Identifying and recruiting a Head of Innovative Technologies for a major biotechnology firm

Situation

Our client, a highly successful and established biotechnology firm renowned for its agile and modern approach, had long viewed technological innovation strategy on a macro scale. Recognizing that the ability to successfully deliver these strategies was contingent on a dedicated execution-focused leader within the technology leadership team, they sought to bring on a Head of Innovative Technology. Our client was eager to instill a ‘cloud-first’ approach to IT, ensuring that all new solutions were delivered from a cloud model; the new Head of IT would need to be an expert in this area, as well as demonstrate the ability to provide a practicality-driven view within a suite of idea-driven executives.

Approach

As culture was of the utmost importance to our client, they were seeking a leader who would bring the right balance of technical skills and passion for embracing new technology. This enabled our firm to be highly creative in our research and mapping process, expanding beyond the biotechnology space and leveraging our deep cross-sector global networks to identify potential candidates of interest. Our search methodology was tailored to identify candidates with the right balance of technical skills, leadership expertise and ability to drive and deliver change. We developed a robust and diverse short list of eight candidates that spanned industries and organizations, and all of whom had truly delivered technology innovation in significant ways.

Outcome 

Our expanded search parameters enabled us to find our client’s selected finalist from an atypical background for biotechnology; at the time of engagement, the candidate was leading enterprise solution delivery for a national professional association. Under this individual’s leadership, the association successfully revitalized a multi-year $18 million core technology roadmap that had strayed from its target goals and championed the design, selection, and deployment of a range of new digital products and services—all of which were cloud-focused. Upon joining our client’s firm as the new Head of Innovative Technologies, the candidate delivered a three-year strategic transformational technology roadmap. The $20 million initiative deployed next-generation infrastructure technologies, and thanks to the implementation of new resource management and prioritization frameworks, the technology team increased project delivery over 250% within the first year.