TORONTO & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Klick Health CEO Lori Grant and Co-Presidents Greg Rice and Ari Schaefer today announced a multitude of notable new senior talent additions, strategic new practice areas, and a proprietary, new data targeting tool – reinforcing that the independent agency’s momentum and growth trajectory is stronger than ever as it nears its 25th anniversary in the spring.
“We’ve started 2022 on a very strong note,” said Grant. “As a leading life sciences commercialization partner, we’ve experienced great success in line with core market trends while continuing to build on our almost quarter-century legacy of consistent growth and commitment to always being in Beta and evolving the company to meet and exceed our client needs. So, we couldn’t be more proud to welcome these spectacularly talented new Klicksters to the company as we extend our capabilities and offerings.”
Bringing on More Managing Directors & Craft Leads
To ensure the high-touch, superior client experience Klick is known for providing and clients deserve, Rice and Schaefer welcomed seasoned healthcare marketing leaders Hannah Davis and Tatiana Lyons to oversee two of its Client Success Teams, and project management and delivery veteran Ayaz Gowa to lead the agency’s expanding Project Management Office.
Bringing a stellar advertising career and fresh perspective to the healthcare marketing industry, Davis joins Klick with 20+ years of experience helping global B2B, fintech, and CPG brands achieve transformational growth. Most recently, she spent a decade at Ogilvy & Mather. There, she led Kimberly-Clark’s Kotex business; ran the global corporate BP business; and led the US consumer account on American Express, working on key initiatives, such as the Blue Cash Everyday Credit Card with Tina Fey and the successful re-launch of the iconic Platinum card.
"As a parent of a child with a major heart condition, I have always wanted to reconcile my personal life with what I do professionally, so having the opportunity to work in healthcare and help make a difference in patients' lives is so fulfilling," Davis said. "I was also drawn to how Klick embraces its employees as human beings, with trust and empathy, and how that further motivates the team to do outstanding work!"
Lyons brings to Klick her proven track record of building long-standing, healthy client partnerships. With over 20 years of industry experience, she is known for championing innovative approaches that make an impact for clients’ businesses, and for developing high-performing teams that deliver brave creative approaches to solving complex business challenges. Lyons previously held senior leadership positions at CDMNY and WildType\TBWA\WorldHealth. Prior, she served as Chief Talent Officer for McCann Health NA and as Director of Client Services for McCann Health NJ (McCann Torre Lazur). She has an affinity for organizations that elevate women’s leadership and new, diverse voices, has served on the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association’s Executive Outreach Group, and has been recognized as an HBA Rising Star.
“I’m thrilled to be part of Klick and bring my expertise to our clients while contributing to the ongoing growth of our team,” Lyons said. “Klick offers a breadth and depth of services that are incomparable and are complemented by our unique, people-first culture. It allows us to create talented teams, who are set up for success in delivering brave work for our clients with immense credibility.”
In heading up Klick’s large, growing PMO, Gowa brings 20+ years of experience leading award-winning project management and technology teams. Having worked across multiple industries, including banking and insurance, as well as at full-service marketing agencies, he brings a wealth of expertise and passion for building high-performing teams that are scalable, exceedingly effective, client-focused, and able to consistently deliver on expectations.
“Joining a world-class organization like Klick and spearheading the evolution of our project management practice has been very fulfilling,” Gowa said. “This is an exciting time in Klick’s history as we scale the business to meet the needs of our people, our clients, and the patients we serve.”
Klick today also proudly announced the appointment of Brian Kaiser to Executive Vice President, Activation & Experience Strategy on the heels of long-time Klick Executive Vice President Cam Bedford’s retirement. In his new role, Kaiser leads a large integrated team of strategists across Activation, CRM, Experience Design, and Social, developing go-to-market solutions that adapt to the changing market and help clients address a wide range of commercialization challenges.
Kaiser has spent his entire 25+-year career at the intersection of healthcare, marketing, and technology. He has served in various senior strategy positions at Klick since joining the agency in 2014, contributing to pre-commercialization work across a range of product launches for both emerging biotechs and established pharmas. Previously, he played pivotal roles in standing up and scaling nascent digital marketing efforts at Eli Lilly, both Global and US, for early-stage commercial teams. He also launched and led growth for the healthcare practice at Targetbase, the relationship marketing agency within the Omnicom Health Group.
In calling out Klick’s dynamic strategic planning approach, which emphasizes the importance of collaboration when solving challenges, and involves the Activation & Experience Strategy practice working in partnership with Brand Strategy, Kaiser said, “Clients aren’t as impressed by how many strategy experts we have as they are with the way we’re able to integrate our ideas to solve the most critical challenges today’s brands are facing.”
Chief Brand Strategy Officer Carl Turner added, “We’re looking for strategists who are in search of reciprocal growth—the type of growth that only comes from intense collaboration and strategic mash ups.”
Exponential Evolution in Brand Strategy
Since joining Klick in late-2019, Turner has also been focused on building the best Brand Strategy team in life sciences, growing the craft by more than 300% and launching thriving new practice areas, such as Cross-Cultural Marketing and Intelligence. Today, Turner signaled continued exponential momentum with the launch of Intelligence’s innovative Sharp Targeting audience data tool, the establishment of its Corporate Reputation practice, and the arrival of several senior strategists who further bolster Klick’s Brand Strategy bench.
“We hand-pick the brightest minds in Brand Strategy, Cross-Cultural Marketing, Intelligence, and Corporate Reputation, and give them the space to form an integrated, cooperative community that gives birth to provocative thinking and solves the biggest challenges for our clients’ brands,” Turner said, as he introduced the newest senior additions to his growing team.
As a veteran strategist whose expertise spans both health and non-health sectors, Bamber brings her unique perspective about culture, human insights, and specific lifestyles to Klick’s work in life sciences. Previously, she has held senior healthcare roles, including Chief Strategy Officer at FCB New York, and Head of Strategy at Arnold (Havas Health and You), as well as mainstream advertising roles, such as Head of Planning at Anomaly NYC, Global Head of Strategy for Coca-Cola at SapientNitro, and Deputy Head of Planning at TBWA NYC.
Energized by the opportunities to work with Klick clients on addressing real quality-of-life health issues and supporting enhanced patient/physician relationships, Bamber said, “I was excited to join Klick because of its technological and medical strategy expertise – to go beyond developing messaging and developing actual products and services that make a real difference in people’s lives. Coupled with its creative and media strengths, Klick is a unique playground for someone with a diverse background like mine. Plus, I get the opportunity to help mentor a pretty spectacular group of strategists.”
An accomplished, seasoned brand strategist with more than 25 years of experience, Mullen has dedicated the last 12 years of her career to leading global launches and mature brands in the life sciences sector. She has worked across a wide range of therapeutic areas, including oncology, women’s health, cardiology, neurology, and dermatology, and most recently served as Senior Vice President, Strategy and Planning at Evoke. Mullen has been a featured speaker at prominent conferences, such as SXSW, ASCO, iPharma, and Fierce Digital Pharma East.
“I joined Klick’s booming Brand Strategy practice to help lead its brilliant team of brand strategists, while both learning from them and growing with them,” Mullen said. “I was also drawn to the opportunity to work alongside and be coached by Carl because he’s an inspiring, sharply strategic leader.”
Bernish-Fisher joins Klick with over 20 years of healthcare marketing experience. After starting her agency career in creative, she became one of GSW's first strategy team members—spending the last decade there in Vice President, Strategy roles with focus on brand storytelling, patient education, advocacy partnerships, health literacy, data-informed insight mining, and cross-cultural strategy. Over the years, she has contributed to US and global brand launches for indications, including diabetes, depression and anxiety, women’s reproductive health, HIV, oncology, osteoporosis, hepatitis B and C, cystic fibrosis, and ALS. Prior to agency life, Bernish-Fisher received funding from the CDC and Ohio Department of Health to educate diverse communities on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
“I was drawn to Carl’s vision and the opportunity to be part of an intentionally designed team of strategists,” said Bernish-Fisher. “Each one of us is empowered to collaborate and collectively bring an unparalleled level of imagination, empathy, and expertise to the brands we serve.”
With more than 10 years of US and global consumer healthcare marketing experience, Quinn joins Klick after previous roles at TBWA and Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness. Having launched brands across a broad range of therapeutic areas, including neurology, oncology, rheumatology, and cardiology, he has extensive experience leading brand strategy for some of the biggest brands in health — through master brand and portfolio planning, positioning, creative, communications planning, and even e-commerce. With a background and certification in behavior design, Quinn believes in the importance of creating things that both encourage and enable positive change.
Quinn said, “While the people originally drew me in, I ultimately joined Klick because of what’s possible here. Being a full commercialization partner opens the door for deeper client relationships through richer and more actionable strategic thinking. I’m excited to join one of the fastest growing departments within Klick, develop amazing creative work, and continue to evolve our strategy offerings for our clients.”
Romeu brings to Klick more than 25 years of strategic marketing and communications expertise at global pharmaceutical and biotech companies, medical and scientific communications agencies, health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) consultancies, digital health start-ups, and technology-driven data companies. She spent nearly 10 years in Sales, Marketing, and Government Relations & Communications with Merck (US & Spain), and has held executive positions at ConnectiveRx, IMS Health, Sharecare, Digitas Health Life Brands (DHLB), and Cline Davis & Mann (CDM)—with extensive therapeutic experience in the oncology, cardiovascular, and anti-infective spaces. Most recently, Romeu served as a consultant with Brand Strategy Consulting (BSC), the independent strategic marketing and communications consultancy she founded in 2006, and she also served as ConnectiveRx’s interim CMO and Head of Client Solutions and Innovation.
“I was excited to join Klick and bring my expertise to such strong leaders and strategists in the medical communications space,” Romeu said. “Being able to contribute to our clients’ commercial and brand strategies, and help bring positive changes to patients’ lives energizes me every day.”
New Corporate Reputation Health Practice
Perez joins the agency to head up its new Corporate Reputation practice and help clients’ corporate brands ignite the actionable power they have in telling their story and best communicate a resonating narrative to stakeholders across channels. As a seasoned veteran with 15+ years in healthcare strategy and planning, he brings a considerable wealth of industry knowledge and experience, having both launched reputational campaigns for some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies and guided strategy efforts for dynamic biotechs across many therapeutic areas, including oncology, neuroscience, and rare disease.
“Today’s patients, caregivers, HCPs, advocacy groups, and investors are all asking more of the healthcare brands they interact with,” said Perez. “At Klick, I get to work with the industry’s brightest minds across our Healthcare Consulting, Cross-Cultural Marketing, Intelligence, and other growing practices. Together, we can help brands become more noticed and appreciated for the clinical and cultural advancements they contribute to make the world a healthier place.”
Allen officially joins Klick after working with the agency’s Cross-Cultural Marketing team for over a year on the "Rise Above COVID" campaign. Her 20-year career as a bilingual communications executive includes nine years with BCW (WPP) as a Senior Vice President in the Brand Solutions practice. There, she led and supported award-winning campaigns for Fortune 500 clients, leading nonprofits, and start-ups across healthcare, CPG, and tech. She previously led PR at Revolución, a full-service agency in NYC, where clients included the American Heart Association, BreastCancer.org and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Allen has contributed to The New York Times among other media.
“I joined Klick Health because I want to work for a competitive company that also has principles,” Allen said. “In Klick’s case, that includes putting people first and prioritizing outcomes over optics. Those two things really matter to me."
Introducing Klick Sharp Targeting
Senior Vice President of Intelligence, Keri Hettel confirmed the launch of Klick Sharp Targeting — responding to the targeting challenges life sciences companies face due to the need for complex data definitions of patient audiences or disparate data sources. The proprietary, new, customizable targeting tool leverages deep medical knowledge and sophisticated data possibilities to identify and prioritize hard-to-find or hard-to-understand audience groups, and ultimately drive actionable target segments across all marketing channels.
Massive Momentum in Media
Klick Media today also revealed that it has more than doubled in size over the last couple years. Executive Vice President of Media Dave Leitner, who heads up the one-stop media shop for health and wellness marketing, credited his team's transformative growth to expanded programmatic, paid social, and video offerings, a proprietary full-service media offering for branded and unbranded pharma campaigns that can address disease conditions across both patient and HCP audiences, and expansion into the OTC space. With the transformative growth, Leitner has welcomed a wealth of talent and expertise, including most recently senior healthcare media professional Herman Mallhi.
Mallhi joins the thriving Media team at Klick with a specialization in the healthcare media sector. She has over 15 years of experience across multiple channels, including Media, Search, and Social. Prior to joining Klick, Mallhi spent over three years at CMI Media Group, dedicated to driving innovation and elevating media outcomes for a range of pharma brands.
"I am energized by the untapped potential we have as marketers to deliver on patient/caregiver needs through timely and personalized content, and joined the amazing team at Klick to collaborate and help our clients improve people’s lives with positive health outcomes," she said.
Turbocharging Transformation & Technology
Less than a year since making his move to Klick to lead its new Digital Transformation team, Chief Transformation Officer Ryan Slipakoff and Executive Vice President of Technology and Operations Marcin Bogobowiz today announced several key senior team members to further build out the agency’s growing capabilities and enhance Klick’s reputation as a trusted end-to-end digital partner and adviser for enterprise-wide digital transformation journeys. Klick also announced the launch of the company’s Organizational Excellence practice to help clients evolve their talent, culture, and ways of working to maximize the utilization of technology and capability investments in the day-to-day work of all business users. Services include building sustainable operating models, talent plans, and transformation strategies that help drive successful digital transformations.
Mitby brings to Klick her innovative thinking and deep knowledge in healthcare commercialization strategy, marketing, data, and technology — focused on ensuring business needs drive enterprise capabilities and brand investments. She has worked extensively with biotech companies on enterprise transformations across marketing, market access, third-party logistics and medical affairs. Previously, she built and led the Commercial Strategy and Insights organization for McKesson’s access, affordability, and adherence businesses (now a single operating unit as CoverMyMeds) and spent five years working in a number of roles at Epsilon, including Vice President of Strategy.
“The pandemic has drastically accelerated the pace of change for the entire healthcare industry,” Mitby said. “I’m excited to help lead Klick’s Transformation practice and be at the forefront of these evolutions as we help our clients deliver better customer experiences.”
Vacin makes his move to Klick with 20 years of digital consulting and transformation experience. He spent the last five years at Accenture Interactive as a leader on their business transformation practice. There, he led large engagements in healthcare, financial services, and technology—bringing customer-centric thinking to the heart of every decision and driving new revenue and growth opportunities for his clients. Vacin began his career at the NASA Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley.
“The amazing talent at Klick is laser-focused on creating the best patient and provider experiences on the planet,” said Vacin. “So am I. What makes Klick so unique is the amazing culture that values outcomes over optics and which harnesses that focus to deliver outsized results. It’s humbling to be part of the team."
With over 20 years of experience partnering with Fortune 100 organizations, Kambo excels at driving human-centered experiences through digital strategy and enterprise business transformations. Prior to joining Klick, he worked at Deloitte Digital where he worked globally across industries in leading large-scale transformations.
Driven by a passion for leading change and innovation, Kambo said, “It is through the transformation of how we work and the adoption of customer and data-driven platforms that we can drive impactful human experiences. I joined Klick, inspired to drive impactful patient and healthcare experiences with an organization demonstrating resilience, kindness, and a people-first, outcomes-based focus.”
Tasson comes to Klick to lead its new Organizational Excellence practice area, bringing over 12 years of experience in building complex business and organizational strategies for consultancies and global companies. She most recently served as Global Future of Work Leader and People & Change Consulting practice leader at CGI, a global technology consulting firm, focused on developing strategies for rapid adoption of talent and workplace changes, hybrid workplace models, and accelerated future of work practices for post-pandemic planning.
“I’m excited to help play a role in Klick’s next stage of growth and support the expansion of strategic, operational, and talent capabilities to enhance our clients’ digital evolutions,” said Tasson. “The welcoming culture here, combined with Klicksters’ creativity and refusal to accept the status quo, collectively contributes to an unparalleled level of collaboration and innovation that’s inspiring.”
Leveraging over 23 years in consulting, providing technology options, and designing re-usable data solutions for pharma companies, Koduri brings to Klick vast expertise in incorporating best-in-class data governance practices. He previously worked at Capgemini where he was instrumental in designing and developing a scalable specialty pharma solution focused on aggregation, complete patient journey and prescriber mastering.
“What has really attracted me to Klick is the people-first culture,” Koduri said. “After spending a few weeks here, I can say with confidence that it really is different here and I am happy to be working with awesome, smart, and kind people as we work to make a difference for our clients and the patients and physicians they serve.”
A proven development leader with 20+ years of expertise, Figueiredo has executed complex, multi-channel, brand-driven digital assets for some of the biggest names in pharma. He spent the past 12 years at Ogilvy Health after a decade working in web development across other industries. A collaborative team builder known for his ability to lead cross-functional, cross-platform projects that deliver value, he has launched numerous award-winning web properties and apps, client engagements, and innovation-focused project teams.
"More than ever, healthcare companies want to adopt savvy, new ways to get their messaging to providers, patients, and caregivers, and Klick is an industry-leading powerhouse that delivers on technological innovation," said Figueiredo. "I couldn't be more thrilled to join all the passionate and talented people who make Klick such a special place."
Nastase joins Klick with a focus on developing and driving new technology consulting services – leaning into his 25+ years of experience in technology development and consulting for global healthcare and financial institutions. Previously, he worked at multinational technology consulting and system integration firm CGI, where he developed and implemented high-value technology-based solutions and created partnerships to help organizations gain strategic market advantage.
“I am thrilled to join Klick’s people-first culture and its world-class team of digital strategists and technologists,” Nastase said, “as we help more clients accelerate their digital enablement during these times of profound demand for healthcare services transformation.”
Velez brings to Klick over 13 years of digital, consulting, and marketing technology experience across the life sciences, communications, retail, and banking industries. With past roles at Publicis Groupe (Epsilon) and Accenture, he specializes in designing and implementing multi- and omni-channel marketing programs for patients and physicians. He has a proven background in successfully navigating clients through critical decisions in marketing technology operations, strategy, and execution.
“Klick is different from other marketing agencies,” Velez said. “I’m honored to be a part of such an amazing and talented group of people. I feel like I’m a part of a family that really cares about making a difference in the lives of our client, patient, and partner communities.”
Expansion Across Corporate Development
Klick also announced the following senior additions to its growing team to continue rolling out its future-forward vision:
With 25+ years of global financial advisory experience, Chin leads Klick’s corporate development mission and is focused on continuing to broaden the Klick ecosystem and expand important industry relationships and partnerships. Previously, he was a senior partner at Deloitte and has a reputation for taking innovative approaches to complicated business and finance issues—working with his team to understand and solve for the underlying causes of and barriers to efficiency and growth. Chin is also an Executive Board Member for the Helping Hands Jamaica Foundation, which aims to give children a better future through education.
“I’ve known the Klick team for over a decade and when the time came for a new adventure, there was only one team I wanted to join,” said Chin. “I couldn’t feel more at home and am energized about applying my expertise to spark continued growth, help evolve Klick’s platform, and ensure we keep delivering the unfair advantages our clients have come to expect.”
Ratnajothi plays a key role in Klick’s corporate development initiatives and early-stage investments in healthcare companies. As a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA)-designated finance professional with experience in transaction advisory, mergers and acquisitions, and financial planning and analysis, he previously worked with mid-market companies in pursuing acquisitions in industries, such as professional services, software, retail, and industrial goods. He is also an Instructor at York University’s Schulich School of Business. In 2021, he was honored with a prestigious CPA Emerging Leader Award, which celebrates distinguished CPAs under the age of 34, who excel both in their profession and in the community.
“Klick is an entrepreneurial playground where the greatest minds get together to help advance the life sciences industry,” Ratnajothi said. “I consider myself fortunate to work with such talented people as we focus on the future with strategic investments and partnerships that are poised to disrupt, innovate, and deliver positive health outcomes.”
Fueling Continued and Relentless Evolution
As the Global Head of the Talent Attraction team, Pathak leads Klick’s thriving team of talent partners and strategists – leaning into over two decades of experience in talent management, strategy, attraction, and large-scale people transformation projects. She previously worked at Accenture for 13 years, where she was responsible for helping local and global leaders transform their talent strategies.
“I am obsessed with attracting the world’s brightest minds and cultivating meaningful experiences for candidates,” said Pathak, “and joining Klick is one of the best decisions I have ever made. The culture, the people, and the pure brilliance that exists here is unmatched. I am passionate about what I do and working at Klick allows me to bring that passion to life alongside people who inspire me every single day.”
Carrasco-Hernandez joins Klick’s large, in-house Talent Acquisition team, leading its creative recruitment area. She brings over a decade of experience in attracting top-tier, award-winning creative talent to health agencies like FBC Health and, most recently, The Bloc. Focused on strategic, actionable programs that facilitate and elevate creative recruitment, she also brings a proven track record in fostering strong connections with new talent and ensuring success for both candidates and agency teams alike.
“I joined Klick because I always want to surround myself with great people and great work,” she said. “Elevating creative output with the best talent, while maintaining a true people-first practice can be tricky, but Klick seems to have figured it out. I’m excited to reconnect with some fantastic, familiar faces, and contribute to building out an already high-performing team with the next generation of emerging talent.”
Dolce has almost a decade of talent acquisition experience within the healthcare marketing industry and a wide breadth of knowledge, process, and innovation in the recruiting space. Prior to joining Klick, he served as Director of Talent Acquisition at Publicis Health, leading the department across multiple agencies after rising through the ranks on its recruiting team. He also held roles at FCBCure and VitaminT. Dolce’s focus at Klick includes launching a Talent Accelerator Program and building a pathway to a larger talent pool by opening the door to candidates who may not have pharmaceutical or healthcare experience.
“What drew me into Klick was its passion for innovation and evolution,” Dolce remarked. “Very few companies can claim to embody an entrepreneurial spirit and start-up mentality, particularly when they’re turning 25 years old with over 1,600 people and growing. Here at Klick however, every word of it has been true and I am truly excited to see what the future has to offer!”
About Klick Health
Klick Health is the world’s largest independent commercialization partner for life sciences. For over two decades, Klick has been laser-focused on developing, launching, and supporting life sciences brands to maximize their full market potential. Klick was named a Large Agency of the Year for both 2020 and 2021 by Medical Marketing + Media (MM+M), marking 10 Agency of the Year industry awards in 10 years. Follow Klick Health on Twitter at @KlickHealth. For more information on joining Klick, go to careers.klick.com.
About Klick Group
The Klick Group of companies – Klick Health (including Klick Katalyst), Klick Media Group, Klick Applied Sciences (including Klick Labs), Klick Consulting, Klick Ventures, and Sensei Labs – is an ecosystem of brilliant talent collectively working to maximize their people and clients’ full potential. Established in 1997, Klick has teams in New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and across North America. Klick has consistently been named a Best Managed Company and Great Place to Work. In 2021, the company was recognized with 15 Best Workplace awards, including Best Workplaces for Women, Best Workplaces for Inclusion, Best Workplaces for Giving Back, Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators, and FORTUNE’s Best Places for Millennials.
