Huntsworth hires Lilly manager for new post

Ian Hall, PR Week UK, Friday, 10 September 2004, 12:00am,

Marcoms group Huntsworth has poached Lilly UK senior manager of product communications Jeff Smith to take a newly created ‘roaming’ director-level role.

Smith will start on 20 September. Huntsworth healthcare division CEO David Rowley said the position had involved a recruitment process that had lasted a year.

Smith will have a ‘roaming’ brief based out of the offices of PBC Group, Huntsworth’s marketing and med ed operation in Marlow, with a remit split between client service and business development across the group’s healthcare agencies.

Rowley said that Smith, an American, would help the firm to develop a presence in the US healthcare market.

The appointment of Smith comes four weeks after Huntsworth bought med ed and PR agency Avenue HKM (PRWeek, 13 August).

The Avenue deal came a month after Huntsworth snapped up PR agency Jago Pearce and its parent ad firm VB Communications (PRWeek, 9 July).

Lilly UK director of corporate affairs Maxine Taylor, who was unavailable for comment, has drafted in Andrew Day on an interim basis to cover Smith’s role.

Day, who once held an interim role at GlaxoSmithKline and worked at agencies including the former Shire Hall, declined to comment on whether a recruitment process was likely to replace Smith full time.

Lilly UK was hit only four months ago by the departure of Mark Sudwell for Red Door Communications (PRWeek, 21 May). The company has yet to replace him.