kglobal added public affairs veteran Andy Beck as Managing Director. Beck, pictured above, has served as Director of Public Affairs in the U.S. Department of Energy, as the senior communications and outreach advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and as a senior communications counselor in the U.S. Department of Transportation. Most recently, Beck led Makovsky Integrated Communications’ Energy, Manufacturing and Sustainability Practice and was General Manager of its D.C. office. In that position, he provided strategic communications and marketing direction, brand positioning, media relations and social media counsel to corporate and association clients.   At kglobal, he reports to Gene Grabowski.

ICF is drastically broadening its marketing and communications services for commercial and government markets by launching a new business called ICF Next that will be led by a former IBM executive, reports Washington Business Journal.  According to WBJ, ICF Next will launch in early 2019 and will see the Fairfax. Va-based consulting firm integrating a variety of internal teams and businesses it has acquired through the years.  ICF Next will employ 1,700 staffers across more than a dozen offices in the U.S., Canada, Europe and India.

Strategic communications agency CHIEF, recently acquired by ByteCubed, launched ByteCubed Labs, LLC—a subsidiary focused on incubating early-stage technologies—and the purchase of holographic training platform Pre-Game Prep as the Labs’ initial core component.