Mélanie Joly appointed managing partner of Cohn & Wolfe / Montréal

MONTREAL , Sept. 17 /CNW Telbec/ - Jean-Pierre Vasseur, president and chief executive officer of RES PUBLICA Consulting Group, the parent company of NATIONAL Public Relations and Cohn & Wolfe / Canada , is pleased to announce the appointment of Mélanie Joly as managing partner of Cohn & Wolfe / Montréal.

Mrs. Joly is a specialist in the area of Corporate and Marketing Communications at Cohn & Wolfe / Montréal, where she has been advising private and public companies from the food, retail, real estate and service sectors on their marketing and corporate communication strategies. Her practice involves significant crisis management cases as well as corporate and marketing communications activities involving corporate restructuring and financing as well as brand positioning.

Prior to joining the Cohn & Wolfe team, Mélanie worked as a TV journalist for Radio-Canada's Montréal newsroom. A lawyer by profession, Mrs. Joly practiced several years as a commercial litigator on behalf of two national leading law firms. Mélanie Joly holds a masters degree in European and comparative law from the University of Oxford, a bachelor's degree in law (honours) from the University of Montréal and is a member of the Quebec Bar. She has received many honours, including the Chevening Scholarship awarded by the United Kingdom's Foreign office.

She is a board member of the Montréal Museum of Contemporary Art and its governance committee, and current president of the Museum's Youth Committee. She is also co-president of the board of Young Montrealers for Art, member of the Board of Young Canadians in Finance (Women Division), member of the board of the Montréal Bach Festival, member of the Conseil Supérieur de la Langue Française and co-founder of the Génération d'Idées, a political think tank. She was recently nominated by the Elle Québec magazine as one of Québec's Women of the year in 2008.

"We are pleased that Mélanie Joly has accepted to take up this new challenge. We are convinced that under Mrs. Joly 's management, Cohn & Wolfe / Montréal will stand out in the market", said Mr. Vasseur . Cohn & Wolfe / Montréal is one of the leaders among mid-sized public relations firms in the Quebec market.

Cohn & Wolfe / Canada is a Canadian public relations firm with offices in Montréal, Toronto and Calgary . Internationally it is affiliated with the Cohn & Wolfe Worldwide. In addition to its expertise in corporate reputation and crisis management, the Firm is recognized for its creativity in public relations in the marketing, technology and health sectors.

For further information: Robert Lupien, [phone] ext. 233, Cellular: [phone]