GB: Ayesha Bharmal moves to AstraZeneca

Ayesha Bharmal has left her position of board director and head of health after nearly eight years at Fishburn Hedges to join AstraZeneca's international comms team.

Bharmal will be global media director at the pharma giant from 4 February. She will report to head of global media relations Esra Erkal-Paler. She will handle proactive media relations, working to promote stories that help fit with AstraZeneca’s corporate business plan. She will also have a specific focus on UK corporate comms. Her primary aim in the role was to drive new business, building the agency’s speciality across the public, private and voluntary sectors. Current clients include Celesio UK, Novartis and the Health Foundation.

The appointment of new chief executive Pascal Soriot last October has prompted a strategy review across the company, the results of which are expected to be announced alongside a financial update. Fishburn Hedges, which set up a 12-strong dedicated healthcare team under Bharmal’s leadership in March 2011, has not confirmed a replacement.

AstraZeneca plc is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biologics company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's fifth-largest pharmaceutical company measured by 2009 prescription drug sales (after Pfizer, Novartis, Sanofi, and GlaxoSmithKline) and has operations in over 100 countries. It has a portfolio of products for major disease areas including cancer, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, infection, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation. The company was founded in 1999 through the merger of the Sweden-based Astra AB and the UK-based Zeneca Group.

2013
Global Media Relations Director