GCI Health’s Laura Starr has won the Hamell Award for Young Achiever in Healthcare Communications at the 2015 Communiqué Awards.
Starr progressed from graduate entry to leadership level in just six years and in 2014, she oversaw £1m fee income and played an instrumental role in new business wins, organic growth and team development.
As one of GCI Health’s first team members, she was a vital force in turning challenges into opportunities and driving a high-energy entrepreneurial spirit.
The agency said that she fosters a creative agency culture; mentoring her teams to think critically and working with clients to effectively illustrate the value of genuinely original strategies when it comes to impacting patient outcomes.
Looking to the future, Starr said she is excited to continue to spearhead innovation; driven to champion the role of creative specialists in healthcare communications and work towards a vision of ‘creative focus’ not being an ‘add-on’ but a fundamental ingredient to success.
She has now also been promoted at GCI Health to become its associate director and head of creative.
The Communiqué judges said: “There could only be one winner and this was Laura. She had really developed her role as head of creative, whilst still delivering on client fee and has been incredibly supportive to her colleagues.
“She is very impressive in her determination to achieve her goals. To put it simply, Laura really is a star and was awesome!”
Stephanie O’Hagan from Ketchum was given a ‘Highly Commended’ by the judges, while Marta Marquez from Cohn & Wolfe and Miles Denison from Virgo Health Education were both finalists for the prize.
Run by PMLiVE publisher the PMGroup, the Communiqué programme is specifically designed to recognise and commend excellence and best practice in local, European and international healthcare communications.