Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Sydney, 25 July 2007, Weber Shandwick, one of the world's leading communications agencies, has now completed a six-month rebuild of its Sydney-based professional health & wellness team, the firm announced today. Already, the team is engaged with some of Australia's leading pharmaceutical, medical device and patient advocacy groups.
Led by vice president Donna Tout, Weber Shandwick's new health & wellness team boasts extensive experience in pharmaceuticals, pharmacy, consumer health, medical research, patient advocacy and specialised health communications, with hands-on experience working within Australia, Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States.
“Continuing to build a strong team of experienced healthcare consultants has been a key focus for Weber Shandwick over the past six months,” said Ms Tout. “We understand that to engage healthcare professionals, a strong working knowledge of the industry is vital and as such we have taken some time to secure and develop our core health & wellness team.”
With a mix of history working with pharmaceuticals, as well as some of Australia's leading consumer brands, the team brings a fresh and unique perspective to the Australian healthcare market which often looks outside the traditional boundaries of healthcare public relations to deliver results.
“Given the changes within the healthcare and media sectors, particularly over the past 12 months, public relations in this space is in need of a makeover. Our health & wellness team is ideally placed to present opportunities and strategic directions that challenge the status quo and we believe this new team will allow Weber Shandwick to bring the company's strong global healthcare reputation to the Australian market,” Ms Tout said.
Weber Shandwick's current client roster in Sydney spans respiratory, sexual health, oncology, eye health, musculoskeletal disorders, medical technology and surgical products.
Globally, Weber Shandwick services clients including sanofi-aventis, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene, Merck Laboratories, Pfizer, Roche, CSL Biotherapies, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Gilead Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline.
About Weber ShandwickWeber Shandwick is a leading global public relations agency with offices in 76 countries around the world. The firm’s success is built on its deep commitment to client service, our people, creativity, collaboration and harnessing the power of Advocates - engaging stakeholders in new and creative ways to build brands and reputation. Weber Shandwick provides strategy and execution across practices such as consumer marketing, healthcare, technology, public affairs, financial services, corporate and crisis management. Its specialized services include digital/social media, advocacy advertising, market research, and corporate responsibility. In 2009, Weber Shandwick was recognized as
PRWeek’s inaugural Global Agency Report Card Gold Medal Winner, an ‘Agency of the Decade’ by
Advertising Age, Global Agency of the Year by
The Holmes Report, and International Consultancy of the Year by
PRWeek UK. The firm has also won numerous ‘best place to work’ awards around the world including
PR News and
The Holmes Report. Weber Shandwick is part of the Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG). For more information, visit
http://www.webershandwick.com/.