Outstanding Alumni Award: Mr Philip Chin

18 Jul 2014

Honour for healthcare marketing expert and patron of children’s charity

Mr Philip Chin, BSc (Hons) Plant Biology (1982), has been presented with an Outstanding Alumnus Award for his work as a healthcare marketing expert and as patron of children’s charity Sebastian’s Action Trust.

Outstanding Alumnus Awards are presented to alumni who have achieved distinction in their profession; or through exemplary service to the University or the wider community; or through outstanding service of a personal or humanitarian nature.

The Awards were initiated by our founding universities and the first recipient was Sir Terry Leahy, former Chief Executive of Tesco plc (UMIST) and Mr Barry Purves, Film Director, (Victoria University of Manchester).

After graduating from the University of Manchester in 1982, Philip Chin began his career in the pharmaceutical industry, working in a variety of roles in sales, clinical research and marketing in the UK and internationally.

Continually frustrated with what he saw as the poor quality of most healthcare marketing at the time, in 1991 Philip and his wife Joanna, also an alumna from The University of Manchester, founded Langland, an advertising agency specialising in healthcare communications.

As Chief Executive, Philip has led Langland to become a multi-million pound business, employing around 100 people. Under Philip’s leadership, Langland has built a global reputation within the healthcare advertising world, by creating some of the most notable advertising campaigns in recent years for pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Novartis, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline.

Langland is now recognised as the world’s most creatively awarded healthcare advertising agency. For the past three years in succession, Langland has been honoured with the title of ‘Agency of the Year’ by the Global Awards – the world's largest and most coveted healthcare communications awards.

Beyond his work in advertising, Philip is also patron of Sebastian’s Action Trust, a charity based in Surrey, which provides a purpose-built holiday home and support for children with life-limiting illnesses and their families. The charity has recently been awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

Presiding Officer, Dean and Vice President of the Faculty of Life Sciences Professor Martin Humphries said: “It is with great pleasure I welcome back one of our former students, Philip Chin. We would like to recognize his global success with his multi-million pound healthcare marketing business.”