PEOPLE

Medical Marketing and Media, Mar 2008

MANUFACTURERS

Bausch & Lomb has named Gerald Ostrov as chairman and CEO. Most recently, Ostrov was company group chairman, worldwide vision care, for Johnson & Johnson from 1998-2006.

Acura Pharmaceuticals has announced the appointment of George K. Ross to its board of directors and chairman of its Audit Committee. Since April 2002, Ross has been a consultant to early stage businesses and a financial investor. He has also served as executive director, New York for World Vision since 2005.

Alios Therapeutics announced the appointment of Bruce K. Bennett as VP, manufacturing. He has over 25 years of manufacturing experience in the pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology industries.

Profectus BioSciences has announced that its board of directors has appointed Shawn Patrick O'Brien as president and CEO. O'Brien will also serve as a director of the company. He comes to Profectus BioSciences from Solstice Neurosciences Inc.

IRX Therapeutics announced that Carol R. Epstein, MD, has joined as chief medical officer. Epstein will remain EVP of MediVector. Since 1994, she has also been president of BioLogics Services.

Nile Therapeutics announced the appointment of Gregory W. Schafer to its board of directors and as chairman of the audit committee. Schafer currently serves as the VP and CFO of Onyx Pharmaceuticals.

GenVault Corp. announced that Mark Ostrowski has joined as VP of sales and marketing. He spent more than 10 years at Myriad Genetics Laboratories, where he was most recently director of sales operations, leading a team of sales professionals.

Geron Corporation announces that president and CEO Thomas B. Okarma, PhD, MD, has resumed his operational leadership of the company's oncology drug development activities In this role he replaces Alan Colowick, MD, MPH, who is leaving the company. Geron has also announced the appointment of Dr. Fabio Benedetti as chief medical officer, oncology.

AGENCIES

Digitas Health has hired Graham Mills and Jack Nolan to lead creative for the New York office. As partners in their career, Mills and Nolan were recruited by Digitas from the UK, where they created award-winning work for agencies.

The Hal Lewis Group announced new additions to its operations along with promotions. Donna Hill has accepted the position of studio manager from Euro RSCG Life MetaMax where she held the position of senior art director. Chris Hatten joins as copy supervisor. Previously, Hatton held the position of copy supervisor at Vox Medica. Joe Darby has been promoted from desktop publishing specialist to senior desktop publishing specialist. Lisa McCloskey has been promoted from assistant account executive to account executive.

Publicis Selling Solutions (PSS) announced the promotions of Lanya Larece and Laurie Foltman. Larece has been promoted to director, client services. She joined PSS in 2005 as an associate director with the client services team. Foltman joined PSS in 2003 as a senior HR generalist.

GSW Worldwide announced that Pink Tank, the agency's specialty division, has promoted several senior executives and added new positions. Recently promoted to president is Marcee Nelson, founder of Pink Tank. Nelson previously served as EVP/creative director for GSW Worldwide. She joined GSW Worldwide in 2004 with more than 20 years of advertising experience. Also recently promoted to SVP are Gretchen Goffe and Lori Mastro, both part of the original team involved in the creation of Pink Tank. Goffe joined GSW Worldwide in 2001 and previously served as a VP/insight planner. Mastro, who will lead the creative team, is an award-winning creative director who has been with GSW Worldwide since 1998. Joining the leadership team as SVP is Cathy Eschenbach, who will head up the group's client services team. Prior Eschenbach served as SVP of client services at ProEd Communications. New to Pink Tank is Brenda Rizzo, APN, VP, clinical insights. Rizzo formerly served as a medical science liaison at GSW Worldwide.

Centron has announced the following promotions and additions to its staff. Keith Troy has joined as senior project manager. Previously, he was a traffic manager at Chandler Chicco. Jeremy Henriques comes to the medical education division as an associate scientific director from uniformed services university. Julie Ann Schipper was hired as VP, account supervisor. Previously, she was VP, account supervisor at GSW Michael McSwain has been promoted from intern to project coordinator.

Harrison and Star announced the promotions of key executives in client services. Gregg Geider, Kirsten Hanton and Mardene Miller have been promoted to SVP, managing director. All had previously been directors of client services for various agency accounts.

Concentric Pharma Advertising has hired Ken Moran as director of agency operations. Prior to joining Concentric, he was creative project director at GSW Worldwide. Before that he worked at Cline Davis & Mann. The agency has also promoted Aimee Eastwood to associate creative director, copy. Eastwood previously served as group copy director.