Klick Health has named Carl Turner as its first chief brand strategy officer as it continues to evolve its offering in the life sciences space.

Turner, a former Publicis Health exec, says he will focus on growing the firm’s strategy offering by recruiting talent and finding ways to inspire the team to “make sure its culture culminates in the work that we do.”

In a statement, he noted how agencies in healthcare and elsewhere are “grappling with how to bridge strategy, creative, and activation,” and added that he believes Klick is “uniquely positioned to solve for this with its entrepreneurial culture, innovation legacy and collaborative ethos.”

“We started looking at what we would like as a leader for this team, as we continue to evolve, and we realized very early on that this would be a bit of a different role, and a role at the chief level,” says Glenn Zujew, EVP of creative and medical at Klick.

The goal, Zujew says, was to find someone to lead one of the agency’s four main disciplines, alongside chief creative officer Rich Levy (who was appointed in May), chief medical officer Holly Henry and EVP of marketing strategy and activation Cam Bedford. The brand strategy team was previously run by Leslie Jamison, SVP of brand strategy, who has left the role for a new undisclosed opportunity within the agency.

Turner spent the past five years at Publicis Health, most recently as managing partner and chief strategy officer of Razorfish. His experience includes time as EVP, head of experience strategy at Saatchi Wellness and EVP, head of strategy at Publicis LifeBrands Medicus. He has also led strategy teams at J. Walter Thompson, Commonground and Palio.

For Zujew, the appointment signals the fast pace at which the agency continues to grow. Earlier this month, it announced roughly 30 new creative hires, including Jon Toews as ECD within sister agency Katalyst.

Whereas many shops will ask prospective candidates to complete case studies, Turner was selected following work sessions with Levy and Henry where the goal was to help identify the person who best matched Klick’s culture and entrepreneurial spirits, Zujew says. In the end, it was the “clear thinking that he brought to the table, the experience, the energy, the kindness, the empathy, the big-picture thinking” that made him stand out.