Elevate Healthcare Marketing

Frank X. Powers

Managing Partner

Frank motivates his team and his clients to find the best in every interaction. The result of that motivational spirit manifests through insightful conversations, lasting contacts, meaningful exchanges, expansive networking, key relationships, breakthrough ideas, and of course, innovative strategies.

4 fast facts you should know about Frank

• Founded Elevate, a multidisciplinary, full-service strategy and creative practice serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device sectors. Elevate specializes in helping healthcare challenger brands transcend the obstacles to reaching their full potential, and for doing it well enough to be recognized each of the first 4 years in business as one of the Top 100 Agencies in healthcare by MM&M; rewarded with several industry-leading creative awards, including Gold for Best Professional Campaign; and designated one of the Best Places to Work in PA by the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development
• He has a reputation for outstanding organizational and thought leadership known throughout the industry. He has twice been honored as one of PharmaVOICE Magazine’s 100 Most Inspiring People and as a PM360 ELITE Leader. His marketing opinions and insights are sought by and published in virtually every leading industry trade magazine, including Medical Marketing & Media, Pharmaceutical Executive, Med Ad News, PM360, and PharmaVOICE
• In his former role as president of a leading independent healthcare agency, Frank led a miraculous transformation from a traditional print-based pharmaceutical ad agency to a multichannel marketing machine. During his tenure, he and his team received all top honors in the industry, including Agency of the Year, Most Creative Agency, and Best Places to Work
• He has led major strategic initiatives for Nasacort, Taxotere, Avapro, Zocor, Mobic, Nexium, and dozens of other big pharma brands; for consumer and b2b brands like Coke’s Powerade and DuPont’s Tyvek; for leading biotech brands; and for multiple sectors of Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson medical device brands

Lorna Weir

Managing Partner

Lorna liberates her clients from getting bogged down by the multiple challenges of commercializing and marketing pharmaceutical brands, the usual strategic approaches, or the confines of traditional healthcare marketing thinking.

4 fast facts you should know about Lorna

• Started Elevate based on a vision of serving clients’ strategic, business, and commercial aspirations on a higher level than tactical execution
• A history of pioneering and perfecting the key elements of strategic partnering: analysis of complex market landscapes; providing sound, educated counsel; and being a dedicated, tireless, tenacious advocate for achieving commercial goals
• A career path that has taken her from Wall Street to law (Weir holds a JD), from business-to-business and consumer marketer to healthcare specialist. Former president of two of the industry’s most successful agencies, and more recently principal of a commercial strategic consulting firm that became the basis for Elevate, as well as being an inductee in the Medical Marketing & Media Hall of Femme, a PM360 ELITE honoree, a PharmaVOICE 100 recipient, and featured in numerous publications including serving as moderator for Medical Marketing & Media Magazine’s Trend Talks series
• More than 20 years of experience in healthcare marketing and communications, spanning pharmaceutical, medical devices, and diagnostics across a number of therapeutic areas, including oncology, hematology, medical devices and diagnostics, central nervous system, nephrology, rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, cardiovascular, pain management and opioid addiction treatment, and obstetrics and gynecology

Barry Schmader

Chief Creative Officer

Barry ideates novel strategy approaches, new ways to think about brands, and how to express the creative elements of strategic business solutions.

4 fast facts you should know about Barry

• He left the promotional agency world to join Elevate’s multidisciplinary strategy practice so he could be on the leading edge of the healthcare marketing evolution
• He has more than 30 years of pharmaceutical experience and perspective, yet still approaches every day in marketing like a kid in a candy store, spreading his enthusiasm and pushing creative limits in search of “even sweeter ideas”
• He is a well-known and recognized creative innovator, a winner of dozens of industry top awards for his ideas and campaigns, including Rx Club Gold Awards, Med Ad News Manny Awards, PM360 Trailblazers, and MM&M Awards. He has been named as one of the 2016 PM360 ELITE, PharmaVOICE Magazine’s 100 Most Inspiring People, and featured in PM360 Magazine’s Greatest Creators
• Former Chief Creative Officer of Dudnyk and the inspiration behind the highly focused and strategic creative work that has become legendary in the healthcare industry. He has created award-winning campaigns for literally hundreds of pharma brands from Altace to Zocor, plus a dizzying array of medical device brands from Cordis to Medtronic to Boston Scientific

Tara Powers

VP, Creative Director

As the creative architect at Elevate, Tara has 20+ years of experience in global and domestic advertising, working with Fortune 500 firms creating campaigns for AstraZeneca, Bayer, Merck, Novartis, and Schering-Plough just to name a few. She also has worked with start-up companies like AMAG, Chelsea Therapeutics, Micro Medical Solutions, and several others.

4 fast facts you should know about Tara

• In every aspect of art direction and brand building—recognized with multiple top creative awards including: Clios, Med Ad News, Manny Awards, MM&M Awards, The Rx Club Gold, PM360 Trailblazers and Pharma Choice Awards, and the Doctors’ Choice Awards. Award-winning creative is always the result of focused strategic thinking
• Before joining Elevate, Tara worked for both Dudnyk and Interlink Healthcare Communications, where she began honing her signature contemporary flair and eye for artistic design. Her experience spans numerous therapeutic categories and includes both domestic and global brand development
• Tara has a range of disease state experience that encompasses over 2 decades of pharmaceutical and medical device marketing, creating in-depth materials for brands that treat everything from major disorders to rare diseases
• Holds a BFA degree specializing in communication design from Kutztown University. Tara is a hands-on creative director who has specialized expertise in all phases of a brand’s development, beginning with identity and logo design and carrying through to multi-channel marketing

Lisa Tamborello, PHR

Executive Director, Human Resources & Workplace Operations

Lisa leads Human Resources and Workplace Operations, but in a nutshell her function is to make sure everyone and everything function properly. Lisa somehow takes care of the everyone part (employee relations, talent management, workforce planning, training, and development) and the everything part (important stuff like payroll, benefits, office operations, and technology) with equal grace and skill. Overall, if it involves human beings, technology, finance, or operations, Lisa is making it happen.

4 fast facts you should know about Lisa

• Came to Elevate to join former colleagues in building a unique mission-based culture that makes a difference in the industry
• Prior to joining the mission to Elevate, Lisa was a Chief People Officer (CPO) for 15 years, helping build, staff, and run an industry-leading agency, managing various functions such as human resources, technology, and corporate operations. Many all at once
• Spent over a decade as the National Infrastructure Manager at Navigant Consulting where she was instrumental at standardizing the telecommunication and network services across 65 offices worldwide. It was a bit like herding high-tech cats
• Holds a Professional in Human Resources certification, and has distinguished herself as a member of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and Society for Human Resource Management

Scott Harper

VP, Client Engagement & Delivery

Scott is a steadying force for the agency and for his clients’ brands. He has an unrivaled ability to develop and maintain long-term, extremely productive and meaningful relationships. As a truly special talent in the industry, Scott has a unique and varied skill set, including mentoring staff, innovating processes, and maximizing organizational operations to deliver excellence on behalf of clients. Whether orchestrating the various disciplines of the agency to ensure a client’s success, delivering on major, big-picture strategic initiatives, or just doing the everyday things that maintain incredibly close and successful partnerships, Scott is our resident champion.

4 fast facts you should know about Scott

• Before joining Elevate in the newly created position of VP, Client Engagement & Delivery, Scott held senior positions in both Account Management and Client Operations with a number of top healthcare agencies (CDM, GSW, and Dudnyk)
• Successful 18-year career with multiple specializations in numerous disease states, particularly rare disease, gastroenterology, ophthalmology, cardiology, and managed markets promotion
• Driven to disrupt the status quo of the agency model—and change the definition of what client engagement and delivery in the agency world looks like
• Earned his BS in marketing from the Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse

David Marks

VP, Medical Director

The drive to find the solution or the answer is what gets him up every morning, and the questions are what keep him up at night. David has dedicated his life to science and medicine, having spent the last 20 years in academics, research, and medical communications.

4 fast facts you should know about David

• David has earned a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science, and a PhD in addition to completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania
• He continues his education by earning over 100 hours of continuing medical education per year
• He has been an Emergency Medical Technician since 1999, treating patients from every walk of life, even serving 3 weeks as a field medic during Hurricane Katrina in Biloxi, MS
• David has worked on some of the most high-profile clinical development programs for diseases with a devastating impact on patients and a significant unmet need