Superintendent Pharmacist at Tesco Stores for almost 12 years and has worked in the community pharmacy market as both a community pharmacist and a business leader for almost 30 years.

Amy has worked in comms and marketing for nearly twenty years, with the majority of those focusing on consumer health and wellness. She recently joined Stirred to launch Stirred Well, a creative comms proposition designed for a time when staying well matters, the team help brands empower and enable better everyday health choices.

Creative Director with over 30 years experience in consumer and healthcare professional communications, turning sound strategy into ideas that get people thinking. His job is to make it wonderfully easy for health audiences to say “I get it."

Andrew’s passion is for ideas that challenge, educate and inspire. He has been responsible for many high-profile, award-winning campaigns and was delighted to be asked to judge the OTC Marketing Awards again this year.

Anna is a senior, independent communications practitioner, with 25 years’ PR experience working with OTC and prescription medicines as well as with healthcare providers.

Anna is passionate about communicating effectively on health and wellbeing. Anna started her career in nursing, before heading into PR, initially working on consumer brands including Eucerin and Sudocrem. She now works across prescription and OTC medicines and is also a qualified nutritional therapist and health coach.

After developing a passion for marketing, Cheryl has spent more than 15 years working across a range of roles and marketing disciplines including Avios and Kew Gardens. She joined Brand Champions two years ago and works on a number of OTC brands including the recent POM to P switch Gina.

I was employed by Johnson & Johnson for over 40 years until my retirement in December 2015. I worked in various roles in their pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare businesses including National Sales Manager and Group Product Manager at Janssen. Commercial Director at McNeil Products, a consumer healthcare joint venture between J&J and MSD focused on POM to P switches. Over the last 8 years of my career, Head of Pharmacy at J&J Consumer.

I was for several years a Trustee Director of the J&J UK Pension Plan, a multi-billion business where I gained valuable experience in a complex, highly regulated environment. I was for many years a director of The Proprietary Association of Great Britain and I am currently Chairman of the Health & Beauty Association.

I have now established my own healthcare consulting business providing high quality health and wellness advice and support to manufacturers and pharmacy owners.

Deirdre has over twenty years’ brand communications experience across a broad spectrum of sectors including Technology, Home & Interiors, Consumer Health, FMCG and Luxury, and a track record of innovative brand building and growth as well as foraging outstanding reputations for corporates on the global stage. She has a customer-centric approach to global and local audiences in multiple channels, combining business acumen and analytical skills with a sensitivity for impactful narrative development.

During her five-year tenure as Managing Director of Ketchum’s Brand Practice, Deirdre significantly grew the London consumer offer, expanding into new areas such as Food & Nutrition, Travel and Entertainment, embedding new techniques and specialist skills. For four years, Deirdre led the expansion of Ketchum’s Creative Services from a team of five to a stand-alone community with expertise in planning, creative, research & analytics and design & production.

Deirdre has held senior consulting roles on Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Signify and Royal Philips focusing on global strategic work for brands, trend research, global activations and multi-format content development from TVCs to social campaign assets. She has extensive operational experience of network management and multi-centre engagement, leading large diverse teams across multiple cultures and countries.

Deirdre’s expertise lies in brand building (brand vision, strategy, equity definition, narrative development, storytelling, integrated communications and influencer marketing), reputation building (stakeholder influence and brand protection) and business strategy. Prior to Ketchum, on the agency side, Deirdre worked at Hill & Knowlton Strategies and at Charles Barker (acquired by Weber Shandwick). Deirdre started her career on the client side at Warner Music. Deirdre holds a Finance degree and a MBS from University College Dublin.

Donna is Director of Communications at the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK’s independent advertising regulator.
Prior to joining the ASA in May 2022, Donna was Executive Director of Policy and Communications for PAGB, the consumer healthcare association. She has previously also worked at the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, Diabetes UK, the British Lung Foundation and two full service communications agencies.

Ed currently leads the OTC business hub for STADA’s UK organisation, incorporating Thornton & Ross, where his 20+ years of cross-category healthcare experience are put to good use with their wide portfolio - which includes the Covonia, Hedrin, Savlon and Care brands.

During his career, he and his team were responsible for more than tripling the size of Covonia brand, growing Hedrin to become the Number 1 Headlice brand in Europe and evolving Care to become the number 1 selling brand in UK pharmacies - picking up several OTC Marketing Awards along the way. Creative cut-through, insight-led activation of brands and ROI are his passions.

His wider commercial role as Director of Business Development involves identifying opportunities for future growth through licensing, innovation and M&A across the company’s entire UK Consumer Health Business.

Emma has worked in healthcare communications for 25 years both in leading creative communications agencies for many household OTC brands and pharmacy retailers, and in house. Emma was previously Director and Head of Consumer Healthcare Communications UK at GSK, covering all OTC brands and oral care brands. Most recently Emma was Head of Communications, Europe at Bristol-Myers Squibb leading a team of 45 covering 23 countries and a business of $9bn.

With over two decades of professional experience, Fiona has cultivated a wealth of expertise collaborating with renowned household brands such as British Airways, Nestle and Pfizer. Recognized as a 'Rising Star' by Marketing Week early in her career, Fiona has been honored with multiple innovation awards.

In 2018 Fiona identified a unique opportunity to leverage her skills and knowledge to establish an agency that could seamlessly support both agencies and clients. This vision materialized into Brand Champions, a dynamic business specializing in Strategy, SOS and Skills. Brand Champions is dedicated to assisting clients with significant strategic initiatives, addressing short-term resource challenges, and fostering in-house learning and development. In her current role, Fiona is committed to helping others to build champion brands through the comprehensive services offered by Brand Champions.

Harriet has over 25 years’ experience in OTC medical affairs. She spent 10 years at Wyeth Consumer as medical director and since then has been running Scorer Health. She supports companies in achieving their desired outcomes using her medical and scientific knowledge whilst navigating regulatory requirements. Recent projects include a major POM to P switch and bringing new medicines to the OTC space.

Helen has over a decade of experience advising clients across science, health and technology sectors on industry and commercial campaigns. She has led Kaizo’s work for the world’s largest scientific publisher, Elsevier, led HCP-focused campaigns for the Institute of Scientific Information on Coffee, and advises a global healthcare company on a wide range of issues and corporate opportunities across its consumer health portfolio. Other clients have included the New York Academy of Sciences, the University of Ulster’s research department, Oxford University Press, Mendeley, as well as technology brands in the energy and environment sectors. Helen has an MA from the University of Cambridge.

Janet is the Associate Director of Regulatory at JensonR+ Limited, based in the Nottingham office. Prior to this she ran her own consultancy business, consult2deliver limited, based in BioCity Nottingham and collaborated with OTC Experts. She began crafting her regulatory skills at Thomas Kerfoot and Medeva in Ashton under Lyne, before moving to 3M as the global regulatory lead for Qvar, the first CFC-free beclomethasone inhaler.

Her first role in OTC medicines began at Boots the Chemist, gaining approval of new consumer medicines for the new Republic of Ireland stores, before transferring to senior roles within Boots Healthcare International, supporting Strepsils globally.

Operational roles combined with global regulatory responsibilities saw a return to dry powder inhaled drug development with Vectura. Latterly at Boots Pharmaceuticals she was the head of innovative regulatory affairs, assessing solutions for consumers in healthcare, covering medical devices, food supplements through to reclassification strategies. Janet co founded a networking group for food supplements in the midlands, which meets 2-3 a year, through this is she is able to maintain her awareness of the innovation through borderline products.

Jay joined the Pharmacists’ Defence Association as Director of Pharmacy in May 2024. The PDA is the largest pharmacy membership organisation bringing together over 38,000 members from across all areas of practice. It is a not-for-profit defence association that aims to act upon and support the needs of individual pharmacists and, when necessary, defend their reputation. As a pharmacist and industry leader Jay forms part of the senior leadership team at the PDA and lead the organisation to look after the individual and collective interests of employed and self-employed pharmacists. Previously Jay held senior executive and company director roles within multiple and independent pharmacy groups. He won the C&D Community Pharmacist of the Year award in 2015 and numerous other sector-based awards during his time with Whitworth Chemists. He served on the Board of Management of the National Pharmacy Association as Vice Chair and was a Board Member for six years. He was also the Chair for Community Pharmacy Tees Valley for three terms and is a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Jay has a keen interest in social justice and international humanitarian law and was awarded his LL.M. with Distinction by studying this field whilst completing his master’s degree in law.

Having begun my career in category management over 16 years ago I have spent 11 years in the healthcare industry when I joined LloydsPharmacy in 2011. Over this period I have been honoured to be part of the acquisition and integration of the Sainsburys pharmacies, numerous store transformation programmes, launching key innovation to offer patients better access to primary care and the implementation of a new digital platform and operations as Head of Category Management and eCommerce for LloydsPharmacy.

Louise has over 25 years’ healthcare communications experience spanning consumer healthcare and Rx medicines in both agency and in-house roles. Strategic work for brands has included: building compelling narratives that translate into multi-format content; global activation; advocacy and thought leadership. Louise has overseen several award-winning campaigns and is honoured to be involved in recognising this year’s best new brand stories.

Lynsey is an international digital marketing & ecommerce strategist and trainer at SocialB. Skilled in engaging with clients, training and inspiring b2b and b2c clients to achieve `best in class ́ results on an international level. With over 19 years’ experience, Lynsey specialises in providing digital training and services to organisations around the globe. Her technical knowledge and hands-on experience helps organisations innovate and grow their business in international markets profitably. Lynsey also delivers programs as a Google Partner Trainer for the Google Digital Academy. Her clients include: Shiseido, Visa, Armani, PwC, Aston Martin and Colgate Palmolive.

Matt has over 8 years experience working at NielsenIQ and is responsible for leading the Analytical delivery for multiple manufacturers in the Health, Beauty and Personal Care industry. Matt specialises in unlocking value through data and providing leading insight into how manufacturers can make smarter decisions for their business. Matt also regularly presents insight at industry forums reviewing the latest trends & performance in relation to the Health & Beauty industry.

Michelle Riddalls is Chief Executive of PAGB, the consumer healthcare association, which represents the manufacturers of branded over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, self-care medical devices and food supplements in the UK.

Michelle is the leading spokesperson for the OTC sector on issues such as Brexit, self-care, reclassification and regulatory challenges. As part of this, Michelle has provided evidence to the House of Lords, and works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, Department of Health and Social Care, Office of Life Sciences and Number 10.

Michelle is an expert in consumer healthcare regulation having worked in the sector for over two decades and has driven a number of successful product switches. She has received awards from TOPRA for her work in POM to OTC reclassifications and she was recognised by the Women in Trade Associations Power list in 2023 and 2024.

Prior to joining PAGB, Michelle was Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Northern European Cluster at Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, where she was integral in the highly successful POM to GSL reclassification of Nexium Control and the Viagra Connect POM to P switch.

Nick Burgoyne has 20+ years of healthcare experience in both agency and client-side roles, most recently as Head of Commercial and Operations at HH Global (formerly Purple Agency). Nick’s current role encompasses both Pharma and Consumer Health markets. He has a deep understanding of prescription medicines, over-the-counter and consumer markets at local, European and global levels. As well as being committed to client satisfaction and agency growth, Nick is driven by a desire to elevate brand performance through targeted strategy and insightful, behaviour-changing messaging. Although he is passionate about digital marketing, he highly values traditional client relationships and brand-building techniques.

My career has included the role of global creative director at several large agencies, overseeing the strategic and creative development of some of the most successful OTC brands.
In over 30 years of industry experience I am proud to have produced hugely effective and award-winning consumer, B2B, Rx and OTC campaigns in multiple categories from haircare to healthcare.
I am a partner at the long-established creative consultancy
Mason & Glyde working with clients and agencies to launch, revitalise and strengthen brands.
I am passionate about surprising, relevant and strategically-focused ideas, so I always welcome the opportunity to judge the OTC awards

Penny set up Brilliant Basics in 2011, however her award-winning career in OTC brand marketing started on Canesten at Bayer Plc more than 20 years ago and continued at Boehringer Ingelheim. More recently she has held roles at HRA Pharma (now part of Perrigo) alongside contracts with family-owned SMEs and international start-ups.
A specialist in Women’s Health, Dermatologicals, Food Supplements, Pain Management and Digestive Health, Penny has significant strategic and tactical experience. Her knowledge of OTC retail and e-commerce is deep, as is her understanding of digital and traditional communications channels to promote OTC brands.

Chief operating officer at Right Medicine Pharmacy Ltd, Richard Stephenson leads 34 pharmacies across Scotland, whilst looking after over 250 employees. Richard is also the Managing Director at Edinpharm Ltd who have over 250 members across the UK.

Simon is one of the founders of Punktuate! (an award winning ad agency who help clients in the health, beauty and wellbeing space plan, create and sell their brands and products). Prior to Punktuate! Simon led healthcare advertising at Ogilvy in the UK and other agencies. He started his career as a formulation scientist at Boots on brands like Nurofen and has been a convenor of the Changing face of Medicine project at the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. In his spare time he is a senior visiting fellow at the University of Lincoln and is exploring the future of all things healthcare and marketing.

Dr. Stephen Mann is a consultant physician to the pharmaceutical industry and Founder Editor of the journal ‘SelfCare’. He was Vice President of European Research and Development at Mc Neil Europe from 1993 – 2005. During that period and as a consultant since, he has been the clinical lead on many innovative switches including several global firsts. Dr Mann has over 30 years of experience in consumer pharmaceuticals and is an opinion leader in the European consumer pharmaceutical industry on new indications for self-medication. He has published extensively on the role of self - medication in modern healthcare.

Steve has worked with Nelsons for more than 20 years and is the Director of External Regulatory Affairs. He has 25 years experience in the field of Global Regulation covering cosmetic, pharmaceutical, botanical and nutritional products as well as Medical Devices.
During his career Steve has worked on and managed regulatory & compliance projects in North, Central and South America, Europe, North & East Africa, Asia and Australasia.
Steve currently holds board positions with various industry trade bodies in Europe, where he represents the UK industry and their interests, and is a Member of various Pharmacopoeial Committees in the United States.
Steve is currently Chairman of the Health Food Manufacturers Association (HFMA), the UK’s leading trade body representing the Natural Healthcare and Food Supplement industry.
Steve has Joint Hons Bsc in Applied Biology, and is Nelsons Qualified Person in Pharmacovigilance (QPPV).

Stuart is a communications professional with over 25 years of undimmed curiosity about health and science. As Head of the Creative Difference at The Difference Collective, he uses evidence-based creativity to tackle society’s greatest health challenges, and help businesses succeed. His insights, innovation and ideas have opened up opportunities for hundreds of clients and been recognised with multiple awards, including a Cannes Lion. He is a Communiqué Awards judge and Visiting Lecturer at the University of Westminster.

Having begun my career in the world of beauty with L’Oreal, I made the transition into Healthcare a decade ago when I joined Omega Pharma as Head of Sales. Over a period of 5 years we grew the organisation through acquisition and commercial initiatives to become a Top 5 OTC Healthcare Information Classification: Generalcompany. As well as the Head of Sales role, I spent 18 months as Head of Commercial Strategy & Implementation. In 2016, following acquisition by Perrigo, I was made Sales Director of both the branded and store brand businesses, a role I still occupy today. We have continued to grow the combined business, with Perrigo today the largest OTC Healthcare company by volume and second largest by value in the UK.

Tim runs Muzeable a consultancy helping health/wellness businesses unlock growth through strategy and innovation.

He spent 11 years at GSK in Global/UK roles including as UK Marketing Director Healthcare. Prior to GSK he worked in FMCG brand consultancy & since he managed a 45-person international market research agency.

He has several Board Advisory roles. Sign Salad, a consultancy helping brands leverage cultural insight; Brand Champions a healthcare marketing consultancy; Four Engage, a social media marketing agency and The British Brands Group a membership body for brand owners. He is a member of the Marketing Group of GB.

As Head of Pharmacy and board member at Day Lewis, leading teams at over 250 pharmacies across the UK, Tim’s experience combines pharmacy management with strategic leadership. Tim has recently been appointed as Senior Visiting Lecturer at the University of Bath following graduating with a Doctorate in Health for his research in designing a Pharmacogenomics testing service for community pharmacy and achieving five peer reviewed publications in international journals. Tim is also a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and a registrant with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), Chair of the executive operations board at the Centre of Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE), on the pharmacy education advisory board at University of Bath, University College London,, University of Leicester and the GPhC and locally is Vice Chair of Swindon and Wiltshire LPC.