1. Your career journey has spanned industries and continents. What inspired your pivot from finance into healthcare marketing, and how has that shaped the way you lead today?
I began my career in finance, where I developed a strong foundation in data-driven decision-making and strategic accountability. My move into healthcare was motivated by a deeper purpose: the opportunity to make an impact where business performance and human outcomes intersect. In this sector, success is measured not just in market share, but in the lives we touch and the communities we serve.
That shift reshaped how I lead. My journey across industries and continents has given me a broader perspective, teaching me to adapt with agility, listen deeply before acting, and lead with clarity of purpose. Those experiences have also sharpened my ability to balance analytics with empathy, ensuring every decision I make is both strategically sound and meaningful in its impact. It’s this balance of head and heart that defines my approach to marketing and leadership.
2. What does it take to modernise a 140-year-old brand, and how do you balance heritage with innovation across diverse APAC markets?
Modernising a brand with such a rich heritage is about preserving our history of trusted relationships while embracing transformation. The challenge is to honour that heritage while having the courage to reinvent ourselves for the next generation of healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients.
In Asia-Pacific, this means taking a “glocalised” approach. We empower our local teams to adapt strategies based on the needs of local patients and HCPs, while staying anchored to our brand vision. This balance enables us to remain relevant in some of the most diverse healthcare systems in the world.
At the same time, digital transformation has been at the heart of our evolution. We’ve shifted from treating digital as a channel to making it a core capability that drives engagement and trust at scale. This was proven when we scaled our digital strategy to reach more than 70,000 unique HCP touchpoints, doubling industry benchmarks in just two years. From partnerships with start-ups to experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI)-driven personalisation, we are pushing boundaries not just to improve efficiency, but to deliver more meaningful, timely and empathetic engagement. This, to me, is how we
modernise a legacy brand. By staying rooted in purpose, while consistently evolving how we show up for the people we serve.
3. Marketing in pharma is a space where you can’t advertise directly to consumers. How do you approach building brand relevance and trust in such a tightly regulated industry?
In healthcare, visibility alone does not build relevance. What matters is trust, and that must be earned through consistent integrity, scientific depth and a genuine focus on patients and HCPs.
For us, that means investing in platforms that empower HCPs to deliver better care and supporting communities with tools and knowledge that improve outcomes. We’ve seen this model deliver measurable impact across the region, with Malaysia serving as a strong example where we introduced tools that helped HCPs detect cognitive conditions earlier, while in Singapore, we developed training programmes to help clinics integrate new therapies more effectively. These commitments build credibility, deepen partnerships and demonstrate what we stand for.
For me, brand relevance in a highly regulated environment comes from reliability in critical moments. If HCPs and patients know they can depend on us when it matters most, then we have built something stronger than visibility. We have built trust that endures.
4. As a marketing leader in a highly regulated industry, how are you adapting omnichannel strategies to engage healthcare professionals with both relevance and empathy?
Omnichannel strategies are only effective if they are personal and empathetic. At Menarini, we leverage data and AI to identify what HCPs need and deliver content in formats that suit them, whether that is face-to-face or through digital platforms like webinars. By tailoring engagement, we ensure every interaction is meaningful rather than transactional.
This strategy has allowed us to scale our impact across Asia-Pacific. Our digital campaigns in nine APAC markets achieve open rates more than twice the industry average, proof that relevance drives stronger connections. But the true strength of this model emerges during critical moments.
During a supply challenge in Australia, we mobilised campaigns across multiple platforms to reach more than 7,000 HCPs within days, ensuring accurate information was shared quickly and effectively. For me, this served as a powerful case study in modern marketing, where agility and empathy came together to engage the right people, through the right channels, at the right time.
5. What does agility mean in the context of pharma marketing, and how do you empower local teams to respond to real-time market dynamics without losing strategic alignment?
In pharma marketing, agility is about anticipating change, not just responding to it. It begins with empowering teams to make informed, data-driven decisions in real-time while remaining grounded in a clear brand purpose. It’s this balance between speed and strategic alignment that enables us to stay relevant and impactful across the Asia-Pacific’s diverse markets.
At Menarini, we’ve built a model where local teams have the freedom to design campaigns that resonate with their communities, while staying closely aligned to our regional strategy. This approach proved itself when we successfully re-launched a major therapy across three markets in just nine months, an achievement made possible by cross-functional collaboration and speed.
More than a structure, agility is also a mindset. At Menarini, we operate with the drive of a start-up while carrying the credibility of a global brand. That combination enables us to adapt to market dynamics in real-time while ensuring that every decision aligns with our brand promise of invigorating lives across the Asia-Pacific.
6. With the marketing industry moving so quickly today, what’s one principle that keeps you grounded when leading teams, building campaigns, or navigating transformation?
In an industry defined by constant change, my anchor is purpose. Purpose ensures every decision we make is rooted in impact, not reactivity. It shapes our strategies, informs our investments, and keeps patients and communities at the centre of everything we do.
That sense of purpose guides where we focus our energy. We prioritise areas where we can create the most significant long-term impact, and for us, primary care is at the heart of that mission. Encompassing cardiovascular health, respiratory conditions, and gastrointestinal disorders, it represents the foundation of our portfolio and the point where we touch the most lives. Today, primary care accounts for 80% of our sales and remains one of the most effective ways we improve health outcomes across Asia Pacific.
Purpose also compels us to invest in initiatives where the return is measured in human outcomes rather than revenue. This commitment came to life in Australia, where our advocacy helped secure national newborn screening for a rare genetic disorder, HT1. In Indonesia and Taiwan, we partnered with patient societies and HCPs to expand hospital access for myasthenia gravis patients, conditions that affect very small populations but profoundly change lives when treated.
This purpose keeps me grounded and reminds my teams that behind every brand or campaign is a patient and a family whose life we can help improve. That is the true measure of leadership in healthcare marketing.
