About Mary
Mary brings more than two decades of marketing and public relations knowledge and experience to her clients. With a concentration in medical technology, life sciences and health services industries, she has directed strategic marketing, communications and public affairs programs for Fortune 500 corporations, agencies, academic and non-profit organizations, and trade associations.

Her diverse expertise includes developing and managing strategic communications activities for companies with products across a broad spectrum, including acute care, medical rehabilitation, psychiatric services, specialized cancer services, nursing homes and assisted living.

Mary has assisted many medical device and life science companies in communicating the economic and clinical value of technologies to payers and other stakeholders. She bolstered the medical device and diagnostics industry’s efforts when serving as Vice President of Public Affairs at the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), the global trade association representing the medical device industry. In addition, she has worked to advance recognition of the value of medical imaging with companies such as GE Healthcare, Siemens, Philips and Kodak.

Mary has extensive crisis management experience, having counseled senior executives regarding a broad range of issues. She has designed and executed communication programs relating to allegations of fraud and abuse, substandard patient care, financial improprieties, environmental hazards and product failure.

She earned her B.A. degree in journalism from the University of Southern California and holds an M.B.A. from Georgetown University. Mary is a former Board Member of the Public Relations Society of America’s Health Academy and of the Santa Monica/Westside YWCA.

About Ernie
Ernie possesses a unique blend of health policy and communications expertise.  His experience includes a decade and a half as a medical industry and healthcare policy analyst with the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C.  In this capacity, he advised U.S. companies on investment and trade opportunities abroad, researched and wrote market reports for the private sector, and spoke to business groups about foreign healthcare opportunities.

Ernie has led trade missions to Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, Korea and Central Asia in addition to organizing domestic business roundtables to bring U.S. companies in contact with foreign healthcare officials and purchasers.  In recognition of this work, he was awarded the Commerce Department’s Bronze Medal Award.  Ernie chaired the healthcare services panel at the 1998 World Services Congress as well as public-private sector healthcare panels on South Africa, Russia and Ukraine.  He represented the Department of Commerce at the Medical Subgroup of the U.S.-Russia Business Development Committee, which aims to remove barriers to medical trade and investment.

He has authored several screenplays and two books, The Basic Treaty and East German-West German Relations and the Fall of the GDR, as well as numerous articles on healthcare for such publications as Business America and The U.S. Industrial Outlook.