James Tyrrell

APCO Worldwide Global Health Care Chair James Tyrrell Moves to Singapore

May 13, 2022

  • Veteran Health Practice Leader, James Tyrrell relocates to new regional “health hub” as Asia’s importance in health care innovation grows
  • Melissa Thomas brought in to support on health care and sustainability

Singapore – May 13, 2022: James Tyrrell, global chair of APCO Worldwide’s Health practice, joins APCO’s Singapore-based regional leadership team, in a move that bolsters the strong existing team to strategically support the fast-growing and innovative health practice proposition across Asia, JJ Lee, managing director, APCO Southeast Asia, announced today. Tyrrell will oversee APCO’s health care practices in the region while continuing to lead the global health division, supporting the company’s impressive ongoing double-digit growth.

“James is an elite global health care consultant with over 20 years of experience, heading multi-market client teams within APCO’s global network and be instrumental in effecting health sector policy change during his career,” Lee said. “I am delighted to welcome James to our team in Singapore. We are in the midst of working in one of the best health care systems in the world with a firm platform as the health care and medical hub of the region. We are seeing a great deal more global work hubbing out of Singapore and have looked to attune ourselves to the needs of industry and strengthen our team to best support our clients in the region and beyond.”

A seasoned health communications expert, Tyrrell has provided leading industry players with corporate and brand consulting advice as well as supporting patient advocacy and professional organizations with award-winning strategic and campaign communications advice. Throughout his career, Tyrrell has engaged many of the world’s leading health care organizations including AbbVie, Amgen, Align Technologies, Astra Zeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GSK, LumiraDx, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and Sanofi, specializing in supporting new product launches, health technology appraisal and disease awareness campaigns and guideline development at the World Health Organization. In addition, he is undertaking exciting projects in the emerging fields of advanced precision therapy, diagnostics and digital, and data and artificial intelligence.

Tyrrell has spent the past five years at APCO’s London office, most recently as a senior director and chair of APCO’s UK Health practice. His achievements as a communicator have been recognized in numerous campaign awards and Tyrrell was named Consultant of the Year at the Public Affairs News Awards.

“I look forward to joining our Singapore team to help clients navigate the rapidly changing market environment and the aftershock of the COVID-19 pandemic today. Asia is one of the most exciting places to be working in health care. Challenging trends such as a growing and aging population, rising cost pressures, a growing incidence of NCDs, and a huge variation in access to health care is forcing leapfrog innovation at pace. At this unprecedented moment, organizations both within Asia and beyond, have a unique opportunity and social duty to look for solutions to act swiftly and emerge stronger from the crisis. I am thrilled to join the Singapore team and use my experience from leading APCO’s global health network to counsel business leaders in public affairs, brand reputation management, crisis communications, advocacy, stakeholder engagement and beyond,” shared Tyrrell.

Also joining the Singapore team is Associate Director Melissa Thomas, who brings over 15 years’ experience working across agency, NGOs, corporate membership bodies and within multinational companies in marketing and communications roles. Her recent focus has been centered around corporate sustainability. Thomas will work closely with APCO’s sustainability practice, APCO Impact, as well as partnering with the health care team to provide world class support in this rapidly growing field, helping to ensure “health” is firmly incorporated in companies’ forward-looking ESG strategies.

Both Tyrrell and Thomas join a growing team of award winning communications, public affairs, health care, technology, sustainability and corporate branding experts at APCO, with deep ties in Southeast Asia and around the world including Dr SK Chew, Frederik Nyberg, Aida Greenbury, Dr Maria Radyati, Dr Deborah Elms, John Lin, James Yi, Stephanie Tan, Ambassador Devinda R. Subasinghe, Rami Sharaf, Mike Chinoy, Yuli Ismartono, Nancy Turett, Lance Leggitt, Leslie Norwalk, Dr Kavita Patel and Peter Urbanowicz, among other members of APCO’s International Health Advisory Board.

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