People, December, 2009

Mover of the month

Aurora has promoted two long-standing team members. Sarah Hoffman joins the management team as associate director, and Carolin Prasmo is promoted to account manager. Sarah joined as account director in 2006 from Edelman. She previously worked at Fleishman-Hillard with Aurora managing directors, Claire Eldridge and Neil Crump. Sarah directs the agency's Lilly and Roche accounts and Aurora's partnership in GLOBALHealthPR. Carolin joined in 2007 from Bell Pottinger where she worked with Aurora senior account manager, Aaron Pond. She works on client accounts for Fresenius Kabi, Lilly and Roche.

Emily Armstrong has joined PAN Advertising as group account director, from Torre Lazur McCann, where she spent the previous 11 years, most recently as senior account director. Emily will head a business unit within PAN, having account responsibilities for Bayer Schering Pharma, GSK and Roche. She has worked on UK, European and global accounts and has experience of brands including Lipitor, Cipramil, Levitra and Zyban.

Sanofi-aventis has announced a number of changes to its executive committee. New business activities beyond pharmaceuticals will be handled by Hanspeter Spek, who takes the role of president, global operations. He was previously executive vice-president, pharmaceutical operations. Marc Cluzel is appointed executive vice-president, research and development. He was previously senior vice-president, research and development. In recognition of the essential role of Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division, Wayne Pisano, senior vice-president, vaccines, joins the group's executive committee.

AstraZeneca has announced three senior personnel changes. Jan M Lundberg, executive vice-president of discovery research, has resigned to pursue other interests outside the company with immediate effect. Christer Köhler, who heads global discovery for central nervous system and pain control, has been appointed as the interim leader of discovery research pending the final appointment of Jan's successor. Abigail Baron has joined the AstraZeneca corporate medical relations team, based in London. She previously worked in media relations and product communications in the company's US business.

David Stout has joined the board of Shire as a non-executive director. He has extensive pharmaceutical experience, having been president of pharmaceutical operations at GSK, responsible for activities in the US, Europe, Japan and all other international markets. He was also responsible for global manufacturing and biologics at GSK. Prior to that, David was president of GSK's US pharmaceuticals business and, before that, SmithKline Beecham's North American pharmaceuticals business. Before joining SmithKline Beecham, he worked at Schering-Plough.

Norgine has appointed Lance Richard as global market access manager, within global marketing. His primary responsibilities are to support pricing, reimbursement and market access for Norgine brands. Lance started his career as a clinical pharmacist in South Africa before moving into the field of health economics and outcomes research. In his capacity as a health economist, he has worked both in industry and consultancy, having served as senior health economist, global health outcomes research, at UCB Celltech and, more recently, as director of market access at GfK Healthcare. He studied clinical pharmacy at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and has a degree in health economics from the University of York.

The BioIndustry Association has appointed Scott Johnstone as its director for Scotland. He will work part-time at its Edinburgh office, while retaining his existing part-time role as chief executive officer of Antoxis, the company he founded in 2005. He will also continue his activities as life science business adviser and technology entrepreneur for the Scottish Enterprise Proof of Concept programme. Scott holds a degree in engineering from Edinburgh Napier University and a MBA in business administration from Edinburgh University.

United BioSource Corporation has appointed two senior strategists to the London office. Adam Barak joins as head of international pricing and reimbursement. He has more than 13 years of pricing and reimbursement experience in the healthcare industry. Lisbet Coulton takes the role of director of international pricing and re­imbursement, with more than 25 years in the healthcare sector. Her expertise is in market assessments, product commercialisation, and international strategic planning and communications.

Quintiles has appointed Damian Colehan as a UK business development director for the commercial business to provide the firm's biopharmaceutical sector with salesforce solutions. Colehan has spent most of his career at Abbott, building up 20 years of expertise in sales, salesforce effectiveness and marketing. His geographical responsibilities have included the UK, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Saudi Arabia.

Euro RSCG Life Medicom has appointed Kaush Gandhi as digital director. Formerly with Unilever and Wyeth, Kaush is a specialist in all forms of digital marketing with a wealth of experience in online marketing for customer acquisition, conversion and retention through data-driven campaigns. He has worked in FMCG, retail and online gaming, and is a specialist in pharmaceuticals.

2020health has taken on Daniel Ekpe as new communications manager. He is a graduate of Cambridge University and has previously worked in healthcare PR. Emma Hill joins as a researcher. She is a graduate in science communication and policy from University College London and has worked for the Wellcome Trust Library in London.

Events 4 Healthcare has recruited Jo Walker and Hannah Baker. Jo has worked for the past seven years both in the charity and financial sectors, most recently as head of events and corporate culture at Oliver Wyman in London. Hannah recently completed a history degree at Nottingham University. 

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