For its third new hire in as many months, Deerfield Agency has tapped Bill Veltre, who comes equipped with nearly two decades of experience in pharma marketing, to direct the agency’s paid media services.
As an executive vice president at Deerfield and its head of media, Veltre will help shape the life-sciences-focused agency’s approach to developing media and digital strategies for its clients, according to this week’s hiring announcement.
“Critical to pharmaceutical marketing today is how to effectively engage with HCPs and patients and how we leverage insights to improve the effectiveness of marketing efforts,” he said. “Deerfield has built a true marketing engine powered by omnichannel approaches, data and analytics, and creative strategy. I’m looking forward to partnering with my new colleagues to continue to refine our approaches and help our clients deliver on the promise of their products.”
In the announcement, Frank Burrell, managing partner at Deerfield, described Veltre as “a dedicated media-enthusiast and provocative thought leader” and lauded his hiring as an “exciting milestone” along the agency’s path toward building out its media services, insights and reporting.
The new executive hails from Bristol Myers Squibb, where he spent the last two years directing the Big Pharma’s omnichannel strategy—first in the oncology portfolio, focusing on BMS’ Opdivo and Opdualag, then, after a promotion to senior director, on an enterprise level.
Prior to that, Veltre put in two and a half years at AbbVie, having started at Allergan in late 2019, shortly before AbbVie’s buyout of the aesthetics-focused pharma. While there, he helped lead marketing efforts for Ubrelvy, Vraylar and Qulipta.
Rounding out his résumé are stints at Publicis Health Media, CMI Media Group and Digitas Health, where his clients included GSK, AstraZeneca, Incyte, Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and Abbott.