Mary Conway is the CEO and founder of the award-winning Healthcare PR & Communications agency MKC Strategies.
As a women founder, Mary has been a trailblazer in her industry, taking leadership and success to new levels. It is no wonder Mary has been called a legend and a force of nature. She exudes unique energy and passion while delivering results that keep her clients, partners, and team coming back for more.
Throughout her decades-long career, Mary has been pivotal in building and growing companies and practices at some of the industry’s best-known agencies. She has been a creative, results-driven leader behind many of the industry’s most celebrated, referenced, and awarded programs and campaigns – Drive4COPD, Rally with Sally for Bone Health, PTSD Alliance, Tune in HepC, C3Prize, Shaquille Gets Real.
More recently, Mary has been tapped to create strategies surrounding siRNA gene silencing campaigns to drive awareness of gum disease and advance conversation about liver disease, insomnia, cancers, and other health topics.
Mary measures success in the conversations her teams create.
Mary is skilled in training thought leaders, C-suite executives, celebrity influencers and health experts on how to achieve their communications and marketing goals. She has a coveted network of influential contacts to secure on-message placements across leading media platforms and has the know-how to maximize the value of these stories.
She’s shaped strategies to launch emerging companies, created stories to celebrate game-changing research and researchers, and driven awareness of the science and pre-clinical work of early biotechs.
She refers to her team as the third brain, marrying arts and science to help translate complex information into meaningful stories.
From her start in healthcare as the fourth full-time employee at the celebrated Chandler Chicco Agency to her five-year stint helping science agencies quadruple their revenue, Mary has left her mark on talent and teams, impacting the way they do their work and inspiring them to remember why they do work.
In 2019, MKC Strategies was born from Mary’s longing to be more connected and closer to her client work, which Mary found missing as she rose in the ranks in the large agency world.
Under Mary’s lead, MKC Strategies has doubled in size year over year through the best use of technologies and team capabilities.
In the past year, MKC has been enlisted by 20 companies across the health and science landscape, including pharma, biotech, nonprofits, hospital systems, sports, wellness, and consumer brands.
Nearly five years after founding MKC, with a 90% client retention rate, the company has quickly become the partner of choice for companies – including other agencies – who know that Mary is the thought partner you want by their side.
Mary has taken female leadership to the next level. Mary is a true utility leader who is personable in her style yet professional and bold while having a hand in critical aspects of the work – when and where it makes sense.
Mary established MKC Strategies with an entirely virtual team, finding success in a digital environment and trailblazing before it was the norm.
As a mother of four who has flourished in a hybrid work environment since the ’90s, she not only respects a work-life balance but has always embraced her own “work-life integration.”
Importantly, Mary gives her employees the space to succeed without having to sacrifice their presence with friends, family and personal interests. And best of all, Mary brings her own comfortable style and sense of humor to every touch point.
Mary has earned a collection of the industry’s highest awards including multiple Healthcare Campaign of Year recognitions, Platinum Hermes Creative Awards, PR News Agency Elite Awards in Media Relations, MarCom Platinum Awards, PR News Impact Communications Awards, among others.
What advice would you give other business leaders?
“Be true to your vision, and enjoy both what you are doing and who you are doing it with. Success will follow.”
