VMLY&R Health Appoints Christianna Gorin as Health Practice Lead and Chief Strategy Officer

Health strategy veteran Christianna Gorin has been promoted to health practice lead and chief strategy officer for VMLY&R Health, North America. The move comes after VMLY&R Health in North America recorded year on year growth rates of 21% in 2021 with key wins from Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, Genentech and Alexion.

The promotion further extends Christianna’s role across North America including a growing practice on the West Coast. It also broadens Christianna’s strategic remit to cover business transformation as well as extending the agency’s connected brands value proposition. This involves the integration of creativity, science, technology and culture to design connected health experiences for consumers and health care professionals. It underlines the group’s commitment not only to health marketing as a discipline, but also to the delivery of fully integrated solutions that transform business for the future.

Christianna Gorin comments:  “I am delighted to be part of this dynamic and award-winning team. I feel privileged to work with colleagues and clients who are so passionate about expanding health communications into experiential health marketing. We’re united in our commitment to improving health outcomes and living up to increasing consumer and HCP expectations. Together we will transform health experiences to make lives better. “

In addition to her practice lead remit, Christianna also will assume the role of VMLY&R Health chief strategy officer for the North American client roster. Christianna will lead the Health Strategy Studio, one of eight VMLY&R strategic studios that connect expert teams to lead innovation and sustainable growth.

With her origins in health consultancy and insight, Christianna spent over 20 years in healthcare offering strategic vision for HCP global Rx launches on behalf of manufactures including Lilly, Novartis, and Boehringer Ingelheim. Her consumer and health advocacy experience includes award-winning work for Pfizer, Merck and PhRMA. Christianna is also an active mentor for young talent and women leaders.

Eric Campbell, global president VMLY&R: “More so than in any other time in recent history, last year has shown us the fundamental power of healthcare to impact the wellbeing of individuals, communities and societies at large. Health is now one of the most exciting areas to work and we’ve also recently attracted some of the market’s leading business, creative and scientific talent. Our clients and our teams look up to leaders of Christianna’s caliber as we manage one of the most dynamic sectors within our economy. We couldn’t be happier that Christianna is helping us to lead the charge for VMLY&R.”

Reporting into Christianna, John Marchese will oversee consumer and HCP strategy in the role of executive director, head of strategy, VMLY&R Health New York. 

The move to promote Christianna follows a number of investments to VMLY&R Health’s practice in North America. In June the team announced the appointment Sean Rooney PhD as chief science officer, Auge Reichenberg as chief creative officer, and in May it launched VMLY&Rx Payer – a specialist team focusing the delivery of payer and reimbursement strategies for the managed markets sector in North America. In addition, for the second consecutive year, VMLY&R Health was named as one of the top 20 healthcare marketing agencies in North America.