Steve is an experienced healthcare communications professional, with 15 years in the industry leading successful international and UK healthcare practices.

He has a reputation for delivering quality programmes that positively impact his clients' business across a variety of therapy areas including: men's health, depression, cardiovascular and oncology.

Prior to joining the industry, Steve worked as a GP and freelance medical journalist and is therefore able to offer valuable insight into campaign plans from many different perspectives.

Claire Pillai, PhD, formerly of Hunstworth Health, joins Athena as Associate Director. Claire brings expertise in directing international and UK accounts covering a wide range of therapeutic areas for clients including Novartis, Roche, sanofi-aventis, BMS and Pfizer.

Claire initially started out her career as a Research Scientist before moving into healthcare communications. With nine years' experience both here in the UK and in Switzerland, Claire will provide support in managing integrated PR and medical education initiatives for existing clients and programmes, as well as growing the international healthcare capabilities of Athena.

Sharon has more than 20 years experience of conference and event management. She plans and manages satellite symposia, major international conferences, stand-alone meetings, speaker faculties, award ceremonies and sales conferences.

Her outstanding negotiation skills and wealth of contacts in the hotel industry worldwide ensure that Athena's clients are offered the best venues at the best rates. Sharon's interpersonal skills have also been fundamental when working with world class speakers such as Nobel Prize Winner, Louis Ignarro, Sir Rannulph Fiennes and the late Mo Mowlam.

To find out more please go to www.athenameetings.com or contact Sharon by email here.

In her role as Director of UK Business, Michelle is responsible for overseeing and managing the UK PR and medical education business at Athena. She is actively involved in the day to day running of the agency's account teams, offering strategic counsel and insight, and also takes the lead on new business development.

Michelle joined Athena Medical PR in June 2001, and has over ten years experience in healthcare communications. In her time at Athena, Michelle has directed several award-winning campaigns and won the 2006 Communiqué Young Achiever of the Year award. Her ability to deliver efficient, clever, high-impact PR campaigns that meet brand needs was reinforced by the pharma industry insight she gained during her six month secondment at AstraZeneca in 2007. She took on the role of Brand Communications Manager for the UK breast cancer portfolio and was actively involved in patient group relations, internal regulatory and sign-off procedures and also managed an external PR and med-ed agency.