Judges
Alex Abao
Alex has spent close to 15 years developing simple, customer-centric solutions to complex business problems in healthcare.
Her curiosity for human behaviour and cultural insights moved her throughout Asia Pacific, working in esteemed agencies including Ward6 Australia, Ward6 Singapore, McCann Health Greater China and Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness Sydney. She’s now back home with The Ward Group as Strategy Director at Ward7.
Alex believes all good ideas are grounded in human truth and brought to life through exceptional storytelling. She gets a kick out of seeing the impact brands can make when they connect genuinely with their audiences. So, she’s on a mission to continue helping her clients form these connections across a diverse range of pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer health products and services.
Nathan Bell
Nathan is the Managing Director at Showoff Group, a full-service creative agency for pharma, health and wellness. Showoff is a leading creative agency renowned for its commitment to building powerful brands, creating outstanding creative campaigns and delivering effective work across all media.
With over 20 years experience in creative agencies Nathan has worked on leading consumer brands, retail, agriculture, government, animal health and pharmaceutical – including branding, advertising, PR and medical education – spanning Australia, UK/Europe and USA. His clients’ work has been recognised at PRIME, PM Society and Globals.
Nathan is a seasoned marketing professional with a passion for creativity and innovation. He has a keen eye for detail, is flexible to project demands, and has a ‘can do’ attitude. Nathan continues to drive Showoff Group forward, empowering clients to stand out in today’s competitive landscape and ‘get more done’.
Nathan is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of marketing excellence and helping clients achieve their goals through creative and impactful strategies.
Cathryn Berry
A leader and strategic thinker passionate about user-focused communication experiences, Cathryn has 20+ years’ experience facilitating cross-functional teams in the discovery, design and delivery of healthcare projects and education programs across a range of complex therapy areas.
From the foundation of an MBiochem from Oxford University and a long career in medical communications in Australian, APAC and Global settings, Cathryn helps people to connect and facilitates discussion to uncover moments that matter in healthcare journeys. Applying Human-Centered Design principles she collaborates in the creation of strategic and tactical plans and building of solutions. She is driven to share her own passion to learn, understand and apply information about health so that individuals, groups, and organisations are empowered to make informed decisions in healthcare.
She shares her life in Sydney with her partner who discovered a talent for song writing during the pandemic lockdowns and their son who is passionate about playing Newcombe (or “Nuke ‘Em”) Ball, Tiger Tag, and the saxophone.
Anthony Bonnici
Director, Move Mountains & Marketing Manager, Schwarzkopf Professional
The “Australian Anthony Robbins”… without the cheese.
With an extensive & unique range of keynote presentations, coaching programs and hands-on workshops, the Anthony Bonnici experience will leave your people inspired to make positive changes to their work and personal lives, and improve their performance & productivity by showing people how they CAN rather than CAN’T.
Anthony has 13 years experience in corporate Australia in sales, marketing & people leadership roles. In addition to face to face selling roles, Anthony turned “middle of the road” sales teams into high performing teams as well as looking after marketing teams with brands worth over $150 million.
In 2005 Anthony left the corporate life to follow his dream of creating his own company to inspire and motivate others. He is at ease speaking to any audience, and is a certified NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) Master Practitioner. Anthony has been “on stage” & performing since the age of 10, and his use of real life examples with which all audience levels can identify makes his sessions unpretentious yet incredibly powerful & memorable.
Matthew Britland
Matt is the Past President of Medical Affairs Professionals of Australasia (MAPA, formerly APPA). He is also the Medical Director of MedWise, a specialist consulting practice focused on medical affairs, medical communications, and patient affairs. Matt is an experienced medical affairs leader and Medical Director with a demonstrated history of working in the pharmaceuticals industry and clinical roles for over 25 years. Skilled in Pharmaceutical Medicine, Oncology and Haematology, Matt is a strong professional with a MMedSc focused in Pharmaceutical Medicine from UNSW Australia. He is currently undertaking a Doctorate on the role of Medical Affairs in the Quality use of Medicine (QUM) and its impact on patient outcomes.
Kirsten Bruce
Kirsten is an award-winning health + wellness communications strategist, and a Fellow of Communication & Public Relations Australia (CPRA). She clinched the Health Industry Hub Catalysts for Change Awards 2023 National PR Agency Individual of the Year in 2023.
Kirsten founded her own, independent, Australian health + wellness communications agency, VIVA! Communications, 23 years ago. She is the former APAC Hub Lead for Global Health & Marketing Communications (GHMC) – the most robust global network of independent healthcare agencies – for which her agency continues to serve as exclusive Australian partner.
Kirsten has a professional background in healthcare communications, public relations, broadcast journalism, and international relations. Throughout her career, Kirsten has held senior roles in multinational, APAC, and Australian PR agencies, as well as in-house communications positions. She provides strategic communications counsel to the local, Asia Pacific, and global pharmaceutical (medicines and devices), biotech and community health + wellness sectors, as well as not-for-profit health professional and patient advocacy groups.
Throughout her 30-year-long health communications career, Kirsten has launched hundreds of treatments for various diseases and conditions, media trained leading health professionals, managed countless health-related issues and crises, coordinated advisory board meetings, conducted clinical trial recruitment communication programs, and produced digital media solutions.
Kirsten has a passion for health + wellness communication and the pursuit of excellence in this arena.
Craig Chester
Craig is Creative Director at Saatch & Saatchi Wellness. After years working on large consumer brands including Qantas and Coke in Australia, Craig travelled the world before settling into a London Healthcare agency where he accumulated an impressive portfolio of work for both consumer and pharma brands over eight years.
In 2008, Craig joined Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness, Sydney, where he has led the creative department for over a decade, helping to make it Australia’s most consistently awarded health and wellness agency.
Craig has won countless awards including 14 Global Awards and a prestigious Cannes Lion. He has also served as a juror at various awards shows including Lions Health, The Global Awards and Spikes Asia where he served as Healthcare Jury President.
Most recently, in partnership with the Viatris Australian Marketing Team, SSW won the Global Viatris Marketing Excellence Award, for the agency’s Dymista Allergy campaign, an achievement Craig is incredibly proud of.
In his spare time Craig is a loving dad, a terrible fisherman and an enthusiastic abstract painter.
Sue Cook
Sue Cook, Strategic Advisor, Health and Wellbeing, HAVAS Red.
Sue has specialised in health communications throughout her career in Australia, Asia Pacific, UK and Europe leading award-winning teams working on behalf of patient advocacy groups, pharmaceutical, consumer health and biotechnology companies.
Prior to entering public relations, Sue was the national medical writer on The Australian and was founding Vice President of The Australian Medical Writers’ Association. Sue has served on the organising committee for the PRIME Awards in its early years and was a judge for the 2022 and 2023 PRIME Awards.
David Cousins
David is a highly experienced business, brand and communications strategist and the Managing Director of The Cousins Consultancy.
With a wealth of strategic experience at global, regional and local market levels, he specialises in the transformation of health.
As the Chair of Judges, his goal is to ensure the PRIME Awards provide a strong platform for the recognition of excellence, and that the programme reflects the progress and evolution of healthcare communication in the Australian pharmaceutical and life science industry.
Karina Durham
Karina Durham is a health communications strategist and university-trained nutritionist who has extensive experience managing a diverse range of health-related campaigns. She has been at the forefront of major health education campaigns, stakeholder relations, issues management and overseeing multi-faceted communications solutions for Australian and global organisations.
Karina has worked in the consumer and health PR space and collaborated with many organisations across a range of fields, including the pharmaceutical, not-for-profit, medical technology and government sectors.
As part of her executive responsibilities for Palin Communications, Karina has been the visionary behind an award-winning mental health and wellbeing initiative for the agency, The Mindful Movement. Karina has also established Palin Communications on the global stage as a leader in health communications via GlobalCom PR Network.
Karina has also been a finalist for many industry awards, including PRIA Leader of the Year, B&T Women in Media and was the 2021 Winner of the Ragan Communications and PR Daily’s Top Women in Wellness and HR Awards for Mental Health Leader. She is also an active Founding Committee member of Global Women in PR Australia.
Karina is most passionate about her work to improve health literacy in the community, creating opportunities for Australians to share their own health journeys and being a champion to all emerging communications professionals who want to make a mark in the health industry.
Hugh Fitzhardinge
Hugh began his advertising career by winning an AFA (Australian Federation of Advertising) Scholarship at WPP (1990).
In 1995 he joined CWFS (later acquired by McCann Health) and in 1999 rose to become Creative Director. During this time, instilling in staff that ‘healthcare can compete with the best work anywhere’ and helping the agency win more awards than any other.
In 2004 he became ECD of Publicis Life Brands before becoming a founding partner of Ward6 which after ten years boasted an enviable client list, collection of awards and offices in Sydney and Singapore.
In 2018, Hugh made a homecoming of sorts when his partners and he made a strategic acquisition of McCann Health Australia and assumed the role of Executive Creative Director.
In 2023, he went back to his entrepreneurial roots to help start Ward7 making it together with Ward 6 the largest independent healthcare communications group in APAC.
Hugh has won countless awards including three ‘Grand Global’ awards at New York Festivals Health, LIA Health and Creative Floor. He served on the jury for the first ever Cannes Lions Health (Pharma) and has been Chairman of Judges at Clio Health.
Beyond his family and helping to build The Ward Group, Hugh also finds time to write about food, travel and golf.
Amanda Fuller
Amanda Fuller holds the position of Managing Partner at DDB Remedy and has spent almost 20 years working within Omnicom in various roles including APAC regional lead and working across global, European, APAC and ANZ clients. She was the winner of B&T’s Women in Business Client Service award in 2024, represents the Australian Advertising Council on the TGACC committee, teaches Manager Fundamentals for Adschool and judges the Effies each year.
Amanda loves tackling business challenges that also deliver on better patient care through creativity and humanity. The impact each person in working in the health sector can make is big and our work is important.
Dianne Gill
Dianne is the Managing Director of MedWise Consulting, a firm dedicated to advancing medical affairs, medical communications and patient experience. Driven by a deep passion for making a difference, she thrives on collaborating with like-minded experts who share her commitment to improving patients’ lives every day.
With over 30 years of experience spanning the pharmaceutical/medical industry, health communications agencies and professional services firms, Dianne brings a wealth of expertise in health communications, commercial strategy, and patient engagement. Her extensive background equips her with a deep understanding of the essentials needed to drive meaningful change and enhance patient outcomes across various therapeutic areas, including prescription medications, medical devices, and over-the-counter treatments.
Involved in award-winning patient support programs; product launches and medical educational campaigns Dianne understands firsthand the dedication and effort behind every initiative and the hard work that goes into an entry submission. She is proud to be part of an industry that continually raises the bar for creativity and innovation, year on year.
Ben Griffiths
Ben is a Sydney-based Art Director & Designer, working at Ogilvy PR & Health. With a focus on reduction and symbolism, he has developed a recognisably bold & refined aesthetic across identity, brand and advertising. Ben’s worked in the creative and design industries for over 15 years in varying roles including Agency Partner, Design Director, and currently Art Director. His experience spans small end-to-end agencies and the big agency world, mainly servicing the NGO, government, education and health/pharma sectors.
Gemma Healey
Gemma leads communications and public affairs at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine.
Prior to joining J&J, Gemma spent two decades in communications agencies and holds extensive experience working within the health sector, particular in pharma. Gemma led WE Communications’ health sector business across APAC and EMEA for three years and prior to this led the agency’s Australia business as CEO.
During her career she has led many successful campaigns spanning new product launches, disease awareness campaigns, medical education programs, market shaping and reimbursement strategies, brand purpose and corporate profiling initiatives. Gemma has worked with some of the world’s leading health organisations including AbbVie, GSK, Bayer, Pfizer, MSD, Sanofi and Novartis.
James Jones
James’s background is as a senior pharmaceutical executive with a breadth and depth of healthcare experience gained from global, US and local markets across a diversity of businesses including Rare Diseases, Speciality, Primary Care, OTC, Private Equity and Venture Capital Initiatives, Not For Profits and Board Directorships.
James is a founding member of Axis Health Co and the Principal of Jones Pharma Insights providing clients with consulting advice in the areas of leadership, management, strategic planning, product launch, branding and life cycle management, stakeholder management, change management and restructure.
Zeina Khodr
Chief Spark, Zeina Khodr founded Paper + Spark in 2018 to harness the art of strategic storytelling to address business challenges. Paper + Spark specialises in data-driven creative that elicits emotion, drives engagement and spark action in an always-on world that demands brands be nimble, responsive and authentic.
Focusing on Healthtech Innovation, Paper + Spark is helping Pharma companies understand and address digital acceleration and the unparallelled opportunities it presents to connect with doctors and patients.
The agency services clients across APAC, launched a London presence and has picked up numerous awards including Australian Marketing Agency of the Year in 2020 and 2022, two-time finalist for B&T Emerging Agency of the Year and a coveted AFR/Boss Best Places to Work in the Media and Marketing category.
Zeina is the NSW State Chair of the Australian Marketing Institute, winner of the B&T Women in Media Awards 2023 (Entrepreneur), Certified Practicing Marketer of the Year 2022, and a lecturer in Advertising and Digital Media. As a founder, Zeina is naturally enthusiastic about helping Australian start-ups and is Expert in Residence for NSW Innovation offering support and mentorship.
Mike Lane
Mike Lane is a specialist healthcare communications and patient advocacy leader, with more than a decade of experience working for leading global public relations agencies, as well as the global pharmaceutical industry.
Mike leads the pharmaceutical communications division for Ogilvy Health, serving Australia’s top pharmaceutical brands and corporations, leading patient advocacy organisations, and specialist care providers. Prior to which, Mike led Oncology Communications for AstraZeneca in the International region, responsible for 100+ developed and emerging markets.
In 2019, Mike was a winner of B&T 30 under 30 PR awards for the work he led in lessening the stigma of lung cancer, and driving significant policy inroads specific to early detection, symptoms awareness, and national screening.
Mike’s specialist interest areas include oncology, cardiovascular and rare diseases. He has a strong track record of award-winning, integrated communications which deliver impact for some of the most marginalised patient communities in Australia.
James Langridge
James is Client Growth Director for Alfie (Orchard Group), a full-service boutique marketing consultancy for pharma and health. Alfie is committed to meeting the needs of Pharma in a new specialised era, through developing bespoke, more targeted solutions that can access, influence and mobilise customers in a more time and cost-efficient way.
James has over 14 years of experience leading global healthcare brands in both the UK and Australia, for a broad range of pharma clients. Having previously worked for network agencies including FCB London, Ogilvy Health and DDB Remedy, James spent the last seven years with Orchard Group, and the last five establishing and growing Alfie (winning five PRIME awards in the past three years, including Launch and Campaign of the Year).
James is a strategic and passionate marketing lead with an interest in leading teams to create effective, measurable end-to-end solutions; from market insights, advisory boards, brand positioning and campaign strategy to big creative ideas, global adaptations, med ed and omnichannel delivery.
David Leahy
David has more than 15 years health communication experience across marketing, PR and advocacy. Across this time, David has led campaigns that have shaped consumer behaviour, delivered policy change and reshaped commercial strategy for pharmaceutical companies, NFPs and advocacy groups. Specialising in advocacy, awareness and market shaping campaigns, he has led communication strategies that have helped secure bipartisan support for multi-million dollar changes at the last two federal elections.
Darren Magick
Darren is Head of Strategy at Omnii Health, a leading digital health consultancy active in Australia, and Singapore. Darren also heads leading HCP educational entities Inside Practice and United Clinical.
Darren has spent 25 years in health communications spanning pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, over-the-counter, public health and non-governmental categories with 10 of those years-based Japan, Singapore and China. Working with leading health multinationals on domestic and international brand strategy and launch programs for both primary and speciality care with a focus on both healthcare professional advertising and promotions and medical communications.
A regular speaker on digital health communications, Darren brings real insight into global multichannel marketing trends in healthcare.
Heidi Mawer
Heidi Mawer has over 18 years of working with healthcare industries, across Sales, Marketing and Training functions. She is a highly motivated individual, with a real passion for understanding, connecting and developing people.
Her strength lies in quickly identifying business objectives or challenges, to provide appropriate training solutions that deliver on commercial outcomes, as well as being practical and relevant for participants to apply in their day-to-day roles.
Ross Murray
Ross Murray is a highly accomplished professional in the pharmaceutical marketing industry. With experience as the former Commercial Director at Australian Doctor Group and a background in medical journalism, Ross brings a unique expertise to the judging panel. As the A/Director of the UNE SMART Region Incubator, Ross continues to make significant contributions to the field. His in-depth knowledge and understanding of the industry allow him to assess entries with a critical eye, recognising campaigns that effectively communicate the value of pharmaceutical products. Ross’s commitment to ethical practices and industry regulations ensures a fair evaluation process. With his sharp judgement and passion for driving positive change in pharmaceutical marketing, Ross Murray is a valuable judge for the PRIME awards.
Phoebe Netto
Phoebe Netto is the founder of Pure Public Relations, a PR firm started 15 years ago that focuses on outcomes, not output – it’s pure and simple. The agency has won awards for its health advocacy and media relations campaigns that have resulted in legislative and widespread behavioural change. Its clients include businesses of all sizes, industry bodies, member organisations, charities, and important causes. Pure Public Relations offers media relations, issues management and communication services, and has a reputation for guaranteeing excellent media coverage and an impressive track record for issues management. purepublicrelations.com.au
Laura Ovens
Laura is the Healthcare Strategy Director at Orchard, a connected experience agency focused on creating, connecting and optimising moments that matter to deliver exceptional customer experiences and business outcomes. She provides clients with insightful strategic counsel around how to identify and most effectively communicate their brand’s unique value to best meet their business objectives.
An intuitive, strategic, and business savvy marketing and communications expert, Laura has over 30 years of industry experience – having developed marketing strategies for a large number of brands across a wide variety of healthcare sectors throughout the Asia Pacific region and North America. She has been the strategic lead on a number of award-winning campaigns, including Globals, Effie, Clio, PMEA and Prime awards.
Laura’s passion and success lie in her ability to transform market, customer, business and brand insights into marketing strategies that deliver business growth, backed by a wealth of real-world experience and a contagious level of enthusiasm.
Gary Prince
Gary has many years’ experience in working in sales, marketing, business development and management consultancy service industry roles up to senior leadership level, focusing in the healthcare and pharma industry space. He is experienced in designing and conducting bespoke experiential performance workshops and is passionate about helping his clients identify and drive for performance excellence.
Since 2010, when Gary established 4Sight RSD, his focus has been to scope, win and deliver a wide variety of consultancy projects, which mainly involve market strategy, research and sales & marketing effectiveness. Now, in 2022, Gary is also one of the three partners of a new, expert consultancy business – PharmaNext – focused on helping clients with ‘out of the box’ business issues as diverse as driving 3rd party cost efficiency and customer-facing capabilities.
Steve Royle
Steve Royle commenced his career in the Pharmaceutical Industry 22 years ago with Novartis.
He then spent close to a decade in medical communications agency leadership roles with global pharmaceutical brands in London, Los Angeles and New York.
Most recently, Steve turned his attention to software, and has founded two companies including Rumi – the “anytime” online HCP engagement platform.
Steve is a published, industry-recognised authority on virtual HCP engagement, and is regularly invited to to speak and moderate panels at a variety of the Industry’s most recognised/attended global events, and has chaired Europe’s Reuters Pharma event for the past 2 years, the most popular cross-functional event on the planet.
Henry Scutt
Henry, General Manager Vigour Communications, obtained a first-class honours degree in Biomedical Sciences from Newcastle University, UK in 2013. Over the following decade, Henry has leveraged his extensive knowledge of science and communications to create and implement successful integrated medical communication strategies for global and regional pharma. Prior to taking charge at Vigour Communications, Henry led a successful medical communications team at Nucleus Global. His campaigns earned numerous accolades and delivered measurable improvements in the behaviours of both healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients. Henry has extensive experience across therapy areas and project types.
Scott Smith
Scott has been a Creative Director within DDB Group Australia for over two decades – working across consumer and direct before taking up the role of ECD with specialist healthcare agency DDB Remedy around 10 years ago.
Over his time in the industry, he has developed countless successful campaigns across every discipline, category and medium for some of Australia’s largest and most successful agencies and the world’s biggest brands.
Along the way, Scott has won and judged numerous creative awards both nationally and globally, serving on juries for AWARD, ADMA, The Globals, and Spikes Asia – first as a juror, and then as President of the Healthcare Jury. He also served on the inaugural Health & Wellness panel at LIA and recently at Dubai Lynx.
Committed to mentoring the next generations of creative talent, Scott was an original founder of Australia’s respected Creative School, and today leads a talented and highly awarded creative department in the DDB Group Sydney offices.
A passionate advocate of the extraordinary creative opportunities healthcare presents to us as communicators, he believes there’s never been a more exciting time to work in this innovative field.
Anne-Marie Sparrow
Anne-Marie Sparrow is the founder and Managing Director of Cube. She is a health communications specialist with an extensive track record managing major launch campaigns, leading effective crisis and issues responses and building strong stakeholder engagement and reputations.
Following a career leading teams in major multinational public relations agencies – in the UK and Australia – including a decade leading the Asia Pacific Healthcare team for Burson Marsteller – Anne-Marie stepped out to set-up her own agency, Cube. This award winning agency is recognised for its strategic and creative campaign work in pharmaceuticals, life sciences, medical technologies and health advocacy. It’s an agency with a strong team culture, focussed on courage and having the skills and vision to lead new and evolving areas of health delivery and communications. Cube also has a firm commitment to ‘giving back’ with an extensive pro bono/charity focus.
Anne-Marie is also a Judge for the Golden Target Awards (Communications & Public Relations Australia) and the Selfcare Awards (Consumer Health Products Australia).
Narve Thakrar
Narve is Managing Partner at DDB Remedy, the healthcare-focused division of DDB Group. In 2023, his significant contributions to the industry were recognised when he was appointed to the Pharma jury at the prestigious Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Originally from London, Narve embarked on his career by managing relationships with global and European clients. After relocating to Sydney a decade ago, he has made both the city and DDB Remedy his professional home. With over 15 years of experience, Narve has provided strategic guidance and led the development of integrated campaigns in the health, wellness, and pharmaceutical sectors. He has been instrumental in expanding DDB Remedy’s capabilities in digital and consumer health, meeting the growing demand for engagements with health-conscious consumers. In the pharmaceutical sector, he has successfully launched numerous brands across a range of therapeutic areas, from antivirals to vaccines, and everything in between.
His extensive background, working on both the client and agency sides, provides him with a unique perspective that he brings to his leadership and jury roles.
Nayana Wade
Nayana is a healthcare market research expert. Over the years, she has successfully helped companies launch their product optimally or regain market share they had lost.
Nayana provides brand teams with a complete picture of the challenges they need to tackle – from defining the business issue to providing its solution. She doesn’t take the term ‘actionable insights’ lightly – she lives and breathes it. In fact, she even goes beyond the insights and helps her clients action them.
Nayana wanted to re-shape the face of market research in the pharmaceutical industry by bringing innovations she learned from other industries. It is with that aspiration at heart that she founded HUMMINGBIRD INSIGHT.
Ultimately, Nayana wants to help pharmaceutical companies bring their innovations to the Australian people so they can live a better and longer life.
Julia Walsh
Julia Walsh, CEO of Brand Medicine International and a Senior Fellow at HITLAB, is a global pioneer in the analysis of big search data for strategic health insights. Her work has been hailed as a ‘gamechanger for Pharma’ by Pharma In Focus and recognised by Reuters as a Top Trend in Patient Engagement.
Julia’s work has illuminated one of the key factors influencing the patient journey: what really happens as people turn to the internet to exchange questions for health advice. Julia’s book What We Really Ask Dr. Google – is seen as a foundational guide to healthcare insights in the digital age. Julia also led a group of industry leaders to publish a White Paper on the impact of AI-chat tools on the digital information experience in healthcare. Julia is in demand as a keynote on the digital landscape in health and it’s influence on public health outcomes and joins PRIME as a judge for the second time this year.
Paddy Wood
Paddy is Head of Consumer Strategy for The Guardian in Australia, responsible for driving audience, engagement and consumer revenue. He brings 10+ years’ experience in media and marketing – including several in healthcare, having started his career as a medical journalist and later served as Group Digital Editor for Australian Doctor Group, encompassing leading medical publications Medical Observer and Australia Doctor.