Karen Strauss
Karen Strauss

Karen Strauss, a 30-year veteran of Ketchum, has joined M Booth Health as chief strategy & innovation officer, a new post.

Reporting to CEO Timothy Bird, Strauss will helm the firm's strategic & creative planning function and explore synergies with M Booth.

At Ketchum, Strauss was most recently executive creative director/health and prior to a reorganization held the chief global strategy and creative officer slot. Earlier, she was chief innovation officer and head of both the healthcare and consumer marketing practices.

Bird praised Strauss for her "ability to devise imaginative, new ways to reach and inform healthcare professionals and patients."

He looks forward to working with her to "capitalize on trends shaping the world of healthcare, including the mounting burden of chronic diseases like diabetes, payer pressures on pharma to demonstrate better outcomes, and a growing consumer focus on prevention and self-care.”

M Booth Health is the former US arm of Britain's Health Unlimited, which was the mash-up of Cooney Waters Group and Corkery Group.

In October, Next Fifteen Communications acquired and rebranded it as M Booth Health, which operates as a separate company reporting to M Booth CEO Dale Bornstein.