
Executive search and recruitment firm Berwick Partners has launched a Life Sciences Practice dedicated to recruiting senior executives into Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, Medical Devices and Service provider companies, nationally and internationally.
To support the launch, the firm has recruited Caroline Hunt and Katy Wallace as senior consultants in the new Practice.
A graduate from the University of Warwick with a BSc in Microbiology & Virology, Caroline Hunt joins the firm’s Manchester office, and will specialise in CRO Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical appointments. Katy Wallace, based in London, will focus on senior appointments for the Medical Devices and Medical Technology sectors and joins Berwick Partners after 11 years recruiting senior leadership roles within Manufacturing and Supply Chain functions across global Life Sciences clients.
Caroline, who holds an MSc in Medical Microbiology from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, began her career as a Virologist at Unilever before moving into executive search. She has spent the last 14 years working across the Life Sciences and Consumer Markets with boutique executive search organisations in the UK and North America, and a leading global organisational consulting firm.
Caroline explains:
“This is a time of enormous disruption in the Life Sciences sector. The generation of novel IP and new entrants from the technology industry are accelerating the dawn of personalised medicine. With a near constant stream of capital and emerging technologies, biotech start-ups have proliferated, investors and Big Pharma are chasing innovations, and drug approvals have hit record levels globally. Talent acquisition has become a key indicator of future success, with well-funded early stage companies and global pharma companies competing on an increasingly level playing field.”
Katy Wallace adds:
“Alongside the increase in competition for talent, the patient community our clients are serving is changing. An aging population, consistent discovery of new, rare diseases, growing expectations from patients on speed of delivery and care, combined with the technological revolution occurring in the sector, puts the commercial functions under huge pressure.
“Our clients rely on working with a trusted, dedicated partner to help them identify and attract emerging leaders, allowing them to focus on innovation and growth. It’s for this reason I am delighted to be joining the team at Berwick Partners. The firm has a great reputation and I’m looking forward to the chance to work with professional, established and experienced consultants who are passionate about what they do.”
A sector for growth
Commenting on the new Life Sciences Practice, Richard Love, Berwick Partner’s Managing Director, says:
“Sustainable success for Life Sciences organisations is highly dependant upon their ability to attract intellectually agile, technically excellent and highly commercial people. The value that search firms add in identifying first class talent in a highly competitive market is more profound than ever.
“Leveraging the success of the Odgers Berndtson Life Sciences Practice, Berwick Partners is uniquely placed to address client’s needs for senior leadership roles across the Life Sciences sector, and ideally placed to work with these companies to ensure they have the right leaders for the future.
“Through a close linkage with our healthcare practice, which works with both public and private health providers as well as regulatory agencies, our team has a unique insight on changing purchaser needs and market access issues.
“As a group, our expertise spans across businesses of all sizes from start-ups and SMEs, to blue-chip multinationals. Applying quality and rigour we tailor our process to our clients’ needs, also sharing market intelligence and competitor insight.”
News & Analysis