Ketchum hires Neera Chaudhary as president of North America

Global communications consultancy Ketchum has announced the hire of Neera Chaudhary as president of North America. 

Ketchum noted that Chaudhary has significant leadership experience at top public relations agencies and deep healthcare expertise across brands, corporate, nonprofits, government and public health organisations.

Based in New York, she joined the firm this week and will be responsible for the talent development, client relationships, business growth and operational oversight of the firm's largest region.

Chaudhary will report to global president and CEO Mike Doyle and serve on the Ketchum Executive Team.

Doyle said: "Neera's distinctive combination of creative brainpower and strategic acumen has skyrocketed her to success throughout her career and made a lasting impact on the colleagues, organizations and clients with whom she's partnered along the way.

"From our first conversation, we loved her intuitive and natural blend of empathy and intelligence, and I know she'll be a brilliant addition to our growing Ketchum community."

In 2018, Ketchum restructured its North America region into a single P&L, with talent organised not by geography but into industry sectors and specialties in alignment with their expertise.

Today, Ketchum offers extensive vertical expertise in 12 industries and 16 communications specialties.

Chaudhary said: "Ketchum's decision to reorganise to a communications consultancy model, effectively eliminating geographic borders in favour of deep industry experts and communications specialists, is the way of the future for our industry.

Chaudhary most recently served as global president of healthcare at Golin, a role she has held since 2017.

In that role, she served on Golin's global executive board and led the Golin Health and Virgo Health brands, where she drove business transformation and growth through a strategy consultancy model, performance-driven talent development, creation of a separate healthcare P&L in the U.S., converting the business base from soft domestic healthcare clients to large global AOR pharma clients, and differentiating expertise in medical education and healthcare creative. While in that role, she was inducted into Medical Marketing & Media's 2018 Hall of Femme.

Previously, Chaudhary served as executive creative strategist for Cohn & Wolfe's healthcare practice, leading strategy and creative for clients across pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices, health technology and consumer health. She's also held communications, media and consulting roles at Porter Novelli, Nutrition Action Healthletter and ANOKHI Magazine, and began her career working in clinical practice and public health in Canada. A registered dietitian, Chaudhary earned a master's in nutrition communications and public health and training toward a Ph.D. in human nutrition, both from the University of Toronto.