Cohn & Wolfe London Hires Healthcare Director
London – 30 January 2009 – Cohn & Wolfe today announced that it has appointed Alison Wright as a Director in the London healthcare practice. She joins most recently from Novartis and will report to CEO, Fiona Noble.
Fiona Noble said: "I am delighted that Alison has joined our London team and look forward to her making what I am confident will be a strong contribution as we take our healthcare offer to the next stage. She joins an immensely strong senior team and will add further depth to our strategic consultancy offer. Having worked both agency and client side, she has that unique mix that enables her to bring both fresh outside thinking while understanding the commercial imperatives.”
Alison Wright commented: “I am absolutely thrilled to be joining Cohn & Wolfe. Its Healthcare practice is one of the most respected in the industry and I am attracted by its ambition to develop into new areas and connect more effectively with other specialisms in the London office and global network. The needs of Healthcare businesses and brands are getting more complex and the ability to seamlessly combine deep healthcare expertise with corporate reputation and digital specialisms is a very compelling offer.”
Previously at Novartis as Head of Oncology External Affairs and Communications for Europe, Alison was responsible for driving regional programmes for all brands within the Novartis Oncology portfolio in both public relations and public policy. Within this role, she was responsible for providing strategic counsel to the European Regional Leadership Team, and in building the communications capability across the entire region. Alison has also worked in-house at AstraZeneca as the Global PR Manager for both the breast and prostate cancer portfolios.
In total, Alison brings sixteen years of industry healthcare industry experience where she has worked in communications and marketing in both in-house and consultancy roles within the UK, Europe and globally.
Jacinta Collins, currently Managing Director of the Healthcare practice, will be leaving Cohn & Wolfe. Her position will not be replaced, with the new, five-strong healthcare board (Fiona McMillan, Jo Spadaccino, Annabel Fiddian-Green, Rebecca Galbraith and Alison Wright) leading the practice development. Fiona Noble said: ”Jacinta has made a huge contribution to helping build the healthcare business. After ten years here, we respect her decision to look for other challenges. She will leave with our gratitude and very best wishes for the future.”
About Cohn & Wolfe
Cohn & Wolfe is a strategic marketing public relations agency dedicated to creating, building and protecting the world’s most prolific brands. With offices in North America, Europe and Asia, the agency creates and implements powerful communications programmes that help clients build their brands and their bottom lines.
The core areas of expertise include consumer, healthcare, technology and corporate communications and the Cohn & Wolfe global healthcare practice ranks amongst the top ten agencies globally.
Cohn & Wolfe ranks number one by clients for creativity, media placement, client service, senior management and strategic counsel. Cohn & Wolfe also consistently ranks among the top “Best Agencies to Work For” in an annual, industry-wide employee survey. For more information, visit: www.cohnwolfe.com. Cohn & Wolfe is part of WPP (Nasdaq: WPPGY), one of the world's largest communications services group.
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Contact:
Fiona Noble
Chief Executive Officer
fiona.noble@cohnwolfe.com
Tel: 020 7331 5353
