National Public Relations has hired Rick Murray as managing partner of its Toronto office. Murray, who joins the firm on Dec. 3, will also take on the newly created role of chief digital strategist for the firm.

Murray spent the last 13 years at Edelman and was most recently president, Midwest region in Chicago — a position he held for four years. During his tenure at Edelman, Murray also had roles as president of Edelman Digital and EVP, diversified services. Prior to joining Edelman, Murray was executive VP and general manager at GolinHarris.

“Given the importance of the Toronto market and the evolving areas in public relations, we needed to bring in a seasoned and experienced managing partner,” said John Crean, national managing partner at National. “But more than being one more person who’s got senior-level PR experience, Rick has significant global experience and marketing experience and was certainly operating at the highest level in the U.S. as well, which makes him a great choice.”

As managing partner, Murray will be responsible for growing the Toronto office’s business and expanding the service offering. And as chief digital strategist, “he will have network-wide responsibilities to ensure that we are rapidly expanding and providing new and differentiated services in the digital and social space for our clients,” said Crean.

In this role, Murray has been tasked with developing and implementing a firm-wide social/digital strategy to deliver to clients. He will also be responsible for Sonic Boom, National’s digital marketing subsidiary. Murray will work closely with Norm Melamed, managing director of Sonic Boom.

“Everything we do is through the lens of digital communications and social media, from crisis communications to marketing and branding,” said Crean. “And so it’s critical that we keep adding depth of experience… Rick is a great thought leader and a proven successful consultant in the digital and public relations space.”

Crean had been serving as interim managing partner of the Toronto office since Catherine Cano vacated the role late last year.