W2O Group has named Angela Gillespie as chief strategy officer of its global medtech practice.

In this newly created role, Gillespie will be responsible for the medical device practice’s strategy and operations across all W2O Group agencies, including WCG, Brewlife, and Twist. She will report to Jennifer Gottlieb, COO and head of client service. The medtech practice across all three agencies has about 60 staffers.

“We can impact healthcare delivery in a very tangible way,” Gillespie said. “My role will be heavily focused on looking ahead to see where the market is going, being able to go deep with our clients and teams to provide strategic direction on the market.”

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Gillespie worked previously at WCG for three years until 2010. During her stint there, she started W2O Group’s medtech practice.

Gillespie has spent the past five years working in-house with medical device companies. Most recently, she was marketing VP at NeuWave Medical, a medical device company. Prior to that, she was director of market development for Covidien Vascular Therapies at Medtronic. She led content and partnership strategy for Close the Gap for The Boston Scientific, a medical device developer. She also spent time with MDMC Group, FischerHealth, EMAK Worldwide, and Porter Novelli.

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She re-joined W2O in January as MD of the firm’s medtech practice and has been transitioning into the chief strategy officer role since then. Her goals are to build out medtech in the Minneapolis office, where she is based, along with the firm’s San Francisco and Boston offices.

“There really was no choice for me; W2O Group is the only agency I would consider coming back to,” Gillespie said. “W2O Group across all agencies has the most depth in the medtech sector than any agency I’ve ever worked with, for, or talked to.”

W2O is one of only a few agencies with a dedicated medtech practice, rather than including those clients as part of the healthcare or technology practices, she noted.

“A lot of our competitors only have generalized healthcare businesses,” Gillespie said. “My perspective is medtech is a unique market. What works in biotech may not work in pharma and certainly may not work in medtech. The teams we’re building in medtech understand those market nuances and understand the lifecycle of these products.”

This story first appeared on PRWeek.