Global comms agency Ashfield Healthcare Communications, part of UDG Healthcare, has expanded its allegro team responsible for recruiting and training aspiring medical writers. Rebecca Douglas (pictured) joins as programme director and Nicky Griffin as assistant programme director. “The growth of the core team is fantastic news for current and future participants in the programme,” noted Neil Marmont, vice president of allegro. “Rebecca and Nicky bring a considerable amount of agency and writing experience to their new roles, which will allow us to build on the initial success of allegro, offering first-class support to people starting their careers in healthcare communications. The additional bandwidth provided by these appointments will also allow us to explore how the allegro model can be adapted to other roles in our business, supporting the career development pathway for talented scientific staff.”

Tim Pantello has been named president of Communications at Syneos Health. A versatile executive with nearly 25 years of experience across strategy, marketing, and technology, “his digitally native leadership style is ideal for grooming the next generation of communications experts,” the firm said. Prior to Syneos Health, Pantello was a managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, leading multiple offerings within the Health Industry Advisory Group related to wearable data, patient intelligence and predictive behaviours and analytics. The company also announced JD Cassidy as president of Advertising, Maria Tender as head of Strategy, and Ian Dorrian (pictured) as president of EU Communications.

Clinical stage biopharma Autolus Therapeutics has appointed Dr Jay T Backstrom to its Board of Directors. Jay currently serves as EVP, head of Research & Development at Acceleron Pharma Inc (Acceleron) and prior to that served as chief medical officer and head of Regulatory Affairs at Celgene Corporation. Autolus also announced that Dr Nushmia Khokhar has been promoted to senior vice president, Clinical Development, and will take over the medical leadership role at Autolus. Nushmia is a board-certified oncologist with extensive early and late stage clinical development experience, having led several successful registration trials within the industry including the global daratumumab program at Janssen Oncology.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has appointed Jennifer Howells as director of Finance, Strategy and Transformation, and Dr Felix Greaves as director of Science, Evidence and Analytics. Currently an independent healthcare consultant working for Deloitte, Jennifer has 16 years’ experience in the health system, most recently being a regional director for NHS England and Improvement. She also has experience as a chief executive and as finance director for several commissioning and provider trusts. Jennifer will take over from Catherine Wilkinson, acting director, on September 1, and succeeds Ben Bennet, who left NICE earlier this year after 13 years in the post. Felix is currently deputy director of Science and Strategic Information and the head of Science and Engineering at Public Health England. With 16 years’ experience in the health service, he has worked as a senior clinical lecturer and a registrar, as well as clinical advisor to the chief medical officer and governor of an NHS Foundation Trust.

Novartis has appointed Marc Boutin as global head of Patient Engagement & Advocacy. Currently chief executive of the US-based National Health Council (NHC), Marc brings 20 years of international leadership experience in health advocacy, policy and legislation. At Novartis, Marc will work to strengthen engagement, partnership and impact with patient organisations. "I am confident that through thoughtful collaboration and consensus building, we can build a systematic and consistent approach to patient engagement and advocacy that will bring tremendous value to people living with chronic conditions and to Novartis."

Orbital Research, a division of Orbital Global, has announced the appointment of Chris Bunniss as its director of RWE strategy and business. Chris brings many years’ experience and knowledge to this newly created role, having previously set up his own successful healthcare marketing consultancy. Prior to this, he was global marketing director for Durex and Scholl, UK marketing director at SSL International, and before that, at Boots for 18 years. He will be responsible for driving the strategy and business for Orbital Research’s pioneering Real World Evidence (RWE) via Digital service. “Having worked in healthcare marketing for nearly 40 years, I am hugely excited about the promise digital Real World Evidence holds for pharma and OTC brands,” he said.

Consilient Health has announced the internal appointment of Karen Pulley as sustainability champion. Karen has been working in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years and the focus of her role is to drive Consilient Health’s new ‘Sustainable Business’ strategy forward, both internally and externally. She said: “Sustainability is something I feel passionate about and I look forward to driving this agenda forward within Consilient Health. After ten years with the company, I have a broad knowledge of the business and I look forward to this new challenge and to making a difference in how we do things.” Karen has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for over 30 years and spent 23 years at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals before joining Consilient Health. She has an MBA from Birmingham University.

Mission Therapeutics has promoted Dr Paul Thompson to chief scientific officer and Dr Nick Edmunds to chief technology officer with immediate effect. Paul and Nick will now play a pivotal role as the company embarks on its next chapter – progressing its AbbVie and Pfizer collaborations and bringing its first-in-class USP30 inhibitor into the clinic. In his new role, Paul assumes responsibility for Mission’s discovery, validation and translational science activities, as well as biomarker research and target selection on novel DUBs. Nick assumes responsibility for Mission’s world-leading DUB platform and chemistry, in addition to exploratory toxicology and ADME activities.