WPP Health Practice has appointed Caroline Howe to the newly created position of U.K. country lead and promoted Simon Stebbing to U.K. chief executive of creative and data agency Wunderman Thompson Health.
Howe will oversee teams across the U.K.’s WPP Health Practice brands, which include Ogilvy Health, Sudler London, Wunderman Thompson Health London and Darwin Healthcare Communications.
Howe is currently chief executive of Ogilvy Health in the U.K. and is retaining that position in addition to her new role as country lead.
She will report into Claire Gillis, international chief executive of WPP Health Practice.
Howe has 25 years of experience in healthcare. She began her career at the medical education and comms agency MediTech Media, where she worked for seven years. A 12-year stint followed at Ogilvy, where Howe held the roles of business unit head of Ogilvy Health PR and later as managing partner at Ogilvy digital health.
Howe’s most recent roles at Ogilvy Health U.K., where she has worked for the last three years, were managing director of brand promotion and digital and then chief executive.
Stebbing, whose promotion is from the role of managing director of digital and advertising at Ogilvy Health U.K., will retain his title of international head of digital for WPP Health. He will also report to Gillis.
WPP Health said the purpose of the two senior hires was to continue the expansion of its footprint across the U.K. and to use the skill sets within the group for the benefit of its clients in pharma, over-the-counter medicines, health insurers and hospitals.
“Caroline and Simon have been instrumental in generating an open and inclusive culture for our teams and a market-leading specialist service for our clients,” Gillis said. “It’s a good time to be in the health sector and thanks to visionary leaders such as Caroline and Simon, it’s a good time to be in the WPP Health Practice.”
This story first appeared on prweek.com.
