SAN FRANCISCO: Highwire PR has hired Michael Byrnes as MD of healthcare.
He joined the San Francisco-based agency last month after almost four years at Weber Shandwick and a decade at Matter Communications. Byrnes has worked with clients including Bristol Myers Squibb, CVS Health and CarePort.
“Michael has a really strong foundation in healthcare in the areas where we are growing already — medtech, med device, digital health — but also his experience in pharma and life sciences helps us get the right leader in place to expand into additional markets within healthcare and helps our client roster tell their stories in a really compelling way,” said Emily Borders, principal and cofounder of Highwire.
The agency received backing from Shamrock Capital, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, in September 2022, which Kathleen Gratehouse, another Highwire cofounder, said at the time would allow the group to evaluate strategic additions to its healthcare practice.
“Healthcare has been and will continue to be radically transformed by advanced technologies, and I really think the agency is built to ensure that the clients that we are serving now, the clients we will serve in the future, are really at the forefront of that change,” Byrnes said.
Byrnes is working with clients such as Zocdoc and iRhythm Technologies with plans to collaborate with Fortune 50 clients, which Borders declined to name.
For Zocdoc, an online service for booking in-person or virtual doctors’ appointments, and iRhythm, which makes a heart monitor, the agency is working on “strategic storytelling to help them drive their objectives,” Borders said. That means integrated creative campaigns for iRhythm and thought leadership and executive visibility stories for ZocDoc, Borders said.