Burson-Marsteller just announced that Fred Muir, formerly a reporter and editor at the Times, is taking over the Southern California office as "market leader" and managing director in the media practice. He had been running his own media and corporate communications firm, Fred Muir & Associates. He began in the PR business at Fleishman Hillard, where he was a senior vice president in the Los Angeles office for about a year before surprising his boss, Doug Dowie, by leaving in 2003 to go solo. Muir is married to Carol Schatz, president and CEO of the Central City Association. Burson is the PR firm that recently lost Jim Hahn friend Alan Arkatov and Antonio Villaraigosa friend Elena Stern (she is now VP of Government and Media Relations at Para los Ninos.) Burson represents the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce and other local clients.