Charlie Buckwell

As Chief Medical Communications Officer, Charlie leads the ongoing development and growth of the Medical Communications discipline across IPG Health, comprising 8 specialist agencies and more than 900 Medical Communications experts worldwide.

In his more than 30 years in healthcare communications, Charlie has held many successful leadership roles both within the pharma industry and communications agencies. Charlie started his career client-side, including global marketing roles for AstraZeneca (neuroscience and oncology) before choosing to transition agency-side in 2001. As Chief Executive of McCann Health Medical Communications since 2005, Charlie led the development of this specialist business into one of the largest, most capable and best-reputed of its kind. Now leading IPG Health Medical Communications since 2021, this team provides unique depth and breadth of expertise, which along with our organisational agility and scale is enabling a whole new philosophy of customized, enterprise-level partnership for Medical Communications clients.

During his career to date Charlie has also been President of McCann Health EMEA, leading significant growth and development of the region across disciplines. In addition Charlie has been President of the McCann Health Global Scientific Council, an important first-of-its-kind initiative designed to develop, connect and mobilize the scientific community within our network and build external partnerships to help make a meaningful difference to human health.

Charlie is an advocate of public-private partnership in healthcare provision, alongside improved industry engagement and transparency in scientific exchange. He has a specific interest in optimising accessibility for all to medical science and programs to close the gap between medical science and real-life clinical practice. He is passionate about nurturing a supportive, inclusive environment where talented Medical Communications people can thrive and do their best work in making a meaningful difference for our clients, healthcare professionals and patients. Charlie holds an MBA from Lancaster Management School focused on best practice strategy development and intervening in complex organizations and systems.