Australian Taaffe is currently the H&K worldwide president. He moved from London to New York two years ago in preparation for taking over the role from Paster.
"I leave H&K in the best of hands," Paster said. "An immediate advantage of Paul's appointment is that he is already a key player in the system, deeply familiar with the firm's capabilities and talent base."
Taaffe also heads the company's worldwide executive committee, where he is supported by an established network of worldwide practice directors and regional presidents.
Taaffe was named chief executive of H&K UK in 1990, moving up to president of the group's Europe, Middle East and Africa region in 1994 before being ultimately named president and CEO of two of the firm's five regions.
Before joining H&K, Taaffe was managing director of Shandwick Consultants, where he was responsible for financial public relations, corporate and business-to-business communications programmes.
According to Taaffe: "I am grateful to Howard Paster for reinvigorating H&K into the great communications consultancy it is today. My challenge is to bring to the table the added value of H&K know-how at a time when openness and transparency are the threshold by which companies must operate effectively."
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