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Catherine Devaney, Curious Health Catherine is Founder of Curious Health, an agency that blends the best of traditional health communications with digital marketing to grow reputation while delivering impact. With 25 years’ experience in healthcare communications Catherine has worked across most therapy areas. She has partnered with health companies across the spectrum, from large pharma to small pre-commercial biotech, to ensure that communications is a strategic function and not a tactic within a programme. In previous roles, Catherine rose through the ranks of top health communications agency, Red Door, to become Managing Director between 2010 and 2017 and a member of Health Unlimited Board. She re-booted the UK health practice for WE Communications between 2018 and 2022, and was Deputy Managing Director of the agency, before founding Curious Health. Catherine is the Co-Chair of the Communique Awards, having served on the Steering Committee since 2018, and was a Cannes Lions Health and Wellness jury member in 2020/21. |
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Neil Flash, Ignition Consulting Neil Flash is one of the current Co-chairs of the Communiqué Awards. A highly accomplished health communications professional, he has built a reputation for developing enduring partnerships and collaborations across the health industry, leveraging his strategic acumen, scientific expertise, deep industry knowledge, and passion for enhancing health outcomes. Neil has supported several in-house functions, designing, and delivering award-winning programmes with some of the world’s most innovative life science companies. As the owner of Ignition Consulting, Neil now partners with leaders across the pharmaceutical and biotech industry and agencies in the medical, health communications, marketing, and creative services sectors. His consultancy specialises in sparking critical thinking, accelerating agency potential, and optimising partnerships to deliver exceptional outcomes for organisations, their stakeholders, clinical assets, and brands. He is also a member of the Healthcare Communications Association’s working party on agency-industry partnership. Beyond his Ignition and industry commitments, Neil is a trustee and communications advisor for a community-based UK charity supporting over 2,000 families in North London. Before launching Ignition Consulting, Neil served in a dual-focused role within the Interpublic Group as the Managing Director of dna Communications and the Chief Operating Officer for Weber Shandwick in the UK. |
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Kayhan Binazir, GSK Kayhan Binazir, PhD is an accomplished medical affairs professional with over 20 years’ experience from the lab, agency and pharma in-house time. He currently serves as a Global Medical Director at GSK. Throughout his career Kayhan has focused on ensuring that science wins to help society. His areas of expertise outside of neurology, rare disease, immunology and cardiovascular health have been in delivering creative and impactful educational initiatives to improve patient outcomes. He is a keen advocate for health equity and patient engagement and sits on various committees focusing on patient involvement with science. Before joining GSK, Kayhan held various positions in the pharmaceutical sector, contributing to pre-clinical research, marketing communications, and medical strategy. His comprehensive understanding of the industry and creative spirit have helped to pilot many new and innovative ideas in his career helping to guide teams through complex challenges and fostering innovation in healthcare solutions. He has served for over 4 years on the Communique judging panel for data visualization, medical affairs agency of the year and the medical transformation categories. He is delighted to be joining the judging panel here and advocating for the brilliance of work in this industry. |
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Alice Choi In her role as President of Envision Medical Communications at Envision Pharma Group, Alice leads a multi-regional team of global healthcare communication experts. Prior to her role at Envision, Alice held various executive leadership roles in her 20+ years’ tenure at McCann Health/Interpublic Group. Alongside her day job, Alice is an active supporter of CRUK – she has been a Women of Influence Mentor for several years and currently sits on the Research Careers Committee. She also chairs the Healthcare Communications Association and has been an active contributor to a number of regional development initiatives in the North West. As the mother of 3 daughters, she is a strong advocate for mentorship and supporting women in STEM and leadership roles. Alice is delighted to contribute to this steering group being a long-term keen supporter of the Communique awards and a proud former recipient of the Communiquétor of the Year award.
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Avril Lee, Zeno Group Avril Lee is the Head of Health and Wellness Europe for Zeno and Chair of the Charted Institute of PR’s Diversity and Inclusion Network. She has over 25 years’ experience of protecting corporate reputations and building brands for leading health companies with a particular focus on global integrated communications for pharma and biotech. She has held roles in agency (from specialist to large, global networks, and was previously CEO of Ketchum London) as well as in-house at regional level. She started her career in the NHS working in primary care management where she experienced the benefits and challenges of inner-city community health. Avril is passionate about improving health equity for diverse communities and is Trustee of Doctors of the World UK, a charity that campaigns for access to health for disenfranchised groups, and a member of Our Future Health’s DEI Advisory Board. She has also campaigned for over 15 years to improve diversity and inclusion in the communications industry, and is currently a mentor for Women in PR. Avril was recently awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the CIPR, who have also recognised her work in global health communications and her significant contribution to the PR industry’s DE&I with the Sir Stephen Tallents Medal. In 2023 she received the inaugural BME Pros Award for Lifetime Achievement. She has also won (and lost) a few Communiqué Awards over the years! |
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Kirsty Mearns, Mearns & Pike Kirsty is well-acquainted with the judging process, having served on the Communiqué judges’ panel for the last 15 years. She’s also been on the other side of the table, with numerous finalist nominations and wins under her belt. “I absolutely love being part of the Communiqué process. It’s a privilege to see the brilliant work being created across our industry and the impact that we have collectively as healthcare communicators. It’s a wonderful feeling to read an entry and think “wow, I wish I had worked on that.” Kirsty is Co-Founder of Mearns & Pike – a multi-award-winning agency that is on a mission to bring human connection and love into everything they do. Prior to teaming up with Jon Pike and founding Mearns & Pike, Kirsty was Managing Director at Havas JUST:: and Director at Resolute Communications (now Langland). In her 25-year career she has worked across every aspect of PR and medical communications, but her superpower is helping clients to find their strategic path in complex healthcare environments. She loves to join the dots, make connections and look for the insight at the heart of a communications challenge. |
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Sarah Smith Sarah Smith is a seasoned healthcare communications professional with two decades of expertise in PR and media. She has amassed broad understanding of integrated communications across the healthcare, charity, MedTech and pharmaceutical sectors, working with numerous well-known brands and organizations. While product launches, awareness campaigns, internal and corporate communications have played a key role in Sarah’s career to date, she is also an expert in patient engagement and stakeholder management. Using her skills of co-founding and co-running her own charity, she understands exactly how to effectively engage and collaborate with key opinion leaders and patient groups. In her current role at Johnson & Johnson, Sarah leads the communications for Shockwave in international markets, with a focus on enhancing the company’s regional presence, reputation and engagement. Her leadership is pivotal in strengthening stakeholder trust, elevating brand awareness, and driving regional growth. Throughout her extensive career at J&J, Sarah has demonstrated her ability to craft impactful, measurable communication strategies to consistently deliver results, strengthen stakeholder relationships, and advance organisational goals. Sarah has been a judge for Communique from 2010-2016 and again from 2024 to the present. |
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Jo Spadaccino Jo Spadaccino is one half of the Stirred founding team – an integrated health communications agency that believes great communications is a health intervention in its own right. Winners of the Communique ‘small agency of the year’ for the last two years in a row, Jo – along with her business partner Stuart Hehir – is equally passionate about delivering communications that matter as she is about building a good business that does good, hence Stirred being one of the few health communications agencies to hold B Corp certification. Jo has been a judge for the Communique awards for a number of years, alongside her previous roles in other health communications agencies (Pegasus, Cohn & Wolfe. M&F Health – having done an early stint in NHS communications she jumped to agency and never looked back). She never fails to be impressed by the excellent work she sees from all corners of our industry. That said, she’s also not a push-over and demands high standards! She sees her role on the steering group as a privilege and holding great responsibility to drive best practice, spread positivity, engender trust, and ensure that our specialism keeps pace with the ever-changing opportunities and challenges faced by the health sector. |
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Ross Taylor, Performance IO Ross Taylor is a Senior Director and Global Head of Operations at performance-io. Part of the founding team at PIO, Ross leads operations across all divisions / geographies and is responsible for equipping the teams with the tools, processes and training required to deliver market leading work for clients. Ross has previously worked across both in-house and agency roles, and started his career at GSK working in vaccines sales & marketing. In Ross’s last role before joining performance.io, he created a unique hybrid agency role bridging the gap between a traditional communications agency and an SEO agency, which saw him highly commended in the ‘Young Achiever in Healthcare Communications’ award at Communique and nominated for ‘Digital Account Manager’ of the year at the PME Digital Awards |
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Richard White, Oxford PharmaGenesis Richard White is Chief Operating Officer and co-owner of Oxford PharmaGenesis, a global HealthScience communications consultancy. Having joined the company in 2002 when it was 10 people delivering medical marketing, Richard founded the Oxford PharmaGenesis value demonstration practice and is a recognised leader in the communication of clinical, health economic and real-world evidence studies. He co-led a management buy-out in 2013 and has helped oversee the company’s growth to more than 500 people worldwide. Richard has contributed as a co-chair and committee member in many organizations including the HCA, ISMPP, MAPS and EMWA, and has been a Communique Awards Head Judge for the past 5 years. He has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed publications and white papers on value demonstration, evidence planning, good publication practice, and patient engagement in Pharma Times, Pharmaceutical Market Europe, the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research, Medical Writing and Current Medical Research and Opinion. Before joining Oxford PharmaGenesis, Richard took an MA and PhD in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge. His PhD research won the 1998 Glaxo Wellcome Young Investigator’s Award, and he was awarded a Research Fellowship in Pharmacology at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He has completed the Advanced Health Economic Modelling Program at the University of Oxford, and is an alumnus of the International Marketing Program at INSEAD and the Inspirational Leadership Program at IMD. Richard is currently an Associate Fellow and College Adviser at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford. |
