Genentech recently announced a series of marketing leadership hires to start off the new year.

The biotech company hired Erica Taylor, PhD, as the company’s first chief marketing officer and tabbed Ozgun “Oz” Demir as its first head of digital marketing.

Prior to rejoining Genentech, Taylor served as head of strategy and chief of staff for Roche’s global product strategy team, overseeing the creation and refinement of its end-to-end oncology and research strategy. Before that role, Taylor was at Gilead Sciences and led the U.S. commercial build-out of the launch of Remedesivir during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taylor was previously with Genentech for a decade, serving in a series of roles. Now, she will “embed leading edge and innovative marketing capabilities aimed at creating a world class marketing organization.”

For his part, Demir most recently served as executive director and head of digital strategy for oncology at Novartis. Before that position, Oz helmed Bayer’s digital strategy in the U.S. and Europe markets for multiple sclerosis (MS), hematology and women’s health. He also led the digital transformation of Pfizer in emerging markets. 

Oz is tasked with establishing a “long-term vision and strategy to enhance the customer and patient experience” through integrated digital transformation across the marketing organization. 

“We boldly pursue solutions to some of the world’s most complex health challenges, and key to this mission is evolving how we communicate about our dynamic portfolio of products.” Ashley Magargee, SVP and head of commercial portfolio at Genentech, said in a statement. “Erica and Oz will transform our digital marketing capabilities at Genentech to provide an easier, faster and more seamless experience for customers and patients to access information about our products.”

Beyond its efforts to boost its marketing and digital capabilities for the experience of its customers and patients, Genentech has been busy of late.

In the fall, Genentech launched Futurelab+, a $10 million expansion of its existing educational initiative to boost interest in students around career opportunities in the biotech sector.

The company also unveiled a direct-to-consumer campaign for Ocrevus in both English and Spanish languages for the MS community.