Imre Names Neera Chaudhary as Next Chief Executive Officer

Agency Founder Dave Imre Moves to Executive Chairman

NEW YORK, Oct. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- imre today announces the appointment of Neera Chaudhary as its next Chief Executive Officer. Based in New York City, Chaudhary joined the agency on September 21, and will report to the agency's Board of Directors. Dave Imre, the agency's founder, will take on the role of Executive Chairman and remains a member of the Board of Directors. 

Chaudhary joins imre with more than two decades of experience leading top holding company agencies and practices and advising global clients across all industries with deep expertise for clients invested in healthcare across pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, health tech, consumer health, payor and health systems. Most recently serving as North America President of Ketchum, Chaudhary will lead imre's next growth phase as a leading full-service AOR. She will be responsible for the agency's business strategy and operations, talent, client engagements, growth and M&A.

"Upon meeting a remarkable set of candidates, the Board selected Neera because she's an inspiring hands-on leader who can galvanize people around a vision to usher in the next era of imre. Neera's large agency commercial experience of P&Ls exceeding $225M coupled with her growth prowess and energy for delivering disruptive firsts on behalf of clients, embodies all the qualities we were searching for in our next CEO," said Dave Imre.

"I'm proud of the agency we've built with a red thread to people and empathetic culture that has made the firm famous and Neera understands the ethos of that culture and has already begun building rapport within the team which is why I'm at ease passing her the baton. As Executive Chairman, my role will evolve to support Neera and the executive leadership team with culture and talent mentorship," added Imre.

Over the last 29 years imre evolved from a PR shop into a Digital/Social AOR, and has grown to become a full-service AOR. Its 2021 private equity investment by RLH Equity Partners proves the agency's independent business model is one clients are turning to when seeking more agile and innovative ways of working. As the agency scales under Chaudhary's leadership, they anticipate unlocking access to new, top talent while building and acquiring more in-demand services. 

"Imre has built something special that has made it a magnet for impressive talent and digital-first clients at the forefront of marketing and communications. Its disruptor DNA, empathy-driven culture and diverse-owned heritage tells an incredibly rich story," said Chaudhary. "Under my leadership and in partnership with the executive leadership team, we'll further highlight the firm's unique equities in digital, analytics, creative, media and modern earned that has differentiated its role as full-service AOR while keeping that edge of delivering innovative firsts and award-winning campaigns for our partners," added Chaudhary.

Fueling its growth model is the agency's balance of global healthcare clients mixed in with brands across consumer verticals including retail, automotive, industrial, finance, tech and fashion.

"This alchemic blend of consumer marketing helps the agency by serving as a catalyst to explore culturally relevant behavioral shifts with consumers, and to recruit talent. As the consumerization of healthcare continues, it's already giving the agency an edge when working with healthcare brands and companies looking to break the status quo and I look forward to how we evolve this it-factor," added Chaudhary.

"As the eternal optimist of the firm, I know we have a bright future ahead with Neera as our CEO. We have positive momentum to close out the year, an energized team and fantastic partners as we head into this new era," added Mark Eber, President and Board Member.

Imre works with many of the world's leading and high growth brands. Driven by innovation, the agency's integrated suite of marketing communications services include brand strategy, creative, omnichannel marketing, modern earned and media, data & analytics. Imre partners with a diversified and growing portfolio of brands including Amgen, AstraZeneca, Airstream, Bausch & Lomb, GSK, INFINITI, John Deere and PTC Therapeutics, among others. The agency maintains offices in New York, Los Angeles, Baltimore and Philadelphia in addition to a growing group of employees who work from anywhere. Imre is an LGBTQ-founded company.

RLH Equity Partners invests, together with entrepreneurial leadership teams, in uniquely positioned, high growth, knowledge-based B2B enterprises. Our portfolio companies span the business services, healthcare, and government services sectors and typically have $30-150 million of annual revenue at the time of investment. The RLH investment team, which averages 15 years of private equity experience, provides strategic and operational guidance to our portfolio companies in navigating the opportunities and challenges of scale and rapid growth. Our insights and processes to drive enterprise value have been honed over RLH's 40+ year history of successful investing.  RLH currently manages over $1 billion of assets and is actively seeking new portfolio company investments.

SOURCE imre