Burson-Marsteller recruits Kate Hawker to lead health team

prweek.com, Tuesday, 20 November 2012 09:43AM

Burson-Marsteller has hired a former Fleishman-Hillard partner as EMEA health MD, as it seeks to strengthen links between international healthcare networks.

London base: Burson-Marsteller HQ

Kate Hawker joins as MD and chair of both the EMEA and UK healthcare practices, to forge links within the global organisation to deal with a centralising comms market.

Hawker said: ‘What is always going to sell Burson-Marsteller to companies is its network. We need to look at firms that need an agency with a global footprint.

‘Some firms are applying a centralised model to their marketing now, consolidating their team and leading the planning from one market. If you are that kind of company, we are a good fit.

‘It is about making sure the network is working efficiently – we can really capitalise on that if we have a good working relationship between EMEA, the US and the UK.’

Hawker comes to B-M from working as business development director at InforMed. She  replaces Jennifer Garratt, who left her role as head of the UK practice to join Reynolds-MacKenzie as director and head of international operations in July.

Hawker launched start-up medical comms company Medea, now part of InforMed. In 2000, she founded The Remedy, a medical education agency that was sold to Fleishman-Hillard’s healthcare practice in 2006.

B-M’s EMEA CEO Jeremy Galbraith said: ‘Kate has a track record in pharma comms spanning 25 years, including winning and directing pan-European medical comms and PR programmes. Her talent and experience makes her perfectly suited to lead our regional healthcare practice.’

This article was first published on prweek.com