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| James Williams |
James Williams, who was commissioner of Virginia’s Dept. of Social Services, has joined BGR Group as a senior VP.
He will work with clients in BGR’s state & local advocacy group, as well as its health & life sciences practices.
As commissioner, Williams was in charge of 14K employees and an annual $2.6B budget.
Earlier, he served as chief deputy secretary of health & human resources. and chief transformation officer for behavioral health. In that post, he carried out Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin’s reforms to Medicaid and the state’s public health infrastructure.
Williams worked in the first Trump administration as special assistant to the president for domestic policy. He handled issues related to healthcare affordability, drug pricing, rural telehealth access and pandemic response.
Jim Weiss, founder & chairman of Real Chemistry, has joined the board of ICR Inc. as it steps up its healthcare capital markets offering.
Ruder Finn has hired Kelly Yoder, who spent a dozen years at Weber Shandwick rising to North America health lead, as managing director, global head of health & life sciences.
ICR has named John Capodanno head of US healthcare corporate communications and Matthew Willey managing director in its medical technology and diagnostics practice. 
April is National Minority Health Month, spotlighting the urgency to improve health outcomes in communities of color.
In a recent conversation about the evolving media landscape, Doug Simon, CEO of D S Simon Media, spoke with Campbell O’Connor, Group Director, Media & Engagement at Real Chemistry, about how AI is influencing media relations and healthcare communications.
