August 18, 2020
Klick Takes Industry Behind the Curtain, Revealing a Multitude of Advancements and Investments
Lori Grant named Klick Health's CEO, Klick Consulting and Klick Ventures publicly unveiled, and more transformative hires announced as the Klick ecosystem continues to evolve and thrive
TORONTO, ON/NEW YORK, NY - August 18, 2020 - The Klick Group of companies today released details surrounding several significant advancements and achievements from the last nine months, including Lori Grant being named Klick Health's Chief Executive Officer at its December 2019 Town Hall. The Klick Group also announced it is accelerating the official launches of Klick Consulting, Klick Ventures, and several new practice areas, as well as having attracted numerous industry mavericks to fuel the record-breaking growth and continued momentum of the 23-year-old organization.
"We're proud to share these long-overdue announcements, starting with Lori's appointment as CEO of Klick Health, which received a standing ovation from our entire company when we shared the news internally in December. We were planning to publicly announce this exciting news at our Klick Ideas Exchange event featuring President Barack Obama earlier this year. Of course, our priorities shifted to ensuring our team's safety and supporting our clients through the pandemic," said Chairman and CEO of Klick Group, Leerom Segal.
"This announcement has been many years in the making and is a more accurate articulation of Lori's responsibilities over the last few years," Segal added. "Lori has played an integral role in Klick Health's exponential growth and success for the past 13 years—the last six years as President, organically growing into the Klick Health CEO role. An exceptional leader with over 30 years of experience in life sciences, Lori embodies a rare blend of kindness, wisdom, drive, curiosity, optimism, and empathy—character attributes that have been particularly important for Klicksters and our clients to continue experiencing during these unprecedented times."
Lori Grant, CEO, Klick Health
"The world has changed significantly in the nine short months since Leerom introduced me as Klick Health's new CEO, and I have never felt more honored to be part of the Klick family and the life sciences industry," Grant said. "At Klick, I have been incredibly fortunate to work among the brightest minds in our industry, and am so grateful to all of our Klicksters, as well as our clients for creating such an energizing and collaborative environment. Klicksters consistently discuss, learn, and practice adaptiveness from onboarding through every touchpoint in their journey. It's been so energizing to observe the fitness that this conditioning investment has enabled in our team."
"Our resilience continues to be a source of strength; our clients know they can rely on Klick to keep focused on helping them to improve their patient journeys, tackle business issues, and explore the potential unlocked by the pandemic. We deliberately chose to tackle the challenges presented by the pandemic with a growth mindset and optimism. As such, we're treating 2020 as a year of possibilities instead of a year of pause. We have been so inspired by how our team has consistently risen to this challenge, and we couldn't be prouder of Klicksters, our clients, and our industry," Grant added.
Segal confirmed he would continue as Chairman and CEO of the Klick Group as the ecosystem continues to grow exponentially. He also revealed that Glenn Zujew was appointed as the company's first Chief People Officer in December, and that Sue Easby was promoted to Senior Vice President of People & Organizational Effectiveness. "For over two decades, Glenn has been a partner and architect of Klick's people-centric culture. Together with Sue and her team, our People Practices continue to set us apart, and we're thrilled to recognize their contributions."
Evolving with new practice areas
Klick is also advancing two of its stealth incubation initiatives with accelerated launch timelines reflecting increased market demand and opportunities.
Klick Consulting solves the problems others can't by leveraging applied sciences and novel thinking to decode healthcare's gnarliest challenges. Led by Keith Liu, Managing Director and Alfred Whitehead, EVP of Applied Sciences, the consultancy includes a diverse team of medical, behavioral science, data science, engineering, business model, machine learning, and strategic design experts. An insatiably curious group of polymaths, Klick Consulting analyzes every challenge through each of these core disciplines, laser-focused on creating innovation that matters and only serving as agents of healthy change. With a specific focus on commercial solutions with real-world applications, the team embraces the mantra of science at the speed of business. The multidisciplinary collaboration of the group resolves business problems through a scientific lens by developing and launching tangible, real-world solutions—solving problems outside the conference room and testing in the wild, systematically filtering and focusing ideas until the precise point where intervention drives optimal value. Already building a reputation for rapidly solving wicked problems, Klick has accelerated the announcement for the consultancy because of the proof points already established with a range of companies across the healthcare spectrum, from consumer wellness, pharmaceutical, and device manufacturers to insurers, health systems, and providers.
Klick Ventures is its health innovation-focused venture group, which builds on over two decades of partnering with life science companies to commercialize their businesses successfully. With a unique approach backed by proven playbooks and a highly experienced integrated team led by Leslie Jamison, Klick Ventures partners with investors to get ideas investment-ready and create commercial upside. "The firm was born in response to a pattern of opportunities that Klick loved and wanted to directly invest in, maximizing the market potential and accelerating time to market," said Segal. The Ventures team also partners with entrepreneurs to incubate their ideas and help ensure commercial success. Klick Ventures deploys its private resources and shares the risk in ventures that transform healthcare and improve patients' lives. For example, Ventures played a foundational role in disrupting the non-emergency medical transportation model by co-founding and incubating Circulation, which was successfully built and exited in under two years.
Evolving with new capabilities
The company further announced it continued to extend its capabilities earlier this year and welcomed several seasoned experts to its growing team, including:
Amy Gómez, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Diversity Strategy
Gómez joined the company before the pandemic to help launch its new Cross-Cultural Marketing practice. With a wealth of expertise in diverse consumers, she was previously a partner at Revolución, a senior client lead at the UniWorld Group, and most recently led Cross-Cultural Marketing and Diversity & Inclusion at The Neighborhood, a WPP team serving the Johnson and Johnson consumer brands.
"As a cross-cultural marketing specialist, health equity has been a core focus of my career, and I couldn't be more thrilled to join Klick and work to help improve health outcomes for the segments that are driving growth in the New Majority America," said Gómez. "Klick's people-first ethos, empathy-driven culture, and bias to action make it the ideal environment to help evolve the industry and bring about needed change."
Amy Gómez, SVP, Diversity Strategy
David C. Bowen, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Policy & Advocacy
David C. Bowen, SVP, Policy & Advocacy
A Policy and Public Health specialist with over 20 years of experience leading change in health and health policy in government, at foundations, and in the private sector, Bowen brings insights and strategies for clients based on a deep understanding of the public policy context shaping health and healthcare.
He joined Klick most recently from Hill+Knowlton, where he was Head of Health & Wellness and Chief Policy Officer for the WPP Health & Wellness network. Previously, Bowen served as Deputy Director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CEO of Malaria No More, and visiting faculty at Harvard Medical School. As a policy director for the U.S. Senate health committee, Bowen played a crucial role in writing major U.S. health laws, including the Affordable Care Act. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance and serves on the North America board of Medicines for Malaria Venture.
"I am delighted to be joining a remarkable team that sees solutions waiting to be discovered where others see barriers," said Bowen. "The extraordinary events of this historic year have reminded us once again of the enormous impact that public health and policy have on our lives and our safety. I look forward to contributing my experience in both these areas so that we can provide an even fuller set of expertise to our clients and partners."
Evolving with extraordinary talent
Klick Health recently received the top spot in MM&M's Agency 100 for the third consecutive year and has continued to grow exponentially and make several strategic leadership promotions, including naming both Joan Bercovitz and Joanna Jacobs as Managing Directors.
Building on a series of high-profile hires made last year, including Rich Levy, Chief Creative Officer; Carl Turner, Chief Brand Strategy; Dan Drexler, Managing Director; and Kamran Shah, EVP Delivery & Solutions, the agency also continued to add several high-profile industry veterans to its team, including:
Samantha Dolin, Senior Vice President, Executive Creative Director
Samantha Dolin, SVP, Executive Creative Director
Previously Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy Health, she has also held senior creative roles at Evoke Health and Publicis' Digitas Health. Dolin has worked on first-in-class and blockbuster brand launches across many therapeutic areas. Her work has been recognized by multiple awards shows, and she has served as a jury member of The Global Awards, Clios, MM&M Awards, and the FiercePharma Marketing Awards.
"Klick is building a powerhouse of top talent with Rich Levy at the creative helm. When combined with some of the smartest thinkers I've ever met, this is fueling our thinking and innovation," Dolin said. "As the competition in our field gets fiercer by the day, it's one of the differences that's setting Klick apart and pushing us ahead. It's thrilling to be part of an agency that is unlike any other."
Destry Sulkes, MD, Executive Vice President, Growth
Before joining Klick, Sulkes was Chief Experience Officer at WPP's Health Practice, co-founded the healthcare analytics company Prognos Health, and led strategy efforts for WebMD/Medscape. He was named one of MM&M's Top 10 Innovation Catalysts in 2019. Sulkes also served on the CUNY's School of Public Health's Foundation Board and the board for Rutgers University's Professional Science Master's Program.
"I've watched Klick continue to attract our industry's top talent, and I've heard clients talk about Klick making real investments in partnerships as an autonomous agency that truly delivers outcomes over optics," Sulkes said. "Given its strong independence, depth of capabilities, and rapidly expanding industry footprint, I'm here to continue to drive client brand growth and build on Klick's success."
Destry Sulkes, EVP, Growth
Jamie Lutzky, Senior Vice President, Brand Strategy
Jamie Lutzky, SVP, Brand Strategy
Having spent the last three years at Razorfish Health, most recently as SVP Brand Strategy, Lutzky previously served as Director of Strategy at Giant Creative Strategy and Director of Strategy & Planning at Evoke Health. She got her start at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. According to Carl Turner, "Gifted strategists breathe new energy and possibility into brands. They dig obsessively. They question everything. They pursue the truth. They have respect for the craft. They challenge themselves and others to lead. Jamie is all of the above. Plus, she's passionate, tenacious, and fun. Teams and brands are destined for success when Jamie's onboard."
About Klick Group
The Klick Group of companies-Klick Health (including Klick Katalyst), Klick Media Group, Klick Applied Sciences (including Klick Labs), Klick Consulting, Klick Ventures, and Sensei Labs-is an ecosystem of brilliant talent collectively working to maximize their people and clients' full potential. Established in 1997, Klick has teams in New York, Philadelphia, Toronto, and across North America. Klick has consistently been named a Best Managed Company and Great Place to Work. In the last year alone, the company has been recognized with 11 Best Workplace awards, including Best Workplaces for Women, Best Workplace for Inclusion, Employee-Recommended Workplaces, and Most Admired Corporate Cultures.
Press Contact
For more information, please contact Klick PR at pr@klick.com or (416) 214-4977