NEW YORK & LONDON — Rachel Hooper, most recently Pfizer’s corporate affairs lead, has joined Golin as the its head of healthcare media.

In the new position, Hooper is responsible for creating a specialty media offering that fuses healthcare and media relations across Golin Healthcare and Virgo Health, the agency’s specialty global healthcare communications brand. She reports to healthcare global president Neera Chaudhary.

Hooper, a specialist in healthcare policy, spent the last six years at Pfizer, most recently as head of corporate affairs. Before that, she was the pharmaceutical company’s director of global media relations. Earlier in her career, she launched the public affairs firm Marketplace Communications and spearheaded account management at Porter Novelli.

Meanwhile in London, communication, education and engagement agency Virgo Health has made three new hires to bolster its global footprint on the back of a number of client wins.

Sarah Gordon (pictured, second right) joins as an executive director from Ogilvy, where she led an integrated agency team working across public relations, medical education and advertising. She will bring her experience managing global accounts for pharma clients to lead Virgo Health’s global business.

Gordon said: “I am thrilled to join the Virgo team. Virgo’s reputation for delivering exceptional work, nurturing a great workplace and its agility within the IPG network were a huge draw for me. The open structure allows us to create brilliantly integrated client teams that draw upon the specialisms and expertise of the best in our industry.”

Erin Hamid (pictured, second left) joins as a director from BCW, where she led global accounts across therapeutic areas including CNS, chronic conditions, dermatology, hematology, HIV, oncology, rare disease and respiratory conditions, as well as specialising in drug launches into competitive markets in the US, EU and Asia.

In addition, Farah Dalwai (pictured, left) joins to lead the growing scientific services team of PhD-qualified experts with academic, clinical industry and agency experience across medical education, PR and advertising. She has worked on a wide variety of therapy areas including oncology, rheumatology, dermatology, gastroenterology, fertility and obstetrics.

Finally, creative Paul Andrews has been promoted to executive director, creative services and will continue to grow and develop Virgo’s creative studio.

Virgo Health managing director Ondine Whittington said: “The role of communications has changed with clients now looking to agencies that can offer the best strategic and creative solutions irrespective of the boundaries of PR, advertising or medical education. There is also increased client expectation that we can rapidly mobilise specialist experts around the globe.

“We are delighted to welcome Sarah, Erin and Farah to the team, these new hires are part of Virgo’s exciting and ambitious journey to build deep global expertise and specialist excellence within the London hub to service clients worldwide.”