KPMG UK/Swiss Group has appointed a chief corporate affairs and marketing officer, who joins from another financial services firm.
Lucy Thomas, currently corporate affairs director at Hargreaves Lansdown, is set to join professional services giant KPMG UK/Swiss Group as chief corporate affairs and marketing officer in May.
Reporting to group chief executive Jon Holt, Thomas will lead a comms team across the UK, Switzerland and India at the group – which was formed in 2024 via the merger of KPMG UK and KPMG Switzerland.
Thomas will take over from Matt Young, who has been acting in the role on an interim basis after the departure of corporate affairs chief Rachel Hopcroft from KPMG to NatWest at the end of 2024. Young returns to his role as a partner at Apella Advisors.
During her two years at private investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown, Thomas led comms during its change in ownership and transition from a public to a private company.
Prior to this, she served as director of corporate affairs and regulation at TalkTalk, was a senior director at Edelman, and co-founded Britain Stronger in Europe – the official ‘Remain’ campaign for the 2016 EU referendum.
Thomas began her career in the Liberal Democrats’ press office, before becoming a BBC journalist and Newsnight producer.
KPMG’s UK boss, Holt, told In.Comms sister title PRWeek UK: “We’re really looking forward to Lucy joining us. She brings the deep expertise, sector experience and dynamism that we need to [...] highlight the successes from our merged UK and Swiss firm.”
Thomas added: “It’s a real honour to lead such a fantastic team in an organisation with a newly reinvigorated brand. It is clear just how passionate colleagues are to make the difference for clients.”
A version of this article is published on PRWeek UK.