Alexa Gooder, head of government partnerships at Fuse, is joining M&C Saatchi to set up a partnerships function.
Arriving in June, Gooder will report to M&C Saatchi London managing director Tom Firth and will initially focus on public- and third-sector clients before expanding to commercial ones.
M&C Saatchi's government clients include Change4Life, apprenticeships, NHS 111 and cervical screening. It also works with charities include Versus Arthritis and GambleAware. No arrangements, if any, have been disclosed on whether these accounts will be part of the partnerships division.
Gooder has worked with government clients for more than 16 years, including the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health & Social Care. She has previously held senior client-side roles at Thomas Cook and BT, and agency side at 23red.
M&C Saatchi said Gooder’s aim would be "to nudge behaviour change using the voices of brands and organisations people trust".
Meanwhile, Hannah Mackenzie is joining M&C Saatchi from Adam & Eve/DDB in July, and Stuart Davis from Engine in June.
Mackenzie will succeed Faheem Chaudhry as strategy director, reporting to chief strategy officer Raquel Chicourel. Chaudry has been promoted to managing director of M&C Saatchi South Africa.
Davis will succeed Julia Cheetham as creative operations director, working closely with group chief creative officer Justin Tindall and Firth. Cheetham left to join Apple as production director at the end of last year.
In more junior appointments, Carole Raber is joining from August Media as senior strategist and Sara Barqawi from Ogilvy as a strategist. Both start in May.
M&C Saatchi has also hired creative team Becky Brice and Sara Halliday following a successful placement that included an anti-knife-crime radio campaign.
Giles Hedger, chief executive of M&C Saatchi, said: "These key hires reflect our momentum as an agency, our diversification as a business and our ambitious agenda as a leadership team."
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