As Partner and Chief Strategic Officer at Wishbone/ITP, Judy Capano sets a strong ethical example that’s inspiring to all who work with her. Judy Capano was a Director of Client Services before she turned 30. Problem-Solver • Grounded Name: Judy Capano Current Position: Partner and Chief Strategic Officer, Wishbone/ITP Education: B.A., Siena College Date and Place of Birth: Sept. 1965, New York First Job: Recycling newspapers First Industry-Related Job: Sales Representative, Marion Merrell Dow Dream Job: Manage a nonprofit organization; news reporter Professional mentor: Father Words to Live By: Surround yourself with people who have your best interests at heart Brand champions have an awesome responsibility: they are charged with shepherding and protecting a company’s most valuable assets in the market. These industry executives are at the top of their game when it comes to creative, strategic positioning, and developing meaningful communications that resonate with patients and physicians. Do the right thing. That’s Judy Capano’s guiding philosophy in her work, family, and life in general. Her strong sense of ethics and fairness guides all of her interactions and relationships, which is a breath of fresh air in a business world where standards can be lax at times. She has a knack for zeroing in on an issue. As partner and chief strategic officer at Wishbone/ITP, Ms. Capano is able to cut through politics, murky strategies, or salesforce challenges and deliver enlightened solutions to the agency’s clients with consummate skill and fairness. In her position at Wishbone, she has been instrumental in helping clients develop keen understandings of their brands’ markets and customers, all as a means of driving greater success. What separates Ms. Capano is her selflessness, her patience, and her loyalty. She abides by a code of first seeking to understand before being understood. She takes time to mentor junior and senior talent at the agency. She is also focusing her energy on a professional development program that Wishbone has established for its staff, including a mentoring program in the form of a skills development initiative. Keenly aware of the importance of developing talent for the future, Ms. Capano says this employee-development program is vital for the agency’s long-term future. Always eager to find great talent, Ms. Capano not only sits on the alumni board of her college, but has hired three graduates from Siena College. She learned a lot from her father, her own professional mentor, who taught her to persevere through difficult situations and use common sense to find solutions to complex problems. Throughout her career, she has emulated her father’s pragmatism to guide her in business and has been recognized for her efforts. For example, while at McCann-Erickson Healthcare she was named by NJBIZ as one of its “40 under 40" executives on the rise. And she counts being named director of client services before turning 30 as one of the biggest highlights of her career. A grounded leader, Ms. Capano knows what is really important and keeps life in perspective. Volunteering is also important for Ms. Capano, who says it became a core part of her college experience and something that has stayed with her over the years. She has been a Big Sister for the Big Brothers Big Sisters agency for six years, she volunteers for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and she is active in community outreach projects through her church. F Name: Judy Capano Current Position: Partner and Chief Strategic Officer, Wishbone/ITP Education: B.A., Siena College Date and Place of Birth: Sept. 1965, New York First Job: Recycling newspapers First Industry-Related Job: Sales Representative, Marion Merrell Dow Dream Job: Manage a nonprofit organization; news reporter Professional mentor: Father Words to Live By: Surround yourself with people who have your best interests at heart The go-to man for a campaign, Brendan Ward, creative partner, drives the creative engine and heart of Regan Campbell Ward • McCann. Regarded as a luminary in the pharmaceutical advertising industry, he has helped to shape the way creative is viewed and valued across clients and agencies. He can recognize the strengths and flaws of a concept and figure out how to improve it in nearly the same time it takes most people to read the headline. He understands the product, customer, and competition so well in so many different therapeutic markets that he is able to provide many creative pearls from customer insights. He has a subtle understanding of pharmaceutical marketing and the need to connect both a rational and emotional side to the work he creates. And he never loses sight of the nuts and bolts that are so important in this industry. Mr. Ward is a combination chief strategist and chief creative officer, always ensuring creative decisions are based on well-defined marketing objectives and satisfying a customer need. As a co-founder of RCW, his influence has been broad and deep. Not content to rest on laurels, he is focused on continuing the agency’s 11-year record of consistent growth. Known for his trademark round glasses and bowtie, Mr. Ward’s humor, energy, and creative leadership inspire his colleagues to refine and perfect their work. The results are memorable, innovative creative executions that put the best public face on clients’ products. On Mr. Ward’s desk is a plain wooden box. In this box are childhood photos of almost every staff member who has ever worked for the company. While these photos are generally hilarious and enjoyed mainly on the level of office banter, there is another level to the keepsakes. He genuinely cares about his employees and thinks of them as family. Outside the agency, he is a faculty member of the HMC Council’s Product Manager Training Program, where he plays an important role mentoring new product managers. F Pearls of Wisdom Brendan Ward’s bucket list includes hiring a back-up band, getting a tour bus, and working the rural blues circuit. Resourceful • Resilient Name: Brendan Ward Current Position: Creative Partner, Regan Campbell Ward • McCann Education: B.A., St. John’s University Date and Place of Birth: Nov. 1957, Bronx, N.Y. First Job: Maintenance, parish church First Industry-Related Job: Public Affairs Officer, Jewish Home & Hospital for Aged Dream Job: Magazine editor and writer, teacher Professional mentors: John Lally, Sal deRouin Connected Via: Facebook Words to Live By: Be sample size Charlotte Berlin, Senior Director, Transplant and Immunology, at Astellas Pharma US, is an inspiration to her team, because she believes in making a difference every day. The power of transplantation to transform lives truly resonates with Charlotte Berlin. Early in her career, while working in the clinical setting, Ms. Berlin had an experience that truly drove home that realization. She had met a young child named Valerie who was in the PICU with end-stage liver failure from biliary atresia. Luckily, she received a liver transplant. Six months later, she walked into the clinic, remarkable in its own right as she was not ambulatory before her transplant. Ms. Berlin didn’t recognize her; she looked amazing, as though she had been a healthy kid all along. Today, Ms. Berlin runs the marketing operation for Prograf, indicated for the prophylaxis of organ rejection in patients receiving allogeneic liver, kidney, or heart transplants. Through her hard work, she has nurtured the product and helped it to become the No. 1 prescribed transplant drug. The product faces imminent generic threat, and in many companies this would mean it was headed out to pasture from a marketing standpoint. But under Ms. Berlin’s supervision, Astellas has increased branded and non-branded marketing and introduced patient-assistance programs; as a result Prograf just reached the $1 billion mark in sales. One of the issues that most concerns Ms. Berlin is the poor perception the pharmaceutical industry has in the general public. She says the industry needs to do better in explaining what it does and how it contributes to society and healthcare. In her role at Astellas, she is going a long way to demonstrating that value, defining what is best about the pharmaceutical industry and making a difference every day. Ms. Berlin is an inspiration to her team, helping them to raise the bar and injecting both wit and responsibility into the office. Across her professional life — from nursing to industry — Ms. Berlin has been fortunate to have had great mentors. These have included Sharon Jackson Barton R.N., Ph.D., from her nursing experience, Greg Carey from Ortho-Biotech, and Yoshihiko Hatanaka from Astellas. All are inspirational leaders who allowed Ms. Berlin to be innovative in how she has approached her roles and responsibilities. But just as important, they have made going to work every day a pleasure. F Judy Capano, Wishbone/ITP Brendan Ward, Regan Campbell Ward • McCann Charlotte Berlin, Astellas Pharma US Candice Fliedner, Avid Bioservices Inc. Kimberly Levy, MicroMass Communications Barry Schmader, Dudnyk Mark Stinson, Stinson Brand Innovation Inc. George Glatcz, Vox Medica John Kaiser, Acadia Pharmaceuticals Marcia Goddard, Torre Lazur McCann It’s been a meteoric rise from industry novice to branding standout for Candice Fliedner, manager, business development, Avid Bioservices Inc. Since joining the industry on Jan. 17, 2007 — an auspicious day in her calendar — Ms. Fliedner has shown exceptional leadership and proactive management by helping to move Avid Bioservices from a largely unknown clinical and biomanufacturer to a major outsourcing player. In a crowded industry, where it is difficult to differentiate a company’s service offerings, Ms. Fliedner has stood out personally, and has thereby allowed her organization to rise above the others. She set out to develop the company’s corporate image by conducting market research, developing and implementing a marketing strategy and advertising program without using an agency, and building the company’s first large exhibit. Her efforts resulted in an attention-getting, award-winning exhibit that she rolled out at the BIO 2007 annual meeting. In addition, she exhibited by herself at 10 conferences in the United States and the European Union. As a result, her Rolodex quickly grew to 5,000 contacts, and the knock-on effect for the company was record sales by the end of fiscal 2009. Her actions have helped to boost morale within the organization and are an inspiration to all that work with her. She has navigated her journey with charm, poise, and determination. Though just 33, her colleagues say Ms. Fliedner demonstrates sound judgment and a depth of wisdom that cannot be taught or learned. Energetic and compassionate, Ms. Fliedner channels her energy and enthusiasm to make things happen, to be a change agent. At the same time, she genuinely cares about others and encourages those around her to find the spark within themselves. Before joining the industry, Ms. Fliedner spent some years as a behavioral therapist for autistic children. Attending the graduation of the children she had taught and helped develop into more independent, functional, and loving individuals was a profoundly momentous experience for her. Her involvement with autistic children left an impression and she continues to help on a voluntary basis with Organization for Autism events and fundraisers. In addition, Ms. Fliedner helps up-and-coming artists and musicians to market themselves, noting that a creative mind offers a new window to the world. F Judy Capano, Wishbone/ITP Brendan Ward, Regan Campbell Ward • McCann Charlotte Berlin, Astellas Pharma US Candice Fliedner, Avid Bioservices Inc. Kimberly Levy, MicroMass Communications Barry Schmader, Dudnyk Mark Stinson, Stinson Brand Innovation Inc. George Glatcz, Vox Medica John Kaiser, Acadia Pharmaceuticals Marcia Goddard, Torre Lazur McCann
An article from
The Brand CHAMPIONS
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