VMLY&R Health London Taps Top Talent

Accomplished leader and strategist Jo Crouch joins as Managing Director

Award-winning creative Khalid Latif joins as Executive Creative Director 

Health heavyweight Jo Crouch will lead VMLY&R Health utilising her 20 years of strategic leadership to drive growth and centralise strategic rigour throughout the agency. 

Jo is joined by her long-term collaborator Khalid Latif. Khalid, a multi-award-winner with over 70 major awards for creativity in health, will lead VMLY&R Health’s creative department in London. 

These hires are the latest industry leaders to join the expanding network as it turns its investment strategy to London. Using their proven strategic and creative partnership, Jo and Khalid will establish London as a flagship team for VMLY&R Health, which recorded global growth rates of over 17% last year.

Nichole Davies Chief Strategic Officer, VMLY&R HEALTH, said:

“Putting a proven strategic expert at the helm of our agency is a conscious move to place strategy at the centre of our growth and development of the London office. London’s strategic significance can not be understated and we wanted the best in the business to lead it. Attracting top talent like Jo and Khalid, is a testimony to our existing and future success.”

Jo Crouch, Managing Director, VMLY&R HEALTH London, said: 

“The difference you can make to a campaign when you have such a strong creative and strategic partnership, coupled with leadership who support it, is just phenomenal. The opportunity to work at VMLY&R Health was just too good to turn down. We are already a great team, and I cannot wait to see what we can build together. Not only is this health’s time, it’s our time.”

Khalid Latif, Executive Creative Director, VMLY&R HEALTH London, said:

 “Everyone at VMLY&R Health has this infectious energy and ambition to create meaningful work that changes behaviour and ultimately makes a difference to people’s lives. I’m lucky to call Jo my friend, and I believe that bond will inspire the whole agency and elevate everything we do for our clients and ourselves. It’s a rare and wonderful position to be in.”

Jo Crouch has worked in health for 20 years, beginning in sales and marketing with Roche Diagnostics, before joining the agency world. Jo has a broad knowledge of research and communications across a wide variety of projects, disease areas and categories. Her strategic thinking has led to multiple award wins, including Cannes Lions and The Creative Floor Awards. She has also a post graduate in marketing at the London Business School and is a Chartered Marketer.

Khalid brings over two decades experience in healthcare advertising and PR. As well as being a regular on the award jury circuit, his creative work has been honoured at nearly every top-tier industry award show, including Cannes Lions and PR Week. Khalid also holds a degree in medical biochemistry, giving him an extra level of understanding and appreciation of what it takes to create famous work in a highly regulated industry.

Both roles start from immediate effect.

###

About VMLY&R HEALTH: 

VMLY&R Health has specialist health teams in the U.S. (New York; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and the West Coast), the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, Japan and China. The network boasts over 5,000 healthcare professionals, including over 1,000 Ph.D.s, working across medical communications, advertising, design, branding and creative services, strategic and medical consulting, pre-clinical and clinical trials, multistakeholder engagement, market access, payer consulting, media and public relations.

About VMLY&R

VMLY&R is a global brand and customer experience agency that harnesses creativity, technology, and culture to create connected brands. Made up of more than 12,000 employees worldwide, the agency has principal offices in Kansas City, New York, Detroit, London, São Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney. VMLY&R works with client partners including Colgate-Palmolive, Danone, Dell, Ford, New Balance, Pfizer and Wendy's. For more information, visit www.vmlyr.com. VMLY&R is a WPP company (NYSE: WPP).