Strategic Smarts,
Scientific Roots

Jonathan Wilson is no stranger to serendipity. Upon graduating from the University of Leicester with a BS in molecular biology, and faced with the prospect of years of study to get a PhD, Jonathan decided to explore a career in finance. After interviewing for an account executive position, he was shocked to find out that he had applied for and been offered a job with a PR firm. Lured by the promise of photo shoots and expensed dinners (it was the 90s after all), he took the job and has never looked back.

As CEO of Spectrum, Jonathan leads an enterprising team of global science communications experts with his unique mix of skill, experience and an eye to the future. Jonathan expanded Spectrum’s traditional PR brand into a global powerhouse of integrated science and healthcare storytelling. He’s known for engendering incredible loyalty, in large part because he gives his teams the space they need to succeed, ultimately allowing them to own and shape the direction of Spectrum with him. It’s for this reason that Spectrum is able to meet the incredibly diverse and nuanced needs of its clients, who he continues to consult with to develop and amplify science-driven conversations around the globe. Prior to Spectrum, Jonathan served as a trusted senior counselor to some of the world’s top pharmaceutical brands.

Jonathan lives in the Washington, DC area with his wife Suzie, their three children and his ever-growing collection of vintage medical artifacts.

In her role as President and Chief Commercial Officer, Amy Hutnik leads Spectrum’s global platform of integrated services, including enterprise-wide operations and growth planning across the company’s four strategic pillars.

Amy’s 25+ years in marketing and strategy span consumer and healthcare markets, leverage deep industry knowledge to engage teams and clients and drive new value through strategic services that contribute measurable impact to life sciences innovators.

Prior to joining Spectrum, Amy held a range of leadership roles at leading strategic platform players in the life sciences industry, including GM, Professional Services at EVERSANA and Chief Marketing Officer at WCG. Amy also spent 12 years with Syneos Health (previously inVentiv Health) as Chief Growth and Transformation Officer for the Communications Division and Global Head of Commercial Integration, leading the creation of custom, strategic solutions for biotech and pharmaceutical clients and designing integrated advisory, sales, marketing and multichannel communications solutions.

Amy graduated from Villanova University with a degree in communications and currently lives in New Jersey with her husband, Bill, and two children. She’s an avid Philadelphia Phillies fan and — thanks to the Great British Baking Show — is on a never-ending quest to bake the perfect popover.

Andrea Sessler brings more than 30 years of experience to her role as Chief Human Resources Officer. What sets her apart is her commitment to establishing a culture-first, best-in-class strategic talent organization.

In her role, Andrea is responsible for overseeing Spectrum’s talent strategy and execution, including developing and driving culture-building initiatives, talent acquisition, learning and development, legal compliance and compensation and benefits. She has a proven track record of consistently delivering results and maintaining an employee-centric culture.

Prior to joining Spectrum, Andrea spent 12 years at Syneos Health (previously inVentiv Health) as Chief Talent Officer where she successfully navigated two mergers while maintaining an inclusive and optimistic culture.

Andrea graduated from the University of Buffalo with a bachelor’s degree in communications; she has also completed an effective negotiating course at Harvard University. Andrea lives in Manhattan and loves to spend time with her family.

Chris Bath is an experienced healthcare communications consultant with over a decade’s experience working on Global, European and UK communication and marketing programs, with an expertise in digital innovation and insights having previously held the role of Digital Insights Lead at Aurora for two years prior.

Chris’ move to Managing Director in 2021 followed his work leading the development of Aurora’s creative and evaluation framework, which ensures client strategies are supported by data and insights that not only help develop engaging programs but can help prove that they make a difference.

Chris has worked across a number of disease areas but has a particular expertise in creating campaigns that made a difference to patients lives, having worked on digital strategy and patient engagement in cystic fibrosis, rare disease, oncology, diabetes and MS and having supported strategy, brand and patient engagement for a number of pharma and medical device companies in the UK.

His expertise in digital programs is underlined by his graduation from Google Squared, Google’s digital leadership and marketing course. He was recognized in the industry, as he was a speaker at Digital Shoreditch 2015 discussing the present and future impact of the Internet of Things, and connectivity in health and is currently on the PM Society digital interest group, informing industry direction of digital thought-leadership and innovation.

Dan Zaret leads Operations and Finance for Spectrum, where he is charged with managing Spectrum’s business planning and processes. His past senior leadership roles with Weber Shandwick and Syneos Health, in both the US and Europe, have helped Dan develop a strong global perspective on agency management. Dan is focused on supporting the strategic evolution of Spectrum’s marketing communications capabilities, bringing to bear his experience working at agencies in advertising, media, PR, medical communications, research and branding.

Dan graduated from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business with a degree in finance and accounting. He resides in New York City with his wife and son. Outside of work, he can be found on the Little League baseball fields in the city, coaching kids on the finer points of America’s pastime.

With 20+ years experience in healthcare marketing and advertising, Jill Beene has worked on professional, consumer and DTC brands across therapeutic categories, including rare disease, immunology, oncology, rheumatology and CNS, among others. Jill has also worked in the CPG space on brands targeting both consumers and health professionals.

Always fascinated by the human condition, Jill has spent the better part of her career diving deeply into customers mindsets to understand their relationship to their bodies, diseases and behaviors. She brings this strategic perspective as a leader along with a real desire to help those around her perform their best, based on who they are as people. Her leadership philosophy is straight-forward — be insightful, be authentic and be brave.

She has most recently held positions at IPG Health where she was Global Business Lead for a key client across both the US and EU markets and as President of McCann Health NJ. Prior to that, she was managing partner H4B Catapult and Managing Partner, Director of Strategic Services at CDM.

Justin Rubin has been behind the creation of award-winning healthcare campaigns for nearly 20 years. His extensive experience has impacted the life cycles of countless brands across a multitude of channels and categories, including hematology, infectious disease, urology, respiratory, pain management, endocrinology and ophthalmology. He is an expert in telling the stories of complex portfolios, both elevating the brands within a portfolio and transforming them into something greater than the sum of their parts. When Justin isn’t pushing healthcare in new directions, he can be found caring for his ever-expanding guitar collection, wife, daughters and dogs Scruffy and Cookie — although not in this order.

Justin received his bachelor’s degree in journalism and business from Indiana University Bloomington.

As President of Spectrum’s Science Communications pillar, Michelle Gross is leading the way for how Spectrum is leveraging strategic resources to elevate the impact of our communications work, telling compelling science stories that resonate and break through the crowded science media landscape and building connected ecosystems to effectively meet our audiences where they are already consuming information. In her nine years at Spectrum, Michelle helped Spectrum to transform into the strategic platform it is today, with science communications being core to our business.

Michelle combines extensive professional experience with a deep personal commitment to health and science communications. She has a broad range of experience across multiple therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular health, neuroscience, immunology, diabetes and oncology, and different types of work, such as corporate, R&D and product communications. She instills in her teams the importance of building relationships and becoming an invaluable partner to clients.

Michelle graduated from Lehigh University with a bachelor’s degree in behavioral neuroscience. She likes spending time with family and friends, as well as enjoying good food and conversation.

As Spectrum’s Chief Strategy Officer, Michelle Strier ensures that a strategy-first mindset is infused into everything we do, helping clients find ownable positioning, get ahead of issues, drive meaningful conversations and achieve their business goals. In her previous role as Executive Vice President leading our biotech practice, she was responsible for shaping and growing a unique offering focused on creating strong, collaborative relationships with our biotech clients and building teams to meet their specific, cross-functional needs.

Michelle has a broad range of experience across therapeutic areas and is passionate about empowering health and wellness. Having worked remotely from Tucson, Arizona for the last 12 years, Michelle has become an advocate at the agency for a flexible work environment that prizes accountability and personal responsibility as the key to both a deeply fulfilling career and a joyful life outside of work.

Michelle earned her BA in literature and rhetoric from Binghamton University. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, entertaining and spending time with her friends and family. She has a particular personal interest in the science of happiness and is passionate about its role in improving physical and mental wellness.

As president of Continuum Clinical and Spectrum’s Clinical Trial Experience pillar, Neil is responsible for leading the talented team of global clinical trial experts focused on elevating interest, increasing access and enhancing experiences for patients, while helping pharma and biotech companies achieve their drug development milestones critical to advancing new therapies. For 25 years, Neil has helped drive the company vision and craft its unique value proposition that addresses a wide range of therapeutic areas and indications, establishing Continuum Clinical as the industry’s go-to service provider.

Neil is passionate about identifying and solving the bottlenecks and challenges that impact successful clinical trial enrollment — from protocol development through study completion — that often derail development and limit access to potentially lifesaving treatment options.

Neil is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a former radio DJ, food explorer and experience seeker. But what’s most important to him are his wife, two daughters, son
and Lab.

Tim Goddard is an experienced healthcare communicator, dedicated to building solutions that help innovative companies translate their work into behavior-changing engagements for diverse stakeholders worldwide. Having held agency leadership positions across New York, London and Singapore, he brings a deep understanding of the unique needs and challenges within the global and US healthcare communications and marketing industry.

In his role as Chief Growth Officer, Tim is responsible for top-line revenue growth for Spectrum at an enterprise level, partnering closely with Pillar leads and the business development and marketing team to drive growth across the company’s Advertising, Clinical Trial Experience, Scientific Communications and European Pillars. In this role, he also focuses on global growth enablement and inorganic growth through a strategic approach to mergers and acquisitions.

Tim previously served as the President of GHMC, the largest global network of independent healthcare agencies, and has helped fuel Spectrum’s rapid growth in recent years by establishing and leading the company’s Clinical Trial Experience offering.

Tim is a graduate of Boston College’s Wallace E. Carroll School of Management where he graduated with a BS in marketing. When he’s not busy at work, he enjoys traveling, skiing and spending time with his wife and kids.