Barbara Yates established The Yates Network in 2000 with the aim to establish a consultancy to bring strategic communications ideas, media visibility, and passion to biotech companies who possess the science and people to make a major impact for patients. Barbara has more than 25 years of communications experience in roles as an internal corporate communications leader and as an external consultant – but, always with high-growth and start-up companies.

Barbara offers biotech clients a broad range of expertise and a vast professional network from her work in communications to the media, investors, regulators, physicians, and patient advocacy groups. She brings to a project team the unique ability to develop or enhance a strategy, and then fully integrate it with high-impact tactics and programs that achieve business results.

In her decades as a consultant, Barbara has worked for a wide range of clients from biotech companies, both private and public, as well as big pharma companies, like Pfizer and Astra Zeneca. Clients view her as a trusted advisor and team leader in ‘game changing’ scientific and business news, such as journal publications in Nature, JAMA, and NEJM; major partnering deals; and IPOs. Her experience spans most all therapeutic areas including oncology, CV, mental illness, neurological diseases, HIV/AIDs, infectious disease, endocrinology/metabolic disease, diabetes, inflammation, and rare disorders.

Prior to founding The Yates Network, Barbara served as Vice President of corporate communications in the US for Serono, Inc., as it emerged to become a major biotech company with multiple blockbusters and more than $1 billion in global product sales. With responsibility for Serono’s US public relations in all therapeutic areas, including multiple sclerosis, reproductive health, and HIV/AIDS, Barbara managed programs for media relations, patient advocacy relations, medical meetings and publications, and clinical trial communications.

Barbara has a BA from Cornell University. She earned a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) and Masters of Public Health (MPH) from Boston University.

Jennifer has over fifteen years of biotech and start-up experience. She completed a BS with honors at UC Berkeley and a PhD at MIT in chemical engineering with a focus on biomedical engineering. Following her PhD, Jennifer spent three years at the Boston Consulting Group working primarily in the healthcare practice area. She then worked with David Edwards at Harvard University and Medicine in Need, a start-up working to apply drug delivery solutions to improve treatment of endemic diseases of the developing world. Jennifer was a co-Founder of Sirtis Pharmaceuticals, working in business and corporate development. Following three years in business development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, she co-Founded Civitas Therapeutics. Jennifer now consults for small and emerging biotech companies and works with The Yates Network.

Christine has more than 25 years of experience in conceptualizing and implementing strategic communications programs to define and then leverage competitive strengths for biotech, pharma, device, diagnostics and B2B life sciences companies. With a graduate degree in cell biology and immunology, she is fluent in the foundations of her clients’ science and has a passion for translating that into compelling messaging, content, thought leadership platforms and campaigns to engage, influence and motivate audiences.

Christine has experience in all areas of external and internal communications including brand development, positioning and messaging, public relations, demand generation, scientific and marketing content development, website development and market research.

Jessica Briggs is an accomplished brand strategist and creative director who has successfully built brands in industries including biotech, real estate, hospitality, financial services, and healthcare. Jessica works with The Yates Network team on a wide range of services including ideation, strategy, branding, graphic design, logo development, website design and digital media.

Jessica was previously a partner, creative director and member of the board of directors of Trinity Communications, a prominent, 90-person, Boston advertising agency. She created and directed award-winning designs and marketing communications for brands such as Stride Rite, Fleet, Boston Private Bank, Bessemer Trust, Liberty Mutual, Le Meridien Hotels, Seaport Hotel, and Leading Hotels of the World.

While at Trinity Communications, Jessica dedicated a percentage of her time to doing branding and creative work for non-profit organizations, including the National Center for Community and Justice, an organization that promotes inclusion and acceptance with education and advocacy programs, and Jane Doe, Inc., an organization that supports victims and survivors of sexual and domestic violence. Jessica was also a member of the board of directors for the Arts and Business Council, a not-for-profit organization supporting partnerships between corporations and arts organizations. Jessica graduated valedictorian from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Lucia is a graphic designer who combines the energy of edgy technology with human impact that leads to the creation of strong and distinct brands for biotechnology companies. She has a unique passion for science and using design as a powerful tool to translate scientific storytelling, including for websites, scientific infographics and presentation visuals. Lucia’s career has been focused on building brands and visuals for a range of corporate clients, drawing on her ability to grasp the core ideas of biotech and other innovative companies to create visual assets to support their brands. In the past, her creativity has spanned broad domains, including digital illustration, data visualization and other multimedia capabilities. Lucia has her academic degree in graphic design from Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

As creative director, Steve brings more than 25 years of experience creating cutting-edge motion, web and print design work. Steve is the source of inspirational concepts and he is an exceptional leader of our creative team. In developing brands for biotech companies, Steve creates fresh and unique concepts that bring to life compelling science stories. He has specialized expertise with the latest digital technology for motion and multimedia visuals, including on websites. Steve’s animation and design work has been recognized with multiple awards. Steve earned his BA in graphic design from Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Kathryn Morris has more than 30 years of agency and corporate public relations experience helping companies reach their target audiences, ranging from investors and the research community to patient groups. Kathryn delivers strategic messages via media pitching and content for social media and custom online distribution.

Kathryn’s media and social strategy and content placement have helped position therapeutic programs and launch products for a multitude of life sciences companies. She has played a leadership role in visibility plans and placements for biotech and healthcare firms large and small, including Alnylam, Alkermes, Concert Pharmaceuticals, Emulate, and Arrakis Therapeutics.

Working to help companies connect with patient audiences, Kathryn has developed fact sheets, educational materials, patient pages, standalone microsites driven by paid online search and social media awareness campaigns across a range of diseases areas, including alopecia areata, schizophrenia and rare diseases.

A hallmark of Kathryn’s professional expertise is her strong rapport with media of all types, from newswires to national newspapers, business publications and a wide range of health, science and drug development publications.
Earlier in her career, Kathryn built her base of media relations experience as a PR professional with Burson-Marsteller. Kathryn earned a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri, cum laude.

Gregg is a very experienced website producer and expert programmer. His career spans more than 25 years in website development for a broad range of companies, from start-ups to multinational corporations. Gregg’s vast skill set and experience enables him to bring the latest digital technologies and techniques to website development, as well as best practices in website security and maintenance. He is an invaluable resource and problem solver for clients to develop, update and maintain websites.

Anne Tsimboukis has more than 20 years of experience as a designer, and has spent the majority of her career working with biotech companies to develop, launch and maintain brands. For the past ten years, Anne has worked with The Yates Network on a range of design projects, including websites, Powerpoint presentations and other materials.

Anne is uniquely qualified in understanding how to convey complex and sophisticated scientific concepts in designs that bring to life the stories of emerging biotech companies. Previously, Anne worked as an in-house designer for Millennium Pharmaceuticals where she played a lead role in the design for the corporate identify and visual communications materials during the exciting years of the genomics revolution, major partnering deals, and first product launch for Millennium. Anne earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography from Cleveland Institute of Art.