Jean Kanan
President and Principal Advisor
Team leader. Visionary. Communications Specialist.
Jean is a co-founder and President & Principal Advisor at Spectrum Advisors. She brings to this role 20 years of knowledge and expertise in the field of public relations, public affairs and pharmaceutical communications.
Jean sees the complete picture when it comes to providing counsel to clients thanks to her extensive experience in diverse roles and sectors. She brings experience from government, from inside the pharmaceutical industry in Canada and abroad, as well as recent extensive agency experience building and managing a team that delivered innovative and successful results to clients, helping them achieve their business objectives. Jean has demonstrated her capabilities to build the right team and develop the right strategies to ensure the desired results.
Jean comes to Spectrum Advisors from her role as Vice-President, Health & Pharma at HKDP Communications and Public Affairs. While at HKDP Jean established a national communications service offering and built an elite team of strategists and communicators. She and the team pioneered the integration of public relations, patient advocacy and government relations to influence product reimbursement outcomes, an approach which resulted in a number of positive listing results for clients. As one of the leaders in the company, she fostered collaboration and contributed significantly to the growth of the overall business.
Prior to her career in pharmaceutical healthcare, Jean worked in Ottawa as a legislative assistant to a Member of Parliament and Policy Advisor to the Solicitor General of Canada. She also worked with Merck Frosst Canada aligning communications to business objectives and Merck Sharp & Dohme in the UK where she worked for five years.
Jean holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Political Science from Concordia University in Montreal and a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of Ottawa. She is fluent in English, French, Italian and Arabic.