MEET THE TEAM: Susan Yarin Peim
There are countless ways to achieve career success besides reaching “the top.” Understanding how to mesh with different personalities and using humor to lighten the mood go a long way as well. Meet JWA consultant Susan Yarin Peim, who puts both professional and personal skills to play as she develops winning communications for clients.
Susan was raised in Yonkers, New York, spending her formative years behind drugstore counters watching her father and uncles, all pharmacists, make medicines, speak the medical language and interact with customers seeking their guidance. She developed an affinity for health care and empathy for patients. Rather than pursue science, however, Susan graduated with a B.A. in communications from the prestigious SI Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
Susan and her husband Larry, braving the wind at the Cliffs of Moher
She was happy to meld her communications training with her interest in health care for a career as a medical communicator. Susan has enjoyed roles in publishing, editing and copywriting, news reporting, client and account service, medical education and corporate affairs. She worked at top P.R. agencies, three global biopharmaceutical giants and, along the way, with six Nobel Prize winners.
She was a reporter for Medical Advertising News which led to her first P.R. job as an account executive at Carl Byoir & Associates. “I worked closely with former reporters who pivoted to P.R. and taught me how to craft press releases that would resonate with journalists.”
Susan landed her first pharmaceutical company job in the Corporate Communications Dept. of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), implementing programs to promote the company’s AIDS and oncology portfolios as well BMS’ world-renowned research grants and awards program.
Susan dotes on her furry family,
including mixed-breed Georgy Girl.
“The most enriching and rewarding yet heartbreaking part of my career was being at the intersection of the pharmaceutical industry and AIDS activism in the early 1990s,” says Susan. “BMS cultivated fruitful relationships with AIDS activists, and together navigated the FDA, NIH and novel clinical trial paradigms amidst the social, political, scientific and medical turmoil of that era.” She deeply appreciated the importance of patient advocacy while working closely with cancer and AIDS patients, noting that her inspiration was how her dad treated the customers in his pharmacy and how grateful they were for his help.
After BMS, Susan returned to agency life and held vice president positions at Euro RSCG, Ogilvy and Porter Novelli working with world-class pharmaceutical and advocacy clients. A particularly memorable assignment involved launching the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), an account Susan was awarded by a mentor and former BMS senior executive who initiated NCCN and remembered Susan’s strong work ethic.
Susan first met Jeff Winton when he interviewed her for a position at Pharmacia that would have involved relocating. Before any decisions were made, Susan removed herself from consideration when her father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. “It was critically important for me to stay close to home to support my dad and be his advocate,” says Susan.
She eventually joined Pfizer and crossed paths again with Jeff when she was assigned to work on Celebrex, a drug marketed in partnership between Pharmacia and Pfizer. She was thrilled that Jeff was her initial Pharmacia contact.
Lulu, the tuxedo cat, dons a bow tie to complete her formal look.
Susan says, “From that point, our friendship and working relationship took off! That’s also where I first met fellow JWA consultant Mary-Fran Faraji.”
After six years at Pfizer, which acquired Pharmacia in 2003, Susan accepted a position at Bayer Diabetes Care, closer to home, in Westchester. For eight years, she led global internal and external communications for the division, spearheading an award-winning communications campaign with Nick Jonas shortly after he revealed his diabetes diagnosis.
Jeff entered Susan’s life again when he was consulting at Bayer and attended a global communications conference in Germany. Dinner was across a lake from the conference hotel, and Jeff and Susan shared a canoe rather than take the bus. “Several canoes were peacefully paddling across the lake when, all of a sudden, our canoe was upside down,” says Susan. “Jeff and I were laughing hysterically while hanging on to the canoe and waiting for the rescue rowboat.”
When Bayer moved to its current New Jersey location, Susan left to launch a consulting business that took her on a completely new path in medical communications – marketing for hospital and physician networks including White Plains Hospital and Optum in Westchester and Stamford Health in Connecticut.
In 2022, Jeff asked Susan to be a consultant on the Jeff Winton Associates team. “I didn’t have to think twice. Working with Jeff is always a joy,” says Susan.
In her spare time, Susan and her husband Larry love to travel. “I’ve been to most European capitals through work and it’s great now to revisit some of those spots with Larry,” she says.
Susan enjoys exploring the Hudson Valley, visiting farmers markets, attending outdoor music events and catching Broadway shows. At home, Susan and Larry pamper their two rescue pets: 15-year-old Georgy Girl, a mix of nine dog breeds (according to a DNA report), and Lulu, a 10-year-old tuxedo cat.
Susan and Larry on a fun night out in Manhattan.
Reflecting on her current career, Susan says, “Working for Jeff Winton Associates has afforded me the opportunity to continue to flex my communications muscles while enjoying life. It’s the perfect balance!”