Marie von Seyfried | Influence 100

Marie von Seyfried

Head of Global External Corporate Communications
AstraZeneca
UK

 

 

Perhaps uniquely in the world of pharma corporate communications leadership, Marie von Seyfried started her career as a nurse, in paediatric oncology at NYU Medical Centre. After crossing over into PR agency for a couple of years, she moved in-house and has spent the past 15 years in corporate comms roles within the healthcare, pharmaceutical and bioscience sector, first at Amgen, then onto Baxter and its spinoff Baxalta, then Shire and Vertex Pharma, before settling into her role as head of global external corporate communications at AstraZeneca in April 2019.

A year later, of course, and AstraZeneca was thrust, like the other pharma giants, firmly into the spotlight as Covid hit and the race for a vaccine was on, with von Seyfried quietly leading on media, corporate brand, and digital communications throughout the process of development of the “Oxford” vaccine. As controversy over global approval and acceptance of the AZ vaccine and its safety continues, von Seyfried is likely to have another busy year ahead.