Sally Barton Leads U.S. Healthcare Division for Ruder Finn
Ruder Finn has been around since 1948 when it was founded by David Finn and Bill Ruder – neither of them is still around at the firm and Kathy Bloomgarden now serves as CEO. They are one of the largest independent PR firms in the U.S. and represent clients such as Kraft Foods, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, Pfizer, and Novartis. With such well-known clients, you can bet they are always on the lookout for top talent and creative approaches.
During the summer the firm saw a few changes in their leadership, including the hiring of Sally Barton to oversee their healthcare practice in the U.S. This decision also positioned Susan Goldstein’s move to become chair of the firm’s global healthcare practice with the additional responsibility of her work as president of growth initiatives.
Barton came to RF from Ogilvy PR where she worked as one of their executive vice presidents. The tasks she’s now been doing for RF for the last several months include leading strategy and operations for the U.S. healthcare division as well as managing the division’s 50 or so employees, many working in the emerging areas of healthcare. She reports to Bloomgarden and works out of the New York City office. Before working at Ogilvy, Barton was at Cohn & Wolfe overseeing their North American healthcare division; Hill+Knowlton’s New York branch in charge of their healthcare practice; and at both Edelman and Ketchum as a senior VP.
In speaking of her new position, Barton said: “We want to be a little think tank here and come up with something different. We don’t want to change what’s already working,b ut to find and evolve what we’re great at already.”
Susan Goldstein’s promotion allows her to focus on developing more global healthcare practice clients and leads as well as on increasing her efforts to include more than the healthcare practice of the agency, aiming to aid with new offerings and growth initiatives company-wide. Goldstein has been with Ruder Finn since 2007, but before starting there she also worked at Ogilvy PR Worldwide and Chandler Chicco Agency.
Ruder Finn has gone through several new hires and changes during 2016, including changes in their Asia office for new tech and corporate leadership, other additions to their healthcare division, a new VP for social and digital engagement, and more. They’ve also added a new division during 2016 — reputation management unit A’s partnership with ENGAGE PR also happened during the year.
Goldstein said: “We’ve had a number of changes and people moving into senior roles. [Bloomgarden’s] focus is to be strategic in hiring and to capitalize on veteran leaders.”
