Axios Communicators

June 27, 2025
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📇 This newsletter, edited by Brad Bonhall, is 1,474 words, 6 minutes.
1 big thing: Lockheed Martin taps former Trump spox Jalen Drummond
Lockheed Martin has appointed Jalen Drummond as vice president of corporate affairs and international communications, Axios was the first to report.
Why it matters: Drummond is the most recent Trump-adjacent communications hire within corporate America, as the nation's top companies grapple with how best to navigate the new Washington.
Zoom in: Drummond will report to Lockheed's chief communications officer Dean Acosta and will manage corporate communications and public affairs.
Catch up quick: Drummond most recently supported public affairs and corporate communications at GoFundMe, where he focused on building conservative engagement across the platform.
- Before GoFundMe, Drummond served as assistant White House press secretary during Trump's first term.
What he's saying: "At a time when our nation and its allies are being tested by unprecedented and emerging threats, I'm honored to help tell the story of how Lockheed Martin and our 120,000 global workforce is accelerating innovation and technology that ensures our warfighters and allies never enter into a fair fight," Drummond said.
The big picture: While Lockheed Martin remains the world's largest military contractor by revenue, the industry at large is struggling to keep up with the speed of technology and the ever expanding threats abroad.
Yes, but: An influx of capital is being spent on AI-powered defense, autonomy and cyber, which is making way for more competition.
- According to Colin Demarest, author of the Axios Future of Defense newsletter, Anduril Industries, Palantir Technologies, Applied Intuition, Scale AI and Shield AI have been among the buzziest.
2. 💼 Corporate moves
- Rivian promoted Marina Hoffmann to chief communications officer.
- Molson Coors alum Adam Collins joins Reddit as chief communications officer.
- Anywhere Real Estate names Barri Rafferty as chief communications officer.
- Heart Aerospace appoints Cole Randle as chief of staff and head of corporate affairs.
- Indeed appoints James Whitemore as chief marketing officer.
- Google alum Harris Beber joined Monday.com as chief marketing officer.
- Anthropic has hired Airbnb alum Christopher Nulty to oversee external communications, Rostra alum Toya Holness to support corporate communications, and Jakob Kerr will support strategy and messaging.
- Newsweek named Mark Neschis as senior vice president of communications.
- Netflix alum Dean Garfield joins TKO Group Holdings as senior vice president, government affairs.
- Nike and Cash App alum Sophia Hitti joins Apple as head of internal communications.
- Navan alum Kelly Soderlund joined Samsara as head of insights.
- Prosek Partners alum Claire Bischoff joined JPMorgan Chase as public affairs communications vice president.
- Farrin Jay joins Spotify as global head of consumer product & tech communications.
- Wallenius Wilhelmsen promoted Vibeke Norum-Monsen to vice president, external relations & crisis management.
- JUUL Labs alum Rob Terra joins Skydio as vice president, communications.
- Carta names Amanda Taggart as vice president, communications.
- Amy Dudley joins Circle as senior director, strategic communications and media relations.
- Allison Steely joined Highline Warren as senior director, corporate communications & engagement.
- Kajabi promoted Allie Fernando to vice president, Marketing
- TikTock alum Michael Hughes joins LinkedIn as senior director, policy, regulatory & trust communications.
- Stephen Rocco Rodi joined Chime as head of product communications; Kristina Spychalski is senior corporate communications manager.
- Biden alum Rachel Thomas has joined Flagship Pioneering as senior director of corporate communications
- Lyft hired Melissa Marasco as director, brand and product communications, Valentina Pérez as executive communications manager and Cristian Delgado as senior manager, driver product communications.
- FGS Global and APCO alum Mischa Sindyukov has joined Marriott International as director of communications and change management on the Business Transformation team.
- Airbnb named Tom Korolyshun as senior communications manager, product and launches and Holly Schnabel as editorial lead, channel communications.
- Clarissa Rojas is now supporting policy communications for Pinterest.
- Andrew Friedman joined Semafor as general manager and head of public affairs.
- Nicky McHugh has taken on an expanded role at Schneider Electric as global head of reputation, crisis and governance communications.
- Brunswick alum Melissa Rosenstein joins WK Kellogg Co as corporate communications strategist.
- SKDK alum Paige Hill joined AT&T as director, policy communications & PR.
- X has hired Rosemarie Esposito as senior manager, media strategy for the Americas and Victoria Gillespie as director, media strategy for EMEA/MENA/Africa.
- Amanda Rodriguez joins Umbra as senior communications manager.
- Claudia Meyer-Samargia joins MSNBC as communications manager.
3. 📣 Firm moves
- Brunswick Group added DOJ Antitrust Division alum Karina Lubell as partner and Wall Street Journal alum Jared Hopkins as a director.
- Department of Defense alum Sabrina Singh joined Seven Letter as partner.
- Dan La Russo joined Penta Group as senior partner.
- Edelman alum Radina Russell joins Scale as president.
- We. Communications promoted Lindsey Bastani to head of technology, North America, executive vice president.
- Storyful added Washington Post alum Shauna Little as vice president, head of marketing & growth and MikeWorldWide alum Tara Naughton as senior vice president of intelligence.
- Avenue Z promoted Libbie Wilcox and Bristol Jones to vice president and managing director and Vincent Nezzer to vice president, strategic delivery.
- Steve Roney joined Adfero as vice president, digital strategy. Teressa Wykpisz-Lee joined as senior vice president, public affairs practice lead.
- Avōq alum Michael Ford joins Clyde as managing director.
- Integral promoted Carolina Mata to senior vice president and practice leader for employee communications and Haley Self to senior manager, strategy.
- Reservoir Communications Group named Ashley Flint as senior vice president, Pat Kannan as chief financial officer, and Massimo Alicea as an associate.
- Ryan Birchmeier founded William Street Strategies.
- Amanda Marko joined Hart as managing director, Washington, D.C.
- Ethan Lyle founded Prospero Advisors.
- LDWW promoted Ashley Wilemon and Annabel Hardin to partner.
- Vox Global promoted James Baril to senior partner and Justin Rouse to partner.
- Jonas Edwards-Jenks joins BerlinRosen as vice president.
- Sam Polstein joins HAUS as a director.
- Bullpen Strategy Group named Jonathan O'Neil as research associate and James Roberts as communications and public affairs associate.
- Microsoft alum Maddie Heyman joined Monument Advocacy as vice president of public affairs.
- Sierra Goerlich joins Burson as senior account executive.
- Amelia Fox and Emma Minar joined McNeely Brockman Public Relations as account assistants.
- Erica Goldman joined Prologue as head of insights and analysis.
- Lauren Guess joins State & Tell as director, public relations.
4. 🌱 Nonprofit and government moves
- SEC names Erik Hotmire as chief external affairs officer and director of the Office of Public Affairs.
- Jenny Parker joined American Promise as chief communications officer.
- The American Securities Association (ASA) named Adam Rice as chief public affairs officer.
- One Campaign appointed Kim Lundgren as chief marketing and communications officer.
- T. Anthony Patterson joins GMHC as vice president, communications & branding.
- United Way alum Karen Kaufman joins Bridgeway Behavioral Health Services as director of marketing and communications.
- Bezos Family Foundation promoted Mark Dalmacio to communications manager.
5. 🗞️ Media moves
- Axios: Madison Mills is a senior markets reporter.
- Bloomberg: Caitlin Reilly is a U.S. tax policy reporter; Myles Miller is a senior reporter covering homeland security; Liam Knox is an education reporter.
- Business Insider: Kim Last is editorial director of BI Live.
- CBS News: Imtiaz Tyab and Debora Patta are senior foreign correspondents.
- NBC News: Elyse Perlmutter-Gumbiner is senior producer, overseeing the White House team.
- The New York Times: Samantha Latson is on the metro desk.
- Politico: Adam Wren is a senior political correspondent.
- Scripps: Maura Barrett is a business and tech reporter.
- Tech Crunch: Rebecca Bellan will cover AI.
- USA Today: Duane Gang is senior editor for storytelling.
6. 🔍 Open roles
A few open roles we found interesting…
- Amazon Web Services: executive communications manager, AWS Specialist Partner Organization (Arlington, Va., $129k–$199k)
- Anthropic: product communications lead, industry and enterprise (San Francisco, $200k–$255k)
- Anthropic: product communications lead, startups (San Francisco, $200k–$255k)
- Architect of the Capitol: marketing and communications director (Washington, D.C., $167k-$195k)
- Blackstone: events content strategy lead - corporate affairs (New York, $150k-$225k)
- Coca-Cola: director, global marketing communications & experience intelligence (Atlanta, $160k-$186k)
- Datavant: senior communications specialist, digital content (Remote, $98k–$115k)
- Democratic National Committee: speechwriter (Washington, D.C.)
- DoorDash: senior manager, head of policy marketing (Washington, D.C., $166k–$245k)
- DoorDash: director, head of U.S. state & local public policy (New York, $190k-$280k)
- GE HealthCare: corporate communications manager (Chicago, $96k–$144k)
- Goldman Sachs: executive office, media relations, vice president (Washington, D.C., $125k–$250k)
- Howard University: executive speechwriter (Washington, D.C.)
- Kaiser Permanente: senior vice president, government relations (Oakland, $450k-$562k)
- Kipp Foundation: vice president, marketing and communications (New York, $190k-$227k)
- Los Angeles Lakers: manager, communications (Los Angeles, $70k–$85k)
- Match Group: director, digital & social communications (Los Angeles, $175k-$250k)
- Meta: public policy manager, external affairs (Washington, D.C., $123k–$186k)
- Micro: vice president, global communications (San Jose, $263k-$372k)
- NBCUniversal: vice president, strategic communications (New York, $190k-$235k)
- The New York Post: vice president, public relations & brand communications (New York, $175k-$200k)
- PayPal: senior manager, communications (New York, $111k-$191k)
- PepsiCo: communications senior coordinator (New York, $59k–$88k)
- Ramp: communications lead, brand and industry (Remote, $142k–$276k)
- REI: vice president, communications (Seattle, $275k-$325k)
- Salesforce: director, executive editor, Salesforce newsroom (San Francisco, $193k-$281k)
- Shake Shack: senior manager brand communications (New York, $116k-$153k)
- Transamerica: senior speechwriter, executive communications (Remote, $120k–$135k)
- UBS: media relations manager, group external communications (Zurich)
- The Washington Post: senior director, WP Ventures (Washington, D.C., $198k-$368k)
- Waymo: senior manager federal policy & government affairs (Washington, D.C., $204k-$259k)
- WeWork: senior manager, corporate affairs (New York, $127k–$170k)
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