Astellas Pharma announced the hiring of Walt Johnston as vice president of marketing. Johnston, previously a national sales director at Pfizer, will report to Patrick Shea, Astellas’s SVP, marketing and sales.

 

Kevin Nalty was appointed chief strategy officer at HitViews, an interactive and social media agency, on May 27. Nalty was formerly a consumer product director for Merck’s Propecia, but left the company after his personal YouTube videos began to garner wide public and industry attention. In his new position, Nalty is currently “immersed in video marketing” with Mentos, Fox, Crowne Plaza, MTV, AT&T and Holiday Inn, and says he’ll work with pharma once the industry “gets serious about social media and video marketing,” according to an interview with Jim Edwards at BNET.   

 

Mylan announced the appointment of Jolene Varney to EVP and Chief Financial Officer. Varney was most recently senior vice president of corporate finance, Dr. Pepper/Snapple Group. Before that, she worked at Kimberly Clark. Varney will be responsible for all of Mylan’s global finance functions, including accounting and control, financial planning and analysis, treasurey, tax and investor relations. The appointment is effective June 8.