Ben Zipkin

I’m the founder and chief strategist of PharmaForward, a consultancy focused on digital analytics, measurement, AI search, and technical marketing for life sciences organizations. I’ve spent more than two decades helping pharmaceutical and biotech companies make better decisions with data — and lately, helping them stay visible and accurately represented as answers move from search results to AI assistants.

The work

I’m a digital strategist, analytics consultant, entrepreneur, and perpetual tinkerer. Over the years I’ve worked across digital marketing, analytics, AI, search, user experience, and marketing technology, partnering with organizations ranging from emerging biotech startups to some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. My work sits at the intersection of technology and healthcare — translating complex data into practical insights that improve marketing performance, patient engagement, and business outcomes.

Most days you’ll find me building dashboards, analyzing campaign performance, experimenting with new AI tools, or helping clients answer deceptively simple questions like, “What’s actually working?” and “What should we do next?”

Before PharmaForward, I founded and sold a digital agency, worked inside both agency and consulting environments, and learned many lessons the hard way. That experience shaped how I approach client work today: practical over theoretical, outcomes over buzzwords, and always focused on delivering something useful.

In 2024, I was honored to be recognized as a PM360 ELITE 100 “Tech-Know Geek”, an award that perfectly embraces the part of me that still gets excited about data models, automation workflows, and finding patterns hidden inside messy datasets.

Off the clock

Outside of work, I live in Madison, Wisconsin with my family. I’ve previously called Buffalo, Boston, New York City, Seattle, and Chicago home, but Wisconsin has proven surprisingly difficult to leave. When I’m not working, you’ll usually find me cheering on my daughters at sporting events, testing new technology, reading far too many articles about artificial intelligence, taking photos, or convincing myself that this will finally be the year the Buffalo Bills win the Super Bowl.

I’m endlessly curious about how technology changes the way we work, communicate, and make decisions. Whether that’s AI, analytics, digital health, or whatever comes next, I’m always interested in exploring new ideas and helping people make sense of them.

If you’re working on an interesting challenge in biotech, pharma, healthcare, analytics, AI, or digital strategy, I’d love to connect — or start with my writing.