Kait Ayres

Kait Ayres works with Helen Johnson Public Affairs, which states that she:

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.