L.A.’s public relations community has seen two significant shifts involving high-level executives.

Last week, Alan Arkatov, president of Burson-Marsteller’s West Coast practice, was named chief strategy officer at Rogers & Associates. And Steve Getzug, a former senior vice president at Fleishman-Hillard, has been named senior vice president of Hill & Knowlton’s media group.

Besides his post at Burson-Martseller, Arkatov had served as senior advisor to Mickey Kantor, former Commerce Secretary under President Bill Clinton, and was campaign director of Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn’s first successful run for city attorney.

Arkatov had the Burson-Marsteller position for a little more than a year. His role at Rogers is newly created.

He said that as Burson’s chief executive for the Southern California region, he was distracted by administrative duties. “What I am going to be able to do at Rogers is not focus on the layers of stuff, but pure communications,” he said.

Founded in 1978, Rogers is the largest independent public relations firm based in Los Angeles. Burson-Marsteller, part of Young & Rubicam Brands, is a subsidiary of WPP Group Plc.

Getzug, meanwhile, was one of three executives who left Fleishman-Hillard on Jan. 5 in the midst of ongoing investigations into the firm’s billing of the Department of Water & Power.