Television presenter and author Vanessa Collingridge has become an associate with the Edinburgh-based communications agency Freer Consultancy.

Dr Collingridge, who owns Monster Media Productions, has spent 25 years as an adviser on coaching and presentation to a range of clients from start-ups to global corporations and universities

Her career in television began as a question checker on game shows Wheel of Fortune and Win, Lose or Draw, and then spent 14 months presenting the weather forecasts on BBC Scotland.

In the early to mid-1990s she appeared from time to time on BBC television’s Gardeners’ World. She has since worked as a producer and presenter on all five British national terrestrial television channels, as well as BBC national radio.

In 2000 she left her job as a presenter on Tonight with Trevor McDonald to write biographies on two historical figures. She returned to television in 2007 as writer and narrator of the four-part miniseries Captain Cook: Obsession and Discovery.

In December Mr Freer appointed Trustpilot’s Carolyn Jameson and entrepreneur George Mackintosh as advisers. He previously spent ten years with corporate communications agency Maitland in London.

In other moves…

Stewart Argo has been appointed head of the Edinburgh office of The Big Partnership, two years after joining the agency from Weber Shandwick.

He previously worked at Edinburgh City Council, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the NHS, beginning his career as a production assistant at the BBC.