogilvy EMEA head of influence Imogen Coles has taken on an expanded remit across WPP Creative, supporting influencer capabilities across the holding company's creative agencies in the region while retaining her Ogilvy role. The move comes as WPP continues to integrate capabilities across its agencies under the WPP Creative structure launched earlier this year as part of chief executive Cindy Rose's Elevate28 strategy. Coles became Ogilvy's EMEA influence lead last December after previously leading the practice in the UK. LONDON - Brunswick has appointed former Dentons Global Advisers founding partner James Melville-Ross as a partner in its technology, media and telecoms practice. Melville-Ross joins from DGA after previously spending more than two decades at FTI Consulting, where he led the firm's TMT practice. He will advise clients on corporate and financial communications, crisis management, litigation support, employee engagement and capital markets activity across Europe and globally. LONDON - Former Downing Street chief press officer Dan Mulloy has joined public affairs and communications consultancy Blakeney as an associate director. Mulloy spent two-and-a-half years in government communications, advising successive prime ministers on economic, AI, technology and energy issues. At Blakeney he will provide strategic media counsel and crisis communications advice to clients including Sizewell C, Viridor and Tokamak Energy. Blakeney also recently appointed Steve Earl as a senior advisor. LONDON - MHP Group has strengthened its public affairs and corporate communications offer with the appointments of Stefan Roberts and Helen Salvin as directors. Roberts joins the public affairs practice from Hanbury Strategy, where he advised clients including Nvidia and Scale AI, while Salvin joins the brand and reputation team from The PHA Group, bringing experience across energy, transport, FMCG and technology. Both will also support MHP's transition economy practice. LONDON - Portland has promoted partner Tom Rayner to managing partner of its public affairs and policy practice following the departure of Anita Boateng to Hanover. Rayner joined the Omnicom-owned consultancy in 2023 after almost 20 years at Sky News, where he held senior editorial roles including political correspondent, Middle East correspondent and editor of digital political coverage. He also leads Portland's entertainment, media and sport sector practice. LONDON - Specialist strategic communications consultancy DRD Partnership has appointed the former head of litigation communications and disputes at Omnicom-owned Portland, Simon Pugh, as a partner. Pugh spent seven years at Portland, joining the agency in 2019 and leading its litigation communications and disputes practice. Before that, he held senior roles at Weber Shandwick and Bell Pottinger. His move reunites him with former Weber Shandwick colleague Jon McLeod, who joined DRD as a partner five years ago. Pugh has nearly two decades of consultancy experience advising clients and their legal teams on commercial litigation, group claims, judicial reviews and broader reputation management issues. LONDON - Grayling has appointed former Headland director James Terry to lead a new dedicated financial services practice. Terry joins the Accordience-owned agency after six years helping to grow Headland's financial and professional services team. He will sit on Grayling UK's board while working across its corporate communications, public affairs and brand practices to build the specialist offer. LONDON - Channel 4 has appointed Daniel Bruce as chief corporate affairs officer. Bruce was chief executive of Transparency International UK since 2019 and brings more than 20 years' leadership experience across public policy, civil society, private, media and communication sectors. In the newly created role, he will provide strategic leadership of functions including corporate relations, policy & public affairs and partnerships & skills, protecting and enhancing Channel 4's reputation and guiding policy positions. LONDON - Kara Buffrey, a PR professional with almost a decade of hospitality and travel experience, has launched Kara Buffrey Communications, which will offer public relations, personal publicity, influencer marketing, reputation management, journalism and copywriting, and social media services to hospitality and travel brands. The launch follows almost three years at W Communications, where Buffey oversaw the hospitality and travel team and launched Chomp, a specialist TikTok-first agency designed to drive footfall for restaurants. Article tags News direct to your inbox The agency playbook. The PR industry's most comprehensive listing of firms from every region and specialty.

Signal File: the human factor in the future of work. From AI-dependent bosses and a cooling job market to Gen Z quietly returning to the office, this week's signals show how personal behaviour is shaping the future of work. This week's signals look at the impact of tech deployment on how Worktech Academy make decisions in the workplace. Whether it is a manager outsourcing judgement to a chatbot, a generation defying assumptions about office life, or employers being incentivised to combat high unemployment rates, the pattern suggests that AI is disrupting typical ways of working. While the systems set the rules, people still have the autonomy to decide how those rules play out. Bosses turn to AI. New reporting from Futurism describes a growing number of managers who treat AI tools as an authority on hiring, firing and strategy, at times overriding direct feedback from staff in favour of a chatbot's assessment. One worker described a manager who built a constantly changing internal reference document, nicknamed the Bible, that staff were told to consult instead of asking a colleague. The account suggests that as AI becomes embedded in daily decision-making, trust in it can start to replace trust in people. In action: Leaders should build in a human sense check for any decision involving people, especially hiring, performance and termination decisions, so accountability sits with a person rather than a tool. Loneliness proves difficult to solve. New reporting from Bloomberg looks at the wave of friendship apps and services attempting to tackle adult loneliness, and the commercial tension at their core. Unlike dating apps, these platforms succeed only if users build trust with each other rather than with the platform itself, which makes retention and monetisation unusually difficult. The piece points to a broader shift in how people are trying, and often struggling, to rebuild social connection outside of traditional structures such as work and family. In action: As external solutions to loneliness struggle to find a working model, organisations may be one of the few remaining places where consistent, low-effort social contact still happens naturally. Hiring slows as the UK labour market continues to soften. New figures reported by Workplace Insight show that new recruitment in the UK fell to its lowest level in five years in April, with vacancies also continuing to decline. The Office for National Statistics said private sector pay growth was increasing at its slowest pace in over five years, even as headline unemployment edged down slightly. The figures point to employers becoming more cautious about committing to permanent hires. In action: As hiring slows, organisations should prepare for candidates with higher expectations around flexibility and progression, since fewer opportunities can make people more selective about where they choose to work. Wage incentives target youth unemployment. The Guardian reports that the UK government has launched a Youth Jobs Grant offering employers 3,000 pounds for every 18 to 24 year old they hire who has been claiming Universal Credit and looking for work for at least six months. The scheme aims to move 60,000 young people into employment over three years and follows figures showing the number of young people not in education, employment or training passed one million for the first time since 2013. Merlin Entertainments has already pledged 300 roles across its UK attractions. In action: With direct financial incentives now attached to hiring long-term unemployed young people, organisations have a practical opening to build entry-level pathways for candidates who might otherwise be overlooked. Gen Z quietly leads the return to office. New research from Gallup, reported by Fortune, finds that 71% of Gen Z employees prefer hybrid work, the highest share of any generation, while only 23% of remote-capable Gen Z workers say they would prefer to work fully remote. The findings challenge the assumption that younger staff are the most resistant to office attendance, suggesting instead that Gen Z sees clear value in in-person exchange even as older generations are more likely to want fully remote arrangements. In action: Hybrid strategies built on outdated stereotypes about who wants to be in the office may be solving the wrong problem, so organisations should check what their own workforce actually wants rather than relying on generational shorthand.