• June 14, 2007

Chris Loder joins Ogilvy Public Relations as senior vice president in the agency's Healthcare Practice division. Susan Hirsch and Jeanine O'Kane were promoted to head of the U.S. Healthcare Practice and head of the New York Healthcare Practice, respectively. The HealthCare Practice division services pharmaceutical firms and health care providers.

Hirsch has been overseeing brand, advocacy and franchise positioning for Bristol-Myers Squibb's oncology franchise. O'Kane was previously in the communications department at Berlex Laboratories (now Bayer Healthcare).

Loder has joined the agency after six years of working in the media relations/public affairs department at Merck & Co., Inc., a research-based pharmaceutical company, where he served as one of the media relations representatives and worked on Merck's voluntary withdrawal of Vioxx in 2004.

--Tanya Irwin