Helen Johnson Public Affairs

People

Helen Johnson Photo of Helen Johnson A qualified lawyer with an MBA from Cranfield School of Management, Helen Johnson has sixteen years’ practical experience of healthcare policy and regulatory issues, commercial law and political relations, ten years of which were spent working in the pharmaceutical industry.

After graduating with a first class honours degree in law from the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1988, Helen qualified as a solicitor in October 1991, specialising in employment law and commercial litigation. In 1992, Helen joined the legal department of Roche Products Limited, the UK affiliate of the international pharmaceutical and healthcare organisation, Hoffmann-La Roche. At that time, Helen was one of two in-house lawyers providing comprehensive legal, commercial, regulatory and licensing advice to all Roche operating businesses in the UK and Ireland.

In 2000, Helen was appointed to the new post of Head of Public Affairs and was given sole management responsibility for devising, developing and implementing Roche’s first government relations strategy and tactical action plan, interacting with politicians, special advisers, government departments (Department of Health; Department of Trade and Industry), NHS audiences, patient representative and advocacy organisations, professional bodies and industry associations.

In April 2002, Helen left Roche to operate as a public affairs and policy consultant in her own right, setting up HJCL. She is currently working with a number of commercial and voluntary sector clients on a range of healthcare policy and political projects ranging from obesity, arthritis, cancer and Multiple Sclerosis, to the commissioning of specialised healthcare services, NHS commissioning and NICE technology appraisals.

Helen has over seven years’ experience of European public affairs, advising in particular on pharmaceutical licensing, regulatory affairs, patient advocacy, parallel trade and product reimbursement. Over the last four years, she have been involved in several pan-European medicinal product, healthcare and pharmaceutical initiatives, including the establishment and launch of a new pan-European trade body for regulatory affairs professionals (TOPRA), running advocacy workshops at a European patient group conference and lobbying for obesity to move higher up the EU agenda.

Helen currently sits on the Management Committee of the Association of Professional Political Consultants and has been an occasional contributor to Pharmaceutical Marketing's Communiqué Journal PMLive.com on topical communications and public affairs issues.

Sarah Cotton Photo of Sarah Cotton Having graduated from Bristol University with a degree in Politics and Social Policy in 1999, Sarah has subsequently developed a broad portfolio of practical and strategic experience in the public affairs and policy development arena.

Working in the House of Commons after leaving University, running the Parliamentary office of Ivan Lewis MP (then PPS to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry – now Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Care Services at the Department of Health) as well as a secondment during the 2001 re-election campaign for Oona King MP, gave Sarah experience of the mechanisms of Parliament, government and political campaigning.

Sarah joined the Public Affairs team of Consolidated Communications in 2000. In addition to Parliamentary analysis and research services, Sarah devised and implemented integrated media and political campaigns for a range of clients in the healthcare, financial services and telecommunications sectors.

Having built particular expertise in healthcare issues and stakeholder relations at Consolidated, Sarah was briefly seconded to the Audit Commission as Stakeholder Relations Manager. During a time of restructuring and change at the Commission, Sarah was responsible for maintaining stability and high quality political engagement with all key audiences.

Sarah joined global healthcare company Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited as Political and NICE Policy Manager in 2003. As MSD’s expert in the workings of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), Sarah drew on her previous public affairs experience to positively shape MSD’s engagement with both the organisation and its processes. Whilst at MSD, Sarah worked with a wide range of UK and international influencing audiences, both internally and externally.

Sarah left MSD in November 2006 following the birth of her first baby, and is now working with HJCL, using her range of experience to help HJCL clients achieve their public affairs objectives whilst also allowing her to achieve a work-life balance.

Kait Ayres Photo of Kait Ayres Kait Ayres is a freelance consultant with eighteen years' experience in healthcare sales and marketing, media, public and corporate relations.

Her career began in 1987 after graduating from the University of Sussex with a degree in Human Sciences and combines both 'in-house' and agency expertise. Within both Roche UK and Syntex, Kait achieved success in sales, marketing and new product development across a variety of therapy areas including rheumatology, anaesthetics, gynaecology, anti-malarials, dermatology, obesity and sepsis. Over a two-year period, she managed a containment programme for a key product under intense media/litigation pressure and minimised the damage to sales and the portfolio/Roche image. Following the acquisition of Syntex by Roche in 1994, Kait led a multi-disciplinary transition team for the divestment of the gynaecology portfolio to Searle. In addition to this, Kait was also a member of the company's Performance Management Committee and, together with the project team, was responsible for the successful formulation and promotion of a Performance Management strategy and its success across the division.

Kait's particular strengths in product and corporate communications were also developed within the agency environment. Firstly in 1990 at Reed Healthcare Communications with their UK medical education programmes and then in 1992 at Colloquium, an international communications and events consultancy, in a senior business & project development role, responsible for the identification and exploitation of new business opportunities.

Kait's expertise in issues management, internal communications and professional relations, combined with her strategic marketing background, was put to the test in November 1997. Kait was asked to create and lead a Corporate Affairs department for the Roche Group in the UK. She successfully established its foundation and managed a number of high profile projects designed to raise the profile of the company with internal and external audiences which included employees at all levels, opinion leaders, healthcare professionals and managers, politicians, the media, and industry associations.

In her freelance capacity, Kait's unique combination of skills means she can offer a senior and reliable 'extra pair of hands' role, working across the communications 'mix', to help clients achieve their business objectives. Successful collaborations span many different therapy areas, working with "big Pharma" and assorted PR, web-based communications and events management companies.

External Resources

• Helen Johnson Public Affairs, UK Staff and clients 30 Nov 2003 to 31 May 2004
• Helen Johnson PA, UK Staff and clients, 1 June 2005 to 30 Nov 2005