…..Provides Logistical Challenge
Novartis Vaccines is the world’s fifth largest producer of vaccines to prevent the spread of diseases such as meningitis, influenza and polio. It is a European focussed company with main sites in Germany, Italy and the UK. SEC Pharma has supported Novartis with their recruitment for a number of years and has found candidates within the Health Economics, QA, Clinical and Medical Science areas.
We were asked whether we could help to find candidates for a high profile role – Head of Clinical Research and Development – which could ultimately step into a Chief Medical Officer position. The project was made more complex as it needed to be confidential.
James Brown, SEC Pharma consultant, explains the strategy “Given the confidential nature of the role, we focused on a traditional executive search style strategy. I worked with our client contact to identify the type of person they wanted, the technical and medical background they required, the level of seniority the candidate would need to have and the typical types of organisation they would currently be working in. I compiled a target list and began to contact companies, identifying named individuals and finding out whether a move would be appropriate for them. I also undertook selective advertising / networking through Linked-in and used the SEC Pharma database to source a number of candidates that were starting points for the search. I personally contacted candidates and explained the position, and the potential to move into the more executive level role. One of the candidates I spoke to seemed on paper to be too high a level – he was a current CEO located in America – but after finding out that his current position was potentially going to end, and that his key motivation was to move back into a Medical role, he became my preferred candidate. It took a while for him to trust me as he had never dealt with a recruitment agent before but I’m glad I was persistent as once I submitted a shortlist to the client and explained about the US CEO he immediately became their number one candidate.
Following a positive initial telephone interview, some detailed logistical planning was needed due to the fact the candidate was based in the US and the role was in Germany. James managed this complex work, liaising with Global heads to coordinate interview plans with the candidate’s holiday in Italy, culminating in a 8 hour window where he could meet in Siena with a 3 hour taxi ride from Rome airport!
The interview went so well that Novartis realized this candidate could immediately step into the Chief Medical Officer position. After some internal re-adjustments they were able to offer this position and SEC Pharma’s candidate accepted and started the business critical Chief Medical Officer role in October 2010. Both our candidate and Novartis are very happy and have both given additional vacancies to SEC Pharma as a result.
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