Judges

John Acland

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. 

Jay Badenhorst

Jay is the Managing Director and Superintendent Pharmacist for Whitworth Chemists Ltd a well-known, large multiple independent pharmacy chain, based in the North of England. Jay is a Board Member of the NPA, the Chair for Tees LPC, designated as a Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and holds a Master’s degree in Law.

Tim Brooks

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. 

Chris Bunnis

is Founder of Bunniss Associates, which helps consumer healthcare firms with Strategic Marketing, Mergers & Acquisitions, Business Development and Innovation. He held several roles at SSL International, including Group Marketing & Innovation Director and Strategic Acquisitions Director.

Simon Cooper

Dr Simon Cooper – a biochemist by training began his first career formulating Nurofen before taking on various corporate, innovation and marketing roles for Boots The Chemists. He then jumped to agencyside with stints at Woolley Pau, Ogilvy as head of advertising, and The Value Engineers before founding the international ad agency and brand consultancy Punktuate! (PNK28.com) in 2015. He has worked successfully for many OTC brands – from start-ups to global category leaders and continues to work with clients in the consumer health, beauty, wellbeing and Rx spaces. In his spare time he’s involved with the Changing Face of Medicine project looking at the future of healthcare.

Sheila Kelly

I was Chief Executive of PAGB for over 20 years, retiring in 2014.  Before that I worked for the UK medicines regulatory agency for 5 years and spent time in research and development with Glaxo.  After retirement I continued to work as a consultant with the world self medication industry association.  During my time with the industry the framework of regulation for marketing and advertising was developed and PAGB played a leading role in promoting the role of self care and in establishing the importance of switching products from prescription to OTC.

Stephen Mann

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 Mann

DIRECTOR OF EXTERNAL GLOBAL REGULATORY AFFAIRS & QPPV – NELSONS

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).

Pam Mason

Creative Partner - Mason & Glyde

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.

Stuart Mills

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 company. 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.

David Mitchell

Healthcare Consulting Limited

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.

Deirdie Murphy

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.

Andrew Nicholson

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.

Tim Rendell

A Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, registrant with the General Pharmaceutical Council and a Doctoral Student at the University of Bath researching Pharmacogenomics.

As Head of Pharmacy and board member at Day Lewis, one of the largest independent pharmacy chains in Europe with over 260 pharmacies in the UK, Tim’s experience combines pharmacy management with strategic and responsible leadership. He is committed to lifelong learning for all and has been awarded fellowship of the RPS faculty.

Tim is also Chair of the executive operations board of CPPE, on the pharmacy education advisory board at University of Bath, UCL, UEA and the GPhC and a member of Swindon and Wiltshire LPC.

Michelle Riddalls

Michelle Riddalls is CEO of PAGB, the consumer healthcare association, which represents the manufacturers of branded OTC medicines, self care medical devices and food supplements in the UK.

She joined PAGB in June 2019 from Pfizer Consumer Healthcare, where she was Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Northern European Cluster.

Michelle has extensive OTC experience, having worked in the consumer healthcare industry since 2001, and has driven a number of successful product reclassifications.

Ed Round

OTC Hub Lead & Director of Business Development

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.

Ed has represented Thornton & Ross on the PAGB Board and, as a past winner of the OTC Marketing Awards, is delighted to make his debut on the judging panel.

Harriet Scorer

Scorer Health Ltd

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 small, medium and large companies in achieving their desired outcomes using her medical and scientific knowledge whilst navigating regulatory requirements.

Lynsey Sweales

Lynsey is an international digital & ecommerce strategist, trainer and facilitator. With over 20 years’ experience, Lynsey utilises her strategic, technical and hands-on knowledge and experience to help organisations innovate and grow their business in international markets. Skilled in engaging and inspiring clients to achieve `best in class ́ results both globally and in country her vast experience includes working with brands such as Colgate Palmolive, Elsevier, Google plus many more.

Nick Thompson

Having started in marketing roles with Cadbury and Weetabix, Nick has spent the last 25 years in OTC and consumer health, most recently specialising in business development and market expansion projects as an independent consultant. Alongside this, Nick also heads up Zurego Ltd, a specialist marketing and distribution business focussing on unique, highly niche consumer health and wellbeing brands.

Peter Vernon

Peter is a partner of VBM Associates and has held several senior positions in the corporate world before establishing himself as a highly experienced strategy consultant in 2006. 

Having graduated with a PhD in Chemistry Peter has over 30 years of involvement in Healthcare and Personal Product businesses. Earlier in his career he had senior roles in R&D, Marketing and Commercial Operations at Unilever and Boots Healthcare International including Global Head of Professional Marketing and General Manager of Boots’ Italian business. 

Recently, Peter has led projects globally for both major multinationals and private equity backed enterprises. He has a consistent track record of finding value-based pragmatic solutions to complicated business problems. 

Fiona Wylie

CEO and Founder – The Brand Champions

Fiona has over 15 years’ experience up to Marketing director, working with big household OTC names including Niquitin, Nytol, Benylin, Benadry and Regaine to name a few. Winner of multiple innovation awards and recognised as a ’Rising Star’ by Marketing Week, Fiona has always  been passionate about understanding OTC brands’ challenges. Working closely with her team, she has built a strong reputation for developing marketing campaigns built on strategic planning, solid insights and creativity.