Effie Baoutis will spearhead the organisation’s presence and activity across Europe and Susie Hackett will work with other EC members to focus on the HCA’s engagement with in-house communicators.

In announcing the new EC members, Mike Dixon, HCA CEO says, “Executive committee members are volunteers who kindly agree to provide their time and expertise to take on leadership responsibilities that support and enhance the aims of the HCA. The executive committee of the HCA champions our work in the sector, with individuals helping drive specific initiatives. The HCA is delighted to have two such highly experienced and talented individuals join the already strong Executive Committee to help us deliver our ambitious plans supporting our members and the healthcare communications sector.”

Baoutis joined McCann Health in May 2018 as its president for west Europe. She has worked in medical communications, branding and PR at the strategic and operational levels across key therapy areas, working with the top 10 pharmaceutical companies as well as biotechs throughout her career. Baoutis previously worked with W2O Group as Global Medical Communications Practice Group lead and prior to that she led the European Operations for Apothecom, a Huntsworth Health company. She also spent nine years in Asia running the regional operations for Excerpta Medica (Elsevier).

Hackett has over 25 years of experience in healthcare communications. As a biochemist, she started her career in research before moving to a role in international pharmaceutical marketing. After a stint in sales, she moved into healthcare PR working at two agencies before joining pharmaceutical company Roche where she developed the UK communications team to include PR, public affairs, corporate affairs, internal and digital, and fifth-hurdle market access. Hackett then became head of Europe, communications for Roche, developing and implementing a European communications strategy. Having worked for Roche for 16 years, she joined Mundipharma International as head of communications before recently leaving and becoming an independent consultant and adviser.