Moderna has hired Chris Ridley as VP of communications and media, a newly created role.
Ridley started in the role this month and reports to Moderna chief brand officer Kate Cronin. Ridley is responsible for global media and social media strategy and media relations, Cronin told PRWeek.
“We are super excited to have [Ridley] on our team as he brings terrific media strategy and media relations,” Cronin said. “We have grown our team from last year to build out media, content, digital and social, as well as manage communications across Moderna’s expanded global footprint.”
Cronin would not comment further and Ridley declined to comment.
Ridley joins Moderna from Gilead Sciences, where he has worked in various roles since 2018. Most recently, he was senior director of media relations.
Last July, Cronin joined Moderna after company CEO Stéphane Bancel handpicked her for the newly created chief brand officer position. Before joining Moderna, Cronin was Ogilvy Health’s global CEO.
In September, Moderna’s chief corporate affairs officer Ray Jordan, who worked on comms for the company’s COVID-19 vaccine, left the company to launch his own agency called Putnam Insights.
In Q1, Moderna sold $5.9 billion of its COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine sales more than tripled over the same period last year, when it reported $1.7 billion in sales shortly after the shots first rolled out. Additionally, Moderna reported $3.6 billion in net income for the quarter, a threefold increase over the $1.2 billion it reported in the same period last year. Revenue was $6.1 billion, CNBC reported.
Earlier this month, Moderna asked the FDA to authorize its two-dose vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years old. The biotech company is also asking the FDA to authorize its shots for kids aged 6 to 11 and teenagers aged 12 to 17.
This story originally appeared on PRWeek US.
