Former Weber Shandwick managing director Natalie Buxton has been named UK managing director of Fenton Fitzwilliam, the sister agency of Brands2Life.

Public affairs consultancy Fenton Fitzwilliam was established in Dublin last year by Brands2Life’s head of public affairs, Moray Macdonald, who previously spent more than 10 years at Weber Shandwick.

The agency, which initially had a nine-person team operating across Dublin and Brussels, announced in April this year that it would open a UK office with support from its parent company, Paritee.

Buxton will now oversee Fenton Fitzwilliam’s expansion in the UK. Her initial responsibilities will include managing the integration of public affairs specialists from sister agencies Brands2Life and RPP Group, with the aim of building an initial UK team of 14 consultants at Fenton Fitzwilliam.

The public affairs firm said it plans to add “additional strategic communications capability” over time.

Fenton Fitzwilliam’s new UK managing director joins the agency after more than 19 years at Weber Shandwick, where she most recently headed an 80-person team across Scotland and Manchester, with a focus on increasing integration across the UK business.

In 2019, she succeeded Macdonald as managing director of Scotland when he moved to lead Weber Shandwick’s EMEA studio offering. Buxton subsequently left the agency at the end of 2021.

“I was always …