Ghada Michel Elias brings over 25 years of health communications experience, acquired in senior regional roles at leading pharmaceutical companies, to her current post as head of public relations at Sanofi Egypt, which she joined in 2012. She continues to oversee corporate communications and the implementation of awareness campaigns on various health topics today, work she began in 1992 when she established a public relations department at Boehringer Ingelheim in Cairo, remaining with the company as Regional Communications Manager for 13 years. Her personal motto being “because health matters,” Ghada has worked on numerous health initiatives over the years, including raising awareness across the region of smoking-related Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, undertaking the Hepatitis C virus burden in Egypt, and developing a strategy to fight counterfeit medications in the country through the launch of novel technology that empowers cardiac patients to identify counterfeit drugs. That last initiative has been recognized by the Egyptian government, and presented as a best practice on how to fight counterfeits to secure effective medicines. Ghada holds a Bachelor’s of Science and an MBA from Cairo’s Ain Shams University, in addition to her AUC Public Relations Diploma. She’s also currently studying Health Economics at Egypt’s Arab Academy for Science Technology and Maritime Transport.