Carmen Caricchio
President
With nearly 15 years of healthcare-specific international public relations experience, Carmen has helped biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies gain awareness and recognition in the news and on Wall Street. With an extensive understanding of the highly-regulated healthcare environment, Carmen has taken numerous pharmaceutical agents, therapeutic lasers, drug delivery systems, diagnostics and surgical products through pre- and post- approval communication campaigns within the U.S. and abroad. Her therapeutic expertise spans ophthalmology, neurology, cardiology, oncology, dermatology, orthopaedic and women’s health industries.
In addition, Carmen has advanced award-winning disease awareness initiatives by bridging the work of worldwide advocacy organizations, research institutions and leading pharmaceutical/medical device companies. Her firm has been the recipient of four Anvil Awards from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).
Carmen is a communications advisor to BIO, the world’s largest biotechnology organization and she serves as a coach/mentor for Astia, an organization committed to high-potential, high-growth women-led start-ups at all stages. She is an active member of the San Francisco chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and Ophthalmic Women’s Leaders (OWL). Carmen has been a frequent speaker for medical device industry organizations worldwide.
Carmen studied microbiology at University of California, Santa Cruz before completing her undergraduate degree in business administration at the University of San Francisco. She has completed MBA coursework at the University of California, Berkeley.
Drew Avril
Media Relations
Drew Avril is public relations professional with nearly 15 years of experience in the fields of health care, entertainment and consumer goods. For the past decade, Drew has specialized in designing, managing and executing targeted media relations campaigns for high-profile physicians, hospital divisions, state health associations and medical device companies. He has been instrumental in the launch of several medical technologies and procedures, and effectively managed his clients' publicity needs as they navigated the sensitive FDA approval and clearance processes.
His clients have received national and international coverage in major news mediums such as USA Today, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, TIME, Elle, Maxim, ABC World News, Good Morning America, WebMD, Associated Press Radio, CBS Radio Network, CNN Headline News, CBS Evening News, WNBC-TV, and more than 100 other major television affiliates nationwide.
Drew sharpened his communications skills in radio and television as a writer and reporter covering a wide variety of stories including the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, the TWA Flight 800 plane crash and the environmental impact of pollution on the Long Island shoreline.
Drew studied environmental science and communications at Cornell University, English and journalism at SUNY Stony Brook and broadcasting at New York Institute of Technology.
Rick Roose
Senior Strategist
For more than 25 years, Rick Roose has produced results-oriented strategic communications plans for pharmaceutical, biotech and diagnostics companies. His experience includes PR, product communications, marketing communications, branding, public affairs, issues management, crisis and change communications and global employee communications. This is in addition to C-level support for speeches, presentations and media events.
Prior to working with CoActive, Rick served as head of Global Communications for Roche Molecular Diagnostics, where his responsibilities included developing marketing communications plans for RMD’s global products, corporate, executive and internal communications and change management communications. Rick has managed both the agency and corporate communications staff for some of the most successful companies in healthcare including Abbott, Eli Lilly and Aventis.
Rick’s agency experience includes Grey Communications Inc (GCI), Noonan Russo and WeissComm (now WCG), through which he served clients including Abgenix, ALZA, Chiron, Connetics, Deltagen, Forest, Genentech, Gen-Probe, GeneSoft, Given Imaging, Ischemia Research and Education Foundation, J&J, Nuvelo, PDL, Roche Molecular Diagnostics, Roche Pharma, Santen, Scios and Tercica.
