New Havas Lynx NY Leaders Plan to Solve Healthcare’s Toughest Challenges

Last week, the Havas Health Network made three leadership changes to further its growth and creative evolution. Dan Rubin expanded his role as North America group president to oversee Havas Life agencies, Havas Lynx New York and Jacques Madison, while Joanna Ruiz and Megan Skelly joined Havas Lynx New York, as president and CCO, respectively.

Havas Lynx New York’s new duo strengthens the agency’s regional leadership and signals the agency is doubling down on innovating health and wellness creativity in the US. “We’re incredibly excited to have Joanna and Megan join Havas Lynx NY,” Dan tells LBB. “In partnership with Maureen Alves (CSO), they create a formidable leadership team that will build on the great momentum we’re experiencing and take the agency to new heights.”

Most recently, Joanna was MD at Deloitte Digital in New York, and has previous experience in the Havas network as global brand director for Havas Worldwide. Meanwhile, Megan was last ECD, EVP at Edelman, where she primarily led the Unilever account while moonlighting with the health practice, and was an ECD at R/GA before that.

With over 55 years of experience between them, Joanna’s drive for growth, innovation and impact will combine with Megan’s ‘earned creative’ approach and desire to creatively challenge traditional approaches in the sector. And, according to Joanna, it’s an exciting time to return to the network’s fastest growing agency.

“We are making an impact that matters – delivering undeniable value through our work through CX transformation – creating work that makes people feel, and experiences that create meaningful impact and meaningful brands,” she says. “Havas has a competitive advantage as the smallest of the big holding companies – big enough to scale but small enough to move fast and be entrepreneurial and catapult to new heights.”

“Lynx is on a meteoric rise,” adds Megan. “The leadership team of Eric Weisberg and Dan Rubin, my partners Maureen Alves and Joanna Ruiz, are as electric as they are kind; the clients are the best in the business; there is nothing but opportunity to make an impact with the work we do.”

Joanna highlights three main goals for the agency’s next chapter under their leadership: “Deliver in a superior way”, “drive a growth mindset”, and “build an incredible culture”.

The first involves creating distinctive, strategic and effective work in better and faster ways – thanks to more integrated innovation. The ‘growth mindset’ refers to a focus on helping clients solve business problems in new ways, allowing Havas Lynx to “skyrocket” its success during a pivotal time in the industry. And as for the final aim, she says, “Every strong agency has a unique and compelling culture and I want to build one where we have fun together. But more than that, it’s about each of us working together as a team, as a family, collaborating and helping each other do better work, but also being there when we’re having difficulties.

She adds, “This next chapter for Havas Lynx is about bold thinking, deeper collaboration, and solving healthcare’s toughest challenges with creativity, empathy and precision.”

During Megan’s last seven-plus years at Edelman, she noticed that health brands had begun to crave a culture-first, ‘earned creative’ approach – “a desire to creatively challenge the traditional pharma approaches”. She says, “We are living in an attention economy – so many messages, so many brands, so much competition. No amount of money can buy your way into people’s hearts. That’s a spot that has to be earned. This earned mindset is something I’m excited to bring to our clients and work.”

Conversely, during that time, she also saw personal care brands shift their focus to problem solving in the health and wellness space, through product innovation, activations and purpose initiatives. “Health is a climate issue, a policy issue, an equity issue – your health can even be determined by your zip code. It was here that I found we were truly able to make meaningful change for people – and to make real noise for brands in the process.”

"It’s a time of change in health and wellness marketing with room to be more imaginative and impactful,” agrees Joanna, sharing her excitement for the opportunities ahead – including those powered by emerging generative AI technology. “We can use it to optimise patient journeys,” she explains, “empower the field force with Agentic AI, enable new digital products and offerings, and develop hyper-personalised content at scale.”

This data-driven, large-scale personalisation is just one of the key growth areas Joanna sees for the agency – the other being an expansion into digital health and experience design. Of the first, she says, “HCPs and patients expect more relevant, personalised experiences – delivered seamlessly across platforms. By exploring how advanced data analytics, behavioural science, and AI-powered content engines can transform this experience, we can tailor communications across the care journey.

“This is about precision marketing and bringing a more predictive, real-time approach to engagement that deepens connections and drives measurable outcomes for our clients.”

Regarding the second growth opportunity, Joanna believes Havas Lynx is “uniquely positioned” to own the intersection of brand, behaviour and technology, as the future of pharma and healthcare becomes increasingly shaped by digital tools and connected care. “We’ll grow by expanding our capabilities in digital health strategy, service design and experience innovation,” she says, “delivering solutions that not only communicate but change behaviour and improve lives.”

It’s this potential for growth that makes health marketing, and Havas Lynx, such an exciting next step for both of the new leaders. “The greatest innovations the world will see in the next 10 years are going to be in health,” says Megan. “So, if I (or anyone in our industry, for that matter) wanted to be a part of positive change, joining Havas Lynx was really a no-brainer – and a huge opportunity to show the power of creativity where we all need it most.”