WE ARE
MARICICH HEALTH

We’re a healthcare branding, advertising and marketing communications agency with a unique perspective. By bringing our M FactorSM, we work with clients as navigators of an evolving healthcare landscape focused on rapid innovation and engagement with diverse audiences. We believe that doing effective marketing is not enough. It has to serve a higher purpose. So when we help our clients grow by doing more good for the populations they serve, everyone wins.

FOCUSED ON THE INTEGRATED HEALTHCARE ECOSYSTEM

We develop branding and marketing campaigns at the intersection of strategy, creativity, cultural authenticity and data-driven measurability. Our approach aligns core human truths with business objectives to strengthen brand relevance, improve consumer experiences and deliver measurable results.

We influence diverse consumer audiences and healthcare stakeholders across the integrated healthcare ecosystem—from hospitals and health systems to payers, life sciences innovators and public health entities.

Clients

Team Leaders

Mark Maricich

CEO & Chief Strategist

David Maricich

President & Chief Creative Officer

Renita Smith

VP, Brand Strategy

Patrick Markovsky

VP, Client Engagement

Leah Smith

VP, Client Solutions

Jason Simon

Creative Director

Esthela Alarcon-Teagle

Strategy Director, Hispanic Market

Debbie Karnowsky

Executive Creative Director

Jim DiPiazza

Creative Director

Soa Kang

Senior Brand Strategist, Asian Market

Diego Pombo

Creative Director, Hispanic Market

AWARDED BY THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY

We are consistently recognized for our client outcomes by our peers and colleagues in the healthcare and medical industries. This includes best-in-shows, delegates choice and multicultural awards by a variety of competitions including Healthcare Ad Awards, Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards, ADDYs, Tellys and MM&M.

Mark Maricich

CEO & Chief Strategist

A 25-year communications industry veteran, Mark is CEO and Chief Strategist at Maricich Health. He has led many strategic and marketing initiatives for health systems, medical groups and payers, such as UC Irvine Health, Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, L.A. Care Health Plan and Western Dental. Mark also directed global and national medical marketing and branding initiatives for accounts such as Bausch +Lomb, 3M Unitek, Aramark Uniform Services, Sandel Medical, Visiogen and Oraya Therapeutics. Mark served as president of the Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Association (HPRMA), a leading marketing organization for hospitals, medical groups, independent practice associations and health plans. He received a BA in Communications from California State University, Fullerton.

David Maricich

President & Chief Creative Officer

As a navigator of the integrated healthcare ecosystem, David has a personal mission to help the world be a healthier place through consulting on healthcare innovation, branding, marketing and communications. As a result, he has led major initiatives in his role as president / chief operating officer and chief creative officer for Maricich Health. For over 20 years, David has overseen numerous change management, investment / private equity, advocacy and growth-oriented creative campaigns for hospitals; health systems; and Fortune 500 medical device, life sciences and other healthcare companies across the U.S. and internationally. He has also led numerous public health campaigns to improve the health of diverse audiences while serving on the board of TAAN Worldwide, a global network of marketing communications, digital and media firms.

Renita Smith

VP, Brand Strategy

Renita is a seasoned strategic marketer with years of healthcare and multicultural experience in driving brand success at companies ranging from digital health startups to Fortune 500 companies.  A marketer driven by a passion for healthcare and life sciences, Renita has developed a specialty focus in the sector, devising and implementing marketing, branding and content strategy for a range of companies targeting healthcare professionals and healthcare consumers. Renita holds a BA in Economics from Stanford University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Patrick Markovsky

VP, Client Engagement

With over 15 years of marketing experience and an entrepreneurial spirit, Patrick is a seasoned business leader who is responsible for providing exceptional management and service to the agency’s accounts. As the VP of client engagement, Patrick has the keen ability to manage internal teams and executive clients, while keeping all projects on time, on brief and on budget. Before joining the Maricich Health team, Patrick held various senior-level roles in both the corporate and ad agency environments, providing strategic oversight and campaign development for clients such as Tenet Healthcare, SCAN Health Plan, Healthcare Partners and Golden State Medicare. When he is not in the office, Patrick is coaching sports teams for his daughter and son or at the beach with his wife and Zoe, their Labrador.

Leah Smith

VP, Client Solutions

Leah is a client advocate and growth strategist dedicated to helping healthcare brands find their voice and expand their reach. With more than 15 years of experience, she excels at removing friction from complex business decisions, enabling leadership teams to move from stuck to scaling. She has partnered with national organizations such as Aetna, Eli Lilly, and VSP, as well as regional and local healthcare leaders including Providence, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, and THP, to drive measurable market share growth. Leah’s focus is singular: delivering outcomes that impact the bottom line. She believes healthcare growth is built on human connection and works tirelessly to ensure her clients’ missions are felt by the people who need them most.

Jason Simon

Creative Director

A trusted and versatile creative director, Jason Simon is fueled by a passion to create extraordinary brand experiences. He has spent the past 28 years crafting highly creative solutions for a diverse range of companies in a multitude of industries — from healthcare, technology, entertainment and real estate, to education, hospitality, retail, and food & beverage. In the healthcare sector, he has helped to guide the brands of Kerr Dental, The Luskin Orthopaedic Institute for Children, St. Joseph Hospital, Hoag and CalOptima Health, to name just a few. With his diverse experience, Jason is able to bring a unique perspective to every project. Jason’s design has been recognized with more than 200 awards including an OC Addy and HCC Best in Show. His work has also been featured in several industry publications such as HOW, PRINT, STEP and Graphis. Jason is a graduate and former instructor of Cal State Long Beach where he earned a BFA in Visual Communications.

Esthela Alarcon-Teagle

Strategy Director, Hispanic Market

As a vision-driven Brand Strategist and Qualitative Researcher with over 20 years of marketing and advertising experience, Esthela is at her best when using her compelling storytelling ability and deep industry knowledge of the U.S. and Hispanic consumer markets to create and deliver successful campaigns. She has earned a Master of Communication Management degree and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Social Sciences with an emphasis in Communications and a minor in Spanish Literature from the University of Southern California. A true fan of academia, Esthela has worked as an Adjunct Professor and Lecturer for California State University Fullerton. Esthela’s healthcare marketing experience includes working with clients such as Pfizer, Blue Shield, Johnson & Johnson, CalOptima Health and more.

Debbie Karnowsky

Executive Creative Director

Debbie is known worldwide as one of the top creative forces in healthcare marketing. She is the author of “Thrive” for Kaiser Permanente and is responsible for the direction of that brand’s turnaround campaign. She is as much a strategist as a creative mind, whose work with healthcare brands breaks through the competition in unexpected ways. Debbie’s work for Western Dental encouraged customers to “Chew On,” going beyond the competitive “smiley” sea of sameness into a place of lifelong oral health and fitness. Her creative direction on L.A. Care Health Plan and Santa Clara Valley Healthcare has garnered her awards for both results and creativity. Ad Age named Debbie one of the “100 Best and Brightest Women in Advertising” and Adweek voted her a “Creative Director All-Star.” Debbie’s television advertising work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and judges the Emmy Awards. She received her education at Indiana University.

Jim DiPiazza

Creative Director

Jim believes the foundation to creativity is a healthy mind and spirit. He is vegan, a marathoner and an Ironman triathlete. Throughout his career, he has focused on getting the message right, and then presenting it in the most engaging way possible. Jim is a writer by trade, a lover of beautiful design, an organizational freak and a fearless leader with an entrepreneurial spirit. Over the last 10 years, Jim’s been executive creative director at Swirl and at Campbell Ewald, where he oversaw the Kaiser Permanente business. He’s been around the country at small shops and big agencies — turning Airwalk into a cultural icon, winning Xbox at McCann, creating the “Bacardi & Cola” campaign, rebranding a nutrition company, helping win Volkswagen at Deutsch, and then launching the Beetle and a 360 campaign at the Super Bowl. As executive creative director at Deutsch, he won Uber and also managed the massive Sprint account, which included the business-reinvigorating campaign in which the Verizon guy switched. As executive creative director, Jim also oversaw all general market and multicultural work at Walton Isaacson. At Maricich Health, Jim brings his experience, creative passion and healthcare acumen to campaign development, reaching healthcare consumers and public health audiences for clients such as Santa Clara Valley Healthcare and Riverside University Health System.

Soa Kang

Senior Brand Strategist, Asian Market

Soa has over 25 years of marketing experience within the Asian market, including 10 years on the client side. Some of the successful campaigns she has worked on are L.A. Care Health Plan, Kaiser Permanente, the Hepatitis B vaccination campaign for the Asian Liver Foundation of Stanford University, and Bristol Myers Squibb’s efforts to educate Asians about early diagnosis and treatment. She has also served on the planning committee of L.A. mayor’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month for the past five years. She is a current and past board member of community and business organizations such as Korean American Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, Korean Food Globalization Association, Asian American Advertising Federation, and Asian Business Association of L.A.

Diego Pombo

Creative Director, Hispanic Market

Diego has over 20 years of experience in the U.S. Hispanic market working with various healthcare companies, hospitals and foundations, including Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Blue Cross of CA. He has been an instrumental part of each team, helping to improve brand awareness and perceptions within the Hispanic community.

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