About Us

Independent expertise in KOL identification and engagement.

Discuss your expert landscape
Who we are

Kendle Healthcare is an independent healthcare consultancy specialising in KOL identification and KOL engagement strategy.

For more than two decades, we have supported Medical Affairs, Marketing, and Product teams on projects where identifying the right experts is critical, particularly in complex, evolving, or highly scrutinised disease areas.

Our role is not to generate long lists or fill activity calendars. It is to help clients understand which experts genuinely matter in a given scientific and strategic context, and why.

leadership

Who are we?

Joe Kendle

Managing Director

Joe leads client work across all projects, overseeing both the strategic direction of engagements and their delivery.

He has played a central role in developing Kendle Healthcare’s current analytical approach, refining the firm’s methodology toward more bespoke, context-specific analysis of expert communities. This includes curated KOL selection methods, structured influence scoring, and network-based analysis tailored to specific products, disease areas, and strategic objectives.

He brings more than ten years of experience in KOL identification, mapping, and engagement strategy. Having worked with Kendle Healthcare since the beginning of his career, he understands both how the firm operates and why.

After several years as a teacher, Joe developed a strong ability to communicate complex ideas clearly, ask precise questions, and bring structure to ambiguous problems. He continues to refine the firm’s analytical approach while working closely with clients throughout each project.

Neil Kendle

Founder and Chair

Neil is the founder and Chair of Kendle Healthcare. He brings more than three decades of experience in healthcare consultancy and played an early role in developing systematic approaches to KOL identification and engagement.

His early work helped move KOL identification and engagement from informal, network-led practices toward more transparent, evidence-informed methods.

As Chair, Neil provides continuity and strategic oversight, ensuring that the standards of rigour, objectivity, and integrity on which the firm was built continue to guide its work.

Our History

Kendle Healthcare was founded in 2003 by Neil Kendle,

following his experience working across Medical Affairs and commercial roles within the healthcare industry.

At a time when opinion leader work was often informal, inconsistent, or driven by personal networks, Neil was one of the first to develop systematic approaches to KOL identification and engagement, combining structured evidence with informed judgement years before structured KOL mapping became widely adopted.

The methodology has continued to evolve, incorporating more bespoke approaches to expert identification, structured influence scoring, and network-based analysis to better understand how expertise and influence operate within specialist scientific communities.

The business was built on a commitment to objective analysis, transparent methodology, and work that holds up to internal and external scrutiny.

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in practice

How we operate now.

Independence and continuity

Kendle Healthcare has grown deliberately rather than quickly.
We have chosen to remain independent and focused, allowing our work to be shaped by the specific scientific and strategic questions our clients face, rather than by the constraints of large-scale platforms or rigid service models.

Working with us

We work closely with clients throughout each project.

Our process is collaborative but never opaque. Assumptions are made explicit, rationale is documented, and conclusions are open to challenge.

We are typically engaged when the cost of getting things wrong is high and when clarity matters more than speed or volume.

Let's talk about your situation

If you are working on a programme where identifying and engaging the right experts is critical, we would be happy to have an initial conversation.

Discuss your expert landscape

Joe Kendle

Client Services Director

Joe is a cornerstone of Kendle Healthcare, embodying mastery, experience, insight and integrity in everything he delivers.

With more than ten years of experience in KOL Identification and Mapping, Joe’s relationship with Kendle Healthcare began at its foundation. As a university student, he worked on the company’s very first project, gaining early and lasting insight into its standards, values and ambition. That continuity gives him a deep understanding of not just what we do, but why we do it.

After six years in secondary education, Joe returned to healthcare consultancy with a distinctive skill set. His teaching background sharpened his ability to communicate complex ideas with clarity and calm authority. Clients value his measured approach, thoughtful questioning and ability to bring structure to complexity.

Joe’s particular expertise lies in translating technology into meaningful strategic insight. He has been instrumental in advancing the use of Network Mapping within KOL engagement, ensuring that influence is understood in context rather than in isolation. His work combines analytical rigour with practical application, turning data into decisions clients can act on with confidence.

Beyond his professional role, Joe demonstrates integrity through sustained philanthropic commitment. He has raised significant funds for charity through endurance challenges, reflecting resilience, discipline and a strong sense of social responsibility.

Neil Kendle

Managing Director

Neil is more than Managing Director. He is the driving force behind Kendle Healthcare’s standards of mastery, insight and integrity.

With more than three decades of healthcare consultancy experience, Neil brings a depth of understanding that only time and immersion can build. His background as both a Medical Science Liaison and a Brand Manager gives him a rare dual perspective. He understands the priorities of medical professionals and the pressures facing commercial and marketing teams, allowing him to bridge strategy and science with credibility and clarity.

Neil has helped shape the modern healthcare consultancy landscape. He pioneered many of the industry’s established approaches to opinion leader identification and engagement, setting benchmarks that others have since followed. His work has always been grounded in rigorous thinking, ethical practice and a commitment to doing things properly, not simply quickly.

Under his leadership, Kendle Healthcare has earned its reputation for thoughtful strategy, precise execution and trusted partnerships. Clients value his judgement because it is informed by experience, sharpened by insight and guided by integrity.

Outside of work, Neil is a dedicated golfer, a passion he has pursued for more than 25 years. The discipline and focus the game demands mirror the qualities he brings to his professional life: patience, precision and a long term view.