Three-and-a-half-year-old public affairs consultancy Open Road has unveiled a brace of recruits from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and Weber Shandwick (WS).

John Williams has joined the London-based agency as its new head of research, moving from the OFT’s external relations team. He has previously worked in Parliament for Lib Dem MP Simon Hughes and as a communications assistant for the Liberal Democrats.
In his new role he replaces Carys Afoko, who has been promoted to consultant.
Separately, Emma Haselhurst recently moved to Open Road as a consultant from WS, where she was an account manager specialising in healthcare and education business. She will aim to grow Open Road’s growing healthcare practice, as well as working for existing agency clients, Orange and GE.
Haselhurst’s father, Sir Alan, is the long-serving Conservative MP for Saffron Waldon (Essex).
Finally, Anna Appleton will be joining Open Road as a researcher on 21 June. A politics and sociology graduate from York University, she has formerly worked at YouGov and ComRes.
Open Road has 14 members of staff and clients including Prudential, HSBC and BSkyB.

Source: Public Affairs News