Claire Eldridge

Claire Eldridge - Co-founder and Managing Director, Aurora

Contact details: +44 (0)7736 277 106 / claire@auroracomms.com

A highly experienced healthcare communicator, Claire has worked both in the UK and overseas, for large network agencies, directing dynamic national and international programmes.

Prior to forming Aurora, Claire was associate director with Fleishman-Hillard (FH) Healthcare, the world's largest global PR network, which she joined in 2002, and where she met her business partner and Aurora co-founder, Neil Crump.  In addition to managing global PR accounts for significant pharmaceutical brands, such as Symbicort, Lamictal, Avodart and Aclasta, Claire co-chaired the agency's global healthcare practice group, overseeing the European healthcare PR offices. She also established and directed the FH Creative services offering.

Before joining FH, she worked in Sydney as healthcare account director for Burson-Marsteller Australia.  Prior to this she worked for a specialist consumer PR firm, Entertainment Marketing, in the area of broadcast PR.

Claire is driven by a passion to work with clients to deliver creative campaigns, which align with the strategy and exceed measurable objectives.  She is committed to providing clients with innovative and targeted solutions to their communications challenges. She has the knowledge to know what strategy will work best and an instinct for good advice.

She obtained her solid PR grounding working with London-based Clear, an agency run by ex-Labour Party PR guru, John Underwood, which she joined in 1995.  Over the next four years she honed her healthcare PR and crisis management skills working on public sector campaigns for the NHS, professional and trade bodies and medical charities.

Claire is a communications professional through-and-through, graduating with a degree in PR from Leeds Metropolitan University in 1995.

Career highlights:

• Meeting the GLOBALHealthPR partners from around the world, who own and manage their public relations agencies, at the AGM in Tokyo in March 2008
• Aurora being selected, in early 2008, as the UK partner in GLOBALHealthPR, the largest independent organisation dedicated exclusively to healthcare communications worldwide
• In December 2005, launching Aurora with Neil at the PMEA ceremony in London
• Commendation in 2003 Communiqué Awards for Young Achiever of the Year as Account Director with Fleishman-Hillard Healthcare