CAMRBIDGE, MA — With surging demand for its Covid vaccine, Moderna has hired Kate Cronin as its chief brand officer, charging the Ogilvy Health CEO with guiding its communications at a time of immense growth.

“I am thrilled to welcome Kate to Moderna as our Chief Brand Officer and to the Executive Committee,” said Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel, to whom Cronin will report. “Kate has an impressive track record of strategic planning and execution while using creativity and a digital-first mindset to create integrated, best-in-class campaigns for global commercial biopharmaceutical companies.

“Kate is joining the team during a time of rapid growth as we continue to scale up. I look forward to partnering with her to amplify Moderna’s story and the promise of mRNA science for patients,” Bancel said.

Cronin assumes the newly created role after 17 years at Ogilvy, which included being appointed CEO of Ogilvy Health last fall.  Cronin previously held a number of roles within Ogilvy including Ogilvy Public Relations global healthcare practice lead, managing director of Ogilvy PR’s New York office, and co-president of Ogilvy Health in the US. During her tenure, she led campaigns for some of Ogilvy’s largest health clients including BMS, Boehringer Ingelheim, Merck and Pfizer.

Cronin is joining Moderna in midst of its expansion to increase production of its Covid vaccine, and prepare for making boosters as well.

The Wall Street Journal reports the company is adding two production lines to the plant where it manufactures the Covid vaccine and increase production capacity by 50% at another Boston-area plant.

Moderna is also boosting production outside the US so it is equipped to produce roughly 3 billion Covid vaccines a year by 2022 versus the roughly 1 billion it will make this year, the Journal reported.