B-M lures Ewing to head regional healthcare offer

Burson-Mars-teller has lured healthcare heavyweight Hope Ewing away from Ruder Finn to oversee the network's regional healthcare practice, effective January 2006.

As managing director of the practice, Ewing will report directly to regional CEO Bill Rylance, who said that the newly-created role would have "a significant impact on our markets, our regional offering and performance". At Ruder Finn, Ewing was regional vice-president of healthcare for three years, prior to which she spent seven years at Hill & Knowlton in New York and Asia. "A dedicated healthcare leader has, for several years, been a missing ingredient in (our) regional portfolio. Hope will bring us what we need in terms of support to individual offices and shared expertise brought to bear on a cross-market basis," said Rylance.