Headquartered in Boston, Pact and Partners services the life sciences industry across three continents. Why are you such an essential part of the biopharmaceutical value chain?

Pact and Partners was founded in 1987 and has a sphere of influence in the United States across Europe and South America. We have been advising and appointing senior talent since our inception, and these people have now become world leaders in the life sciences industry. Over the years, we have developed an expertise within the biotech and large pharma spaces, as well as in medtech, digital health and cell and gene therapy: all fields that serve the main purpose of servicing patients. Pact and Partners has become an expert leader in these sub-industries, whilst staying generalist in regard to the functions that we cover. We appoint professionals across R&D, manufacturing, sales and marketing, all the C-level executives and board members.

Over the last 32 years, there has been a major shift driven by globalization and internationalization. This has had a significant impact on the life sciences industry as well as Pact and Partners. Companies have gone global in terms of careers and education and have consolidated at a global level as well. We have also followed this trend and have become an international organization with multicultural diverse teams.

Could you elaborate on Pact and Partner’s executive search process and how this differentiates from what is already in the market?

Since our establishment, we have added approximately 110,000 people to our database, resulting in one of the largest life sciences industry databases in the world. Our ability to source from this network gives us an edge in the market. We have access to a significant number of people and references, which helps us to operate much faster than other competitors in the market. We are also differentiated by being solely focused on the life sciences industry. Our main service is headhunting, but the process to succeed in doing so also includes some forms of market intelligence, risk management, strategic consulting and most of all understanding our client’s challenges and business so we can introduce the perfect candidate.

Many stakeholders have highlighted that the leadership and management team is the key differentiator in a biotech rather than a product or technology. Does this present a significant opportunity for Pact and Partners? 

Our domain of work is probably one of the riskiest in the world. It will take 5,000 to 10,000 medicinal candidates tested in drug discovery to achieve only one approved medicine. These numbers are unparalleled as there is not another industry with such a high level of failure yet with one of the highest concentrations of capital as well. Pact and Partners focuses on mitigating risks for our clients’ organization so that they can build the best management and leadership teams to help them become that one company achieving success. Indeed, one of the most important elements of any company, especially biopharmaceuticals, should be the management team as they can easily be the difference between efficient thriving firms or failing ones. This puts even greater precedence on our work to deliver the right candidate to our clients.

Given that Boston is now Pact and Partner’s global headquarters, what is your growth strategy and your longer-term vision for the United States?   

The biopharmaceutical industry remains one of Pact and Partner’s main targets for growth. The life sciences industries are booming, and we are happily surfing this wave. We have taken a leading position in transatlantic recruitment – United States to Europe – and this is one of the niches where we expect to continue seeing significant growth. Millennial entrepreneurs love working with Pact and Partners as we have a very startup feel to the way we work and our team members have almost all an entrepreneurial background. With respect to our longer-term vision, Pact and Partners aims to be the global leader in life sciences recruitment.