Sector · Healthcare & Life Sciences
Healthcare and life sciences executive search.
Retained search for biotech, pharmaceutical, medtech and healthcare services businesses — from clinical-stage biotechs to established commercial-stage groups.
Industry insight
Understanding the landscape.
Clinical-stage vs commercial-stage leadership
The CEO profile for a clinical-stage biotech is materially different from the CEO of a commercial-stage business. Clinical-stage CEOs typically bring scientific and regulatory depth, capital-markets fluency, and comfort with milestone-driven risk. Commercial-stage CEOs bring operational scale-up experience and P&L accountability. Placing one profile into the other role is the most common cause of biotech CEO failure.
Regulatory pathways matter
MHRA, EMA and FDA regulatory experience is not interchangeable. We assess candidates for the specific pathway a client’s programme requires, and we distinguish between regulatory strategy experience and regulatory operational experience.
The Chief Medical Officer profile shift
The CMO role has evolved from purely clinical leadership to include commercial and payer strategy, particularly in specialty and rare-disease areas. Board-facing CMOs are now expected to hold both.
Series C onwards leadership refresh
Around Series C or the transition into pivotal trials, most biotech boards revisit whether the founder-CEO is the right person to take the company through to approval and launch. This is the highest-volume trigger for CEO search in the sector.
Roles we recruit
Senior appointments across the sector.
We recruit across seniority levels, from senior specialists to board-level appointments.
- Chief Executive Officer (Biotech / Pharma / Medtech)
- Chief Medical Officer
- Chief Scientific Officer
- Chief Operating Officer (Life Sciences)
- Chief Financial Officer (Life Sciences)
- Head of Regulatory Affairs
- VP / Head of Clinical Development
- VP / Head of Commercial
- Head of Manufacturing / CMC
Why work with us
Retained, senior-partner-led, sector-fluent.
- Scientific and regulatory fluency: We assess candidates against the specific pathway and modality of your programme. We distinguish clinical-stage from commercial-stage leadership profiles.
- Investor coordination: Most biotech CEO mandates involve board and lead-investor sign-off. We manage this coordination as part of the mandate.
- International reach: UK biotech leadership pools frequently draw on US and Continental European candidates. We coordinate relocation and share-based compensation structures where relevant.
- Retained and senior-partner-led: Every mandate is led personally by a named partner from brief to onboarding.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Do you handle biotech CEO searches at clinical stage?
Yes. Clinical-stage biotech CEO search is a specialism. We understand the profile requirements — scientific and regulatory depth, capital-markets experience, comfort with milestone-driven risk — and we distinguish them from commercial-stage CEO profiles.
Can you support medtech and diagnostics as well as pharma / biotech?
Yes. Medtech, diagnostics and digital health leadership all fall within our practice. Each has distinct commercial dynamics and we calibrate the search accordingly.
How do you handle investor coordination?
Most senior life sciences appointments require board and lead-investor coordination. We manage that alongside the mandate — including scheduling investor meetings during the shortlist stage where required.
How long does a life sciences CEO search take?
Fourteen to twenty weeks brief to accepted offer is typical. International candidates or complex compensation structures (share-based components, buyout of unvested equity) can add three to four weeks.
How is CEO compensation typically structured?
Base salary, cash bonus, and a substantial share-based long-term component (options, RSUs, or founder-equity ratchets in early-stage private companies). At commercial-stage or listed businesses the LTIP component is more standardised.
Discuss a mandate