Lucie Harper and Kate Hawker join W2O as global practice leaders

W2O has appointed healthcare communications veterans Lucie Harper and Kate Hawker as global practice leaders, based at its London office.

In their new roles the two will lead communications teams supporting W2O’s key global clients and work with the med comms agency’s EMEA president Annalise Coady to expand and evolve its business in that region.

Coady said: “As EMEA is a key geography for W2O, we are looking to expand our presence there through senior leadership talent and strategic offerings to meet the growing needs of healthcare clients and organisations.

“With the addition of London-based healthcare communications veterans Lucie Harper and Kate Hawker, who each have decades of experience and multi-year track records working with biopharma clients, we are becoming better positioned for further growth. Both are excellent strategic thinkers who have the ability to formulate stand-out global communications to maintain competitive advantage.”

Harper joins from Weber Shandwick, where she was its UK chair of health and led that agency’s health practice for the past 15 years, prior to which she served at Ogilvy Healthworld, Burson-Marsteller and Penny Ryder Publicity.

She said: “I am incredibly excited to be joining W2O at such an important time. The expertise and spirit of the firm’s people is truly inspiring, and its client partners are world class.”

Meanwhile, Hawker arrived at W2O from Edelman, where she headed the company’s London-based health team as managing director across integrated health communications. Before that she was chair of Burson-Marsteller’s EMEA Healthcare Practice and held various roles at the InforMed group of medical communications companies of Fleishman-Hillard, MediTech Media and ShireHealth PR.

She said: “Being unsurpassed among healthcare communications firms in its digital-first approach, W2O is the most relevant firm in the space today. I look forward to working with leaders to assess their position in a social/digital reality using the firm’s state-of-the-art Relevance Model and Index.”