NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 29, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Buffkin Group – a leading national retained search firm – has helped Weill Cornell Medical College expand its communications and marketing departments by placing veteran industry leaders to guide the medical college's strategic external initiatives amid a rapidly evolving health care marketplace.
Mason Essif, who previously served as senior vice president and senior strategist at Ogilvy Public Relations in Washington, D.C., serves as the new executive director of communications and public affairs in Weill Cornell's Office of External Affairs. Tina Georgeou, former chief marketing officer at Lighthouse International, is the office's new director of marketing. Both report to Larry Schafer, vice provost for external affairs at Weill Cornell.
"This initiative to create dynamic and visionary communications and marketing departments was a strategic move to continue positioning Weill Cornell at the forefront of the health care industry, which is constantly changing in an era of health care reform," said Tom Rosenwald, partner at The Buffkin Group. "With their exceptional leadership and wealth of expertise, Mason and Tina are driving national discussion about Weill Cornell Medical College and its excellence in clinical care, biomedical research and medical education."
At Ogilvy, Essif served a variety of government health care clients including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prior to Ogilvy, Essif was a freelance producer for ABC's World News Tonight and Good Morning America, as well as a health care reporter/producer for CNN for 10 years. Essif was also a producer for Newsweek Productions' PBS Healthweek show. He was an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University, where he taught media relations for its Master in Communications degree program.
Georgeou previously served health care and non-profit clients in her own marketing consultancy Geocom, Inc., and was vice president of corporate strategy and business development at Meredith Corp., a media and marketing conglomerate. She was also vice chair of Publicis/DeWitt Media. Her advertising experience includes stints as vice president and director of client services at Ogilvy & Mather, Inc., and owner and founding partner of RTA Advertising.
The Buffkin Group has also placed other key positions in these growing Weill Cornell departments, including Sarah Woods as brand manager and Roselena Martinez as marketing manager in the marketing department. Woods previously served as a senior account executive with Edelman, where she managed large-scale marketing campaigns for national brands. Martinez was director of marketing at HelpMeSee, Inc. of New York, where she established and executed the marketing program for the startup public health organization. Additional positions filled in the communications department were director of media relations, senior editor and social media strategist.
About The Buffkin Group
The Buffkin Group is a retained, specialty boutique search firm comprised of industry leaders. Each partner in the firm has been a leader in their respective fields and each has more than a decade of retained search experience. Combined, the firm's partners have more than 65 years of search experience and more than 100 years of industry experience. The Buffkin Group recruits leaders that impact client companies. The firm recruits executives in digital direct marketing, health care, technology, digital media, financial services and non-profit. The Buffkin Group serves public, private, venture and private equity backed companies. Office locations include Nashville, Tenn., New York and Washington, D.C., with affiliate offices in San Francisco and London. The company is a member of Panorama Search, an international federation of firms.