Bios

Take a marketing guru, product manager, creative director, copywriter, and a consummate perfectionist and combine them all into one man, and the result is Ken Ribotsky, who offers clients so much more than most agency presidents. He brings all of these talents to the table to help clients define and guide more compelling marketing and brand strategies.

Leading pharmaceutical marketing firms for more than two decades has given Ken an unparalleled understanding of the business — and a brain that's wired for superlative strategic thinking. For Ken, it's always a matter of ensuring that the strategy is as creative as the creative is strategic. For clients, it is what transforms something from mere product to coveted brand. For everyone, it's a symbiotic process that is highly energizing, filled with fun, and mutually rewarding.

His market-moving ideas succeed where others fail because of his innate ability to influence and change the behavior of physicians and their patients. Watching hundreds of market research interviews over the years, Ken recognized early on that physicians don't always prescribe one drug over another based on efficacy, particularly when comparative data aren't very compelling. Physicians are humans, too, and they make their decisions based on many factors, some of which are rational, while others are emotional or even irrational. Ken's expertise is not just knowing what makes healthcare professionals tick, but motivating them to change or take action. His examination of the emotional and intellectual factors that play a role in these decision-making processes provides critical insights that often lead to brand opportunities.

Always treating a client's brand as if it were his own, Ken draws from his experience as a former creative director at a high-end consumer agency to challenge his creative teams to go beyond the mundane and produce work with creative impact. From producing and directing TV commercials to launching DTP campaigns and branding new products, he offers clients extensive expertise in pharmaceuticals, biotech, and medical devices, as well as business, lifestyle, and luxury consumer products and services. Whether he's strategizing with clients behind a mirror in a market research center in Houston; raising sales representatives' spirits at a launch meeting in Madrid; providing his marketing and advertising expertise as a member of the board of Providence Speech and Hearing in Orange County, California; or sharing his unique insights with marketers worldwide in publications like Med Ad News, PharmaVOICE, and PM360; Ken is always fully engaged, bringing his own brand of "bestness" to all areas of his hectic but satisfying life. (When he isn't helping clients go further and higher, he enjoys the thrill of amusement park roller coasters.)

Ken truly understands the environment that his clients work in and he helps them navigate corporate waters and deliver what they need to grow their brands. Many of the clients he has worked with have involved his agencies in all aspects of their brands. Understanding that successful companies are built upon relationship-driven engagement, he encourages very cohesive, organic partnerships with clients. His desire to provide a higher level of engagement led Ken to create The Core Nation, a strategic marketing consultancy for specialty pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies.

With its group of companies, including Core-Create in New Jersey and Brandkarma in California, The Core Nation bridges the creative and strategic divide faced by today's healthcare brands. The Core Nation enables clients to consult with the firms' highly specialized and experienced individuals — including on-staff MDs and clinicians — to tackle and collaborate on everything from brand (re)positioning, market landscaping, and strategy, to navigating the ever-changing regulatory environment. A champion of intense engagement, The Core Nation is a business partner that measures its own success by its clients' achievements.

Creating brands that command attention and spark demand — even in the most crowded categories — is second nature to Dorene, who draws inspiration from Henri Matisse's declaration, "Creativity takes courage." Clients marvel at her unfailing ability to elicit powerfully positive reactions from healthcare professionals and patients through award-winning creative that connects, resonates, and engages brand stakeholders, often persuading them to embrace a new or different point of view.

Developing strong strategic platforms and infusing them with her kaleidoscopic imagination, Dorene is able to quickly home in on that one visual element that an intended audience can relate to — and the one compelling point of a brand's differentiation — so that the target audience feels that the brand truly understands their needs. She succeeds by inviting audiences into a deeper discussion about a brand and the many ways they can benefit from it. Even if brands don't have superior clinical benefits, Dorene makes them simply irresistible.

Dorene's passion for creating unforgettable brands is matched by her drive, enthusiasm, and determination to continually achieve creative excellence. Despite increasing regulatory restrictions, she fosters an environment in which the creative teams of The Core Nation are encouraged to explore, experiment, and push the limits of creative expression beyond convention — or what she calls today's "sea of sameness." Understanding that the visual realm offers much more expressive leeway than the written word, Dorene continues to show the industry that a brand can, and should, leverage distinctive art and design to establish its differentiated value with healthcare providers and their patients. She has led her creative teams to numerous prestigious awards such as the Global Awards and Doctors' Choice Awards; awards from the Rx Club, Medical Marketing & Media, eMarket Healthcare World, and Product Management Today; and multiple Manny wins and nominations. And the list goes on.

Before she began her illustrious career in pharma, Dorene managed creative teams at leading consumer agencies — including Scali, McCabe, Sloves and BBDO — and fashion houses, all of which have given her a unique perspective on the pharmaceutical landscape. Her diverse portfolio includes award-winning campaigns for clients such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim, Revlon, and Visa, just to name a few.

Whether she's driving strategic and creative development of domestic or global campaigns, Dorene's singular sense of style and creative magic distinguish every brand she works on.

Devon joined Brandkarma in 2008 with more than a decade of healthcare experience. He has led numerous medical marketing, communications, and educational initiatives for healthcare organizations, including pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies. Prior to joining Brandkarma, he was a senior director and an education consultant at MedsiteCME, a subsidiary of WebMD, Inc. "Dr. Devon" obtained his medical degree from the University of California, Irvine, where he also trained in anesthesiology and received his MBA.

Reversing the maxim that life imitates art, Levy has an uncommon ability to create images and impressions that have both the force of truth and the power of identification. He intuitively knows how to get healthcare providers and patients to react emotionally to a recognized problem or frustration — and successfully lead them to a brand's solution.

Strategic thinking is the force that relentlessly drives Levy's unparalleled creativity. Clients love working with him because he is always anticipating their needs and is incredibly responsive, embraces challenges, and knows how to drive unwavering demand for their brands.

Levy could be illustrating anything from a complex mechanism of action to a product benefit or a physician/patient interaction, and they are all unique, yet always recognizable. His creative palette is filled with rich emotional colors and images that are merged together to develop brands that make a lasting impression.

He finds inspiration everywhere — from an architectural detail, a nature documentary, or even a soccer match — and inspires his creative teams to keep their eyes and minds open. What emerges from this artistic sensibility is brand recognition through visual landscapes that communicate both strategically and honestly. He skillfully engages diverse audiences, compelling healthcare professionals and patients to choose one brand over another, despite the fiercest competition.

Levy's creative reservoir springs from nearly 20 years of art direction in medical advertising. Prior to joining our team, he worked for several agencies as well as in-house at Hoffmann-La Roche, giving him a solid understanding of the unique challenges pharmaceutical marketers face.

Levy has been a driving force here for more than 16 years. His singular and invaluable artistic contribution has resulted in many enduring client relationships — and dozens of industry awards. Always the last one to leave the office every night, Levy winds down by tuning into the latest scientific programs on the Discovery Channel.