A corporate communication person is just what the Gates Foundation needs to lead their corporate communications. Why communicate with communities anyway? And hey, isn't Glaxo Smith Kline Tachi Yamada's old outfit?

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Gates Foundation picks new PR chief
Clay Holtzman
Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle)
Friday, October 30, 2009

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has hired Kate James from Citibank to be its new chief communications officer.

James will start in January and will serve in Seattle. She replaces Heidi Sinclair, who left the Seattle-based foundation in February to launch her own communications firm.

In her new role, James will serve as senior communications adviser to the foundation’s co-chairs and executive team, and will be a member of the foundation’s management committee.

James joined Citibank in 2008 and worked as its senior vice president for global corporate communications. Prior to Citibank, she was group head of public affairs at Standard Chartered Bank in London, where she managed government and corporate relations as well as corporate responsibility initiatives in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Prior to Standard, James managed external relations for GlaxoSmithKline.

http://seattle.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2009/10/26/daily50.html