Makovsky Adds Lee Davies as Group Vice President to Growing Health Practice

Makovsky Adds Lee Davies as Group VP to Growing Health Practice

Industry Veteran Noted for Experience in Senior Client and Agency Positions

NEW YORK, NY — December 19, 2011 — Makovsky + Company today announced the addition of Lee Davies as group vice president to its Health Practice.  Davies is one of the pharmaceutical industry's leading marketing and communications experts and comes to Makovsky from Merck & Co., Inc. where he was recently Director, Global Media Relations (Cardiovascular, Oncology, Diabetes, Women's Health) and Director, Global Product Communications (Oncology).  Davies reports to Gil Bashe, executive vice president and Health Practice Director, and joins the firm-wide Leadership Committee.

“Lee Davies is a rare industry talent with experience encompassing pharma marketing communications, media relations and crisis and issues management,” said Gil Bashe, executive vice president and Health Practice Director at Makovsky.  “Lee’s presence offers Makovsky Health clients access to one of the industry’s most respected counselors and is a significant addition to our Health Practice leadership team.”

Davies began his career in marketing at Pfizer and Schering-Plough, and was a founding member of the healthcare practice at Burson-Marsteller.  His three decade-career also encompasses roles as general manager of Omnicom agency PRISM International, and several senior management stints at Euro RSCG Life PR and Ogilvy Worldwide Public Relations.
Davies also founded and oversaw his own healthcare communications firm, Davies & Murray, for 12 years, counseling clients through numerous product launches, corporate crises and communications issues.  Equally adept in corporate and agency environments, Davies returned to Schering-Plough, prior to its merger with Merck, to lead global product communications and advocacy relations team for the company's cardiovascular business franchise, including the cholesterol joint venture with Merck.

“Having worked at industry leader Merck, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many exceptional colleagues and well-known agencies through the years,” said Lee Davies, group vice president at Makovsky.  “Makovsky always impressed me with their deep bench of health-sector experience and strategies that deliver results.  I’m extremely happy to be part of a culture that values collaboration and client delight.”
 
Davies is a recognized industry speaker and published author on marketing and communications topics, serving as a guest lecturer in the graduate management program at New York University, School of Public Health at Columbia University and the Fairleigh Dickinson MBA program.  Davies holds a BA in biology and English from Columbia and an MBA in Marketing Management and Information Systems from the Wharton Graduate School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

About Makovsky + Company
Founded in 1979, Makovsky + Company is one of the nation’s leading independent global public relations, investor relations and branding consultancies, focused in financial services, professional services, health, technology, digital, branding and investor relations.  The firm attributes its success to its original vision: that the Power of Specialized Thinking™ is the best way to build reputation, sales and fair valuation for a client. Based in New York City, the firm has agency partners in more than 27 countries and in 37 U.S. cities through IPREX, the second largest worldwide public relations agency partnership, of which Makovsky is a founder.

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