ON Partners Life Sciences Executive Talent Report In The First Half Of 2022 – ON Partners

Jul 9, 2022

  • Highlights of recent executive talent appointments and partnering organizations across the life sciences, health, healthtech, and wellness space in the first half of 2022

  • ON reports record 81% growth over the last year with a strong focus on sustainability, cleantech, private equity, consumer technology, and life sciences

  • Recent insights from our life sciences and healthtech executive search experts on the current and  future shifts of talent demand in the sector

ON Partners Life Sciences Executive Search Talent Report First Half 2022

Ranked as a prominent Life Sciences and Healthcare executive search firm by market research firm, Hunt Scanlon, our executive search partners have a long history of collaborating with leading, innovative life sciences, health, healthcare IT, and wellness organizations.

As non-conformists focused on taking an untraditional approach to executive search, ON consultants continue to place C-level, board, and senior executives across the life sciences, health, and wellness space with a 40% increase in search appointments in the sector over the last year. Recent placements include senior appointments for companies including IGM Biosciences, Thermo Fisher, Intelycare, RxBenefits, and Nooma Bio.

The market for life sciences talent continues to evolve based on the changing dynamics for financing, stock prices across the sector, and layoffs, including from big pharma – driving our clients and potential clients to be nimbler in their hiring practices for senior executives.

“Over the past few years with COVID and market dynamics, executive moves have been much more fluid,” stated Steve Cornacchia, partner at ON. “Candidates now are putting more value on stability, gravitating to companies that can offer long term career paths and growth opportunities. Specifically in biotech, platform-driven companies are more interesting to candidates than those that are single-asset oriented.”

Adds Suzane Zebedee, Ph.D., and partner, “The COVID environment has taught us that a leader doesn’t have to be in the office every day to be effective, opening up more remote opportunities. This is especially good for companies in non-traditional biotech locations if they are willing to be flexible and the job allows it – if it’s not an operations role, for example – or in high cost of living centers.”

Read on to learn about the people and organizations we’re partnering with, the industry recognition we’re receiving from the likes of Forbes and Hunt Scanlon, and the latest news and thought leadership from our executive search consultants.

Recent Executive Talent Appointments With Leading Life Sciences and Health Organizations

 

 

Life Sciences Executive Talent Report

ON Partners consultants have placed a diverse group of senior executives within life sciences organizations thus far this year. Following are a few of the new leaders we recently placed:

Katy Moore, president, Allucent

Kevin Corcoran, chief executive officer, Nooma Bio

Joyce Liaw, VP, finance, HIBio

Rodrigo Lasso, GVP, finance, Thermo Fisher

Brian York, VP, clinical operations, Neumora

Jake Justiniano, VP, finance, Thermo Fisher

Shaun Stewart, head of antibody discovery & engineering, Resonant Therapeutics

Chris Chan, VP, FP&A, IGM Biosciences

Jeremy Hseih, M.D., Ph.D., executive director, clinical development, Prometheus

Additionally, the health and wellness sector has expanded over the years to include a variety of offerings including healthcare IT, medtech, and health education & assistance. Highlighted are a few of ON Partners’ executive appointments in this broader sector over the last year.

Brian Klapac, SVP, Technology, MindBody

Sheri Zee, chief people officer, Intelycare

John Letter, chief executive officer, nView Health

Bill Troiana, VP, Business, RxBenefits

Pretty George, head of technology, Ellison Institute

Alex Parnes, SVP, Marketing, Clinical Education Alliance

Stephanie Doherty, SVP, Marketing, Labor First

S. Piyum Samaraweera, chief product officer, Greenlight Guru

Recent Health Executive Search Insights in 2022

 

ON Partners executive search partners gathered in a Q&A session to provide insights into the executive talent market across the life sciences, health, and wellness sector. Following are insights from our partners about the trends, opportunities, and challenges currently shaping executive hiring in the sector.

What insights and trends are you seeing in life sciences and health tech hiring this past year? What do you predict moving forward given the current marketplace?

“Following the onset of COVID, there has been a huge focus on innovation. Improving the patient experience remains at the forefront with continued investment in telehealth, consumer wellness, and home health care. Automation/AI, virtual health, and patient focus are also areas that are not slowing down.” – Nina McMaster, partner at ON Partners

“In this market, candidates are receiving multiple offers and having to decline several. With financing and public markets being tough right now, many clients consider this an abysmal market to raise capital – leading to layoffs and a flood of lower quality resumes. I predict this too shall be part of the cycle, and VCs/public markets will rebound so companies can raise more capital for growth and hiring in 2023.” – Suzanne Zebedee, Ph.D.

What are some of the biggest challenges in hiring executives in this sector right now?

“Knowing how difficult it is to replace leaders in this market, companies are making an all-out effort to retain talent. We are having to prep candidates and hand hold them through their resignation process to ensure they successfully make the transition.” – Steve Cornacchia

“Facing the same challenges as many other industries, health IT is a highly competitive hiring market. Demand is high for strong leaders and candidates are getting reach outs about opportunities on a weekly basis.” – Nina McMaster

 What are some of the biggest opportunities in hiring executives in this sector right now?

“Health IT companies are mission-driven and patient focused, and that has been a big differentiator to candidates who want to be part of a company with a great culture and mission. Most of my clients in this space are pulling candidates from other industries – especially when it comes to technical leadership roles like CIO, CTO and VP Technology. Candidates from high growth SaaS tech companies bring a fresh perspective and growth mindset to health IT companies that are scaling and modernizing their technology.” – Nina McMaster

For more insights into the state of hiring in healthcare IT, see recent insights from Nina McMaster here.

Recent Executive Search Awards and Accolades

 

In the first half of 2022, ON Partners received several executive search awards across media publications including Forbes and Hunt Scanlon. Thanks to our executive community for continuing to put their trust in our tenured partners and experienced consultants.

Forbes

Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to determine the annual ranking of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms—the top 150 firms specialized in filling positions with salaries of at least $100,000. ON Partners is proud to be ranked #45 on the list as the only pure-play executive search firm with organic growth in the top 50. Read more.

Private Equity Recruiting

ON Partners, the pure-play retained executive search firm, is proud to be named to the 2022 Private Equity Recruiting Power 100 list, for the third consecutive year, by market research firm Hunt Scanlon. The list encompasses the nation’s leading executive search firms driving leadership results in the private equity sector. Read more.

About ON Partners

Since 2006, ON Partners is the only pure-play executive search firm building diverse C-level and board leadership teams. We rebuilt the institution of executive search for the way you work. Our approach includes present partners who engage with their clients from the first brief to the final decision, individually crafted solutions that are unique to each client, and an easier experience all around. Named by Forbes as one of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms and to the Inc. 500/5000 Lists nine times, ON Partners is consistently ranked among the top 20 retained executive search firms in the U.S.

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