Probiotics R&D Director

Probiotics R&D Director

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THE CHALLENGE

Our client, a global functional ingredient manufacturer for the life science and nutrition sectors, retained Miramar to lead a search for a Global R&D Director for their Probiotics business unit. The business had grown rapidly in recent years, mainly via acquisitions, but there was still significant growth ambitions and continued investment. The Global R&D Director would play a pivotal role in challenging and pushing the boundaries of the current team, aligning and integrating all acquisitions globally, and accelerating strategy execution.

The ideal candidate needed to bring proven leadership and commercial acumen, as well as deep market knowledge to drive the global business strategy. The challenge was to find a recognized industry expert with significant experience in R&D leadership positions and proven knowledge across different technologies and applications, with a focus on probiotics or bioactive ingredients.

 

THE SOLUTION

Given the global scope of the role and the geographical spread of the teams under management, we identified and mapped both the European and the North American markets. We focused on two key talent pools, the competitive ingredients market and the customer market. As a track record in strategic thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset was required, we targeted both small and larger organisations in these sectors.

 

RESULT

After thorough market mapping, we screened more than 130 candidates across Europe and North America. Within 4 weeks, we presented our client with a diverse shortlist of 8 qualified candidates. After a thorough interview process, they identified their first choice who brought a wealth of experience in probiotics and bioactives and with proven leadership experience to bring together teams and drive performance. This candidate has since joined the organisation and made a significant impact on shaping the direction of the business.

Pharma R&D director

Pharma R&D Director

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THE CHALLENGE

Miramar was retained by a global functional ingredient manufacturer for the life science and nutrition sectors to lead a search for a new Global R&D Director for their Pharma business. The business was going through a period of change and accelerated growth and the R&D Director would be a critical part of the leadership team driving that agenda.

The ideal candidate needed to have a strong technical knowledge of cell culture media formulation, and proven leadership capability. They also needed to have significant understanding of the broader supply and value chains and be well networked within the industry. Beyond the technical expertise, it was essential for them to bring a demonstrated ability to drive change and partner effectively with the business to advise on strategy and execution.

 

THE SOLUTION

The importance of experience in cell culture media formulation required us to identify organisations across this value chain including CDMO’s, CRO’s and larger manufacturers serving the life sciences industry.  We considered both large and small organizations with operations in the US, to ensure a good breadth of candidates and to broaden the talent pools. We thoroughly mapped each organisation to identify talent at various levels, considering profiles with a similar level of experience but also high potential candidates that had the potential to step into this global leadership role.

 

RESULT

We identified and engaged with over 100 profiles that could fit the requirements of the role. After conducting in-depth assessments, we presented our client with a qualified shortlist of 5 candidates. The successful profile came from a market leader in cell culture media development with the required blend of technical experience and leadership skills.

SaaS CFO

PE backed SaaS Firm, CFO

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THE CHALLENGE

Miramar was retained by its clients; the CEO of an SaaS-based asset-tracking and fleet management company as well as its Private Equity (PE) firm backer, to appoint a CFO for the company. The company was a rollup of several acquisitions, and the PE firm was at the precipice of funding growth capital into the business. The previous incumbent was a strong Certified Public Accountant but lacked Financial Planning and Analysis and came from more of a manufacturing background rather than software.

Reporting to the CEO as a key part of the leadership team, the CFO is responsible for collaborating with the PE firm and the executive team within the company. Additionally, the CFO will reset the KPIs for the business so that the CEO and the PE firm have confidence in the strategy and data. Most of the requirements associated to people, process, and systems had been completed and the company was looking for a CFO who could position the company for rapid growth and prepare and lead an exit process.

 

THE SOLUTION

We delivered a focused strategy to target individuals with a track record of developing a uniform set of KPIs that the company could work towards achieving. In addition to this, we targeted candidates who had confidence in NetSuite, which was the system they were in the process of rolling out. Considering the SaaS component of the business it was important for us to identify candidates that had cloud cost optimization experience and came from a previous SaaS environment. We targeted candidates that had experience scaling businesses and ultimately leading companies through a transaction or exit process.

 

RESULT

We successfully delivered a diverse slate of shortlisted candidates within 4 weeks. We supported the client throughout the interview stage and they shortlisted 4 candidates. The successful candidate was appointed from our shortlist and the overall delivery was achieved in 90 days. The placed candidate had experience with similar size customers and was familiar with the Company’s business model, and came from an SaaS company of similar scale.

Electronics & Systems Engineering

VP of Electronics & Systems Engineering

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THE CHALLENGE

Our client, a ~$1b revenue and 10,000+ person automotive supplier, was partnering with a historically mechanical focused business, who are leaders in thermal products in the automotive space. The partnership was designed to diversify their product offering to market, by entering the world of advanced cockpit electronics. While the business is headquartered in Michigan it was looking to grow its presence in Europe by building its team based in Germany. The business was keen to diversify their internal culture and bring new ideas to the table by hiring leaders in Europe.

The main goal was for the successful candidate to build a large scale (100+ person) team focused on software and systems engineering based in the German location, and subsequently launch new products in the advanced electronics domain to customers globally. The client was also keen to review a diverse shortlist for the role, in keeping with the D&I policy.

 

THE SOLUTION

Leadership in the automotive electronics domain has little or no knowledge of our client, meaning our first challenge was building brand awareness for a relatively unknown company and educating potential candidates for the role about who the business was and its future goals.  We created an attraction pack for the candidates, giving details of the transformation and technology the business is already creating as well as the impact the candidates would have on a global business. The role required specific automotive safety (Autosar and Aspice) knowledge so the target pool was limited to the automotive technology space, which the Miramar team was already very familiar with.

 

RESULT

We were able to provide the client a shortlist within 3 weeks, providing 5 qualified candidates from the world of automotive electronics and software development. Our shortlist consisted of leaders from the large automotive suppliers (Bosch, Continental, Magna & Visteon) with diverse product backgrounds in ADAS, autonomous driving, connected car and infotainment.

The selected candidate was hired from one of the large Tier 1’s and was convinced by our client’s strategy to diversify their product line as well as building a team from scratch. This offered the candidate far more of an impact than was possible in their previous position. The shortlist was 40% diverse with 2 of the 5 presented candidates being female leaders, one of which was ultimately selected for the position.

Program Management, Automotive

Senior Director, Project Management, Automotive

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THE CHALLENGE

Our client, a Lidar organisation who have recently gone public, were in a strong position to hire external talent for key leadership positions. Still with a startup approach in many ways, they had a large budget to support their plans based on funding from large auto and industrial organizations. The business is headquartered in San Francisco, and although they have global offices, they were looking to create most of their executive talent injection into their California team.

In order to continue to build stability after a period of significant growth, the client was looking to hire an experienced program management leader to set up program management from scratch. Until this point, separate individuals were completing the program management tasks, but there was not a full program management office. Miramar was tasked to support our client to find an individual who could set up the program management office, build its processes and also continue to grow the program management team.

 

THE SOLUTION

Our first challenge was to spark interest for our client in the market. In California, and especially San Francisco, the market is buoyant and great leadership people are approached frequently and the demand is high. This can mean it is more challenging to gain candidate interest. Taking this into account, our search was done through multiple channels, reaching out to recommendations and new ID so that we could create the optimal amount of interest.

The search focused on people within the automotive sector (key Tier 1s and 2s) and the semiconductor space (businesses like NXP, NVIDIA, Qualcomm). In addition to this, in order for us to present a strong shortlist, we looked in horizontal markets and adjacent sectors like robotics, aerospace and defense. We were happy to speak to individuals who had a good understanding of the process of delivering a sophisticated electronics product from concept to manufacturing.

 

RESULT

Our shortlist was made up from candidates in various sectors, all of which were highly skilled in working with electronics products and setting up and re-organizing program management offices and teams. We noticed that candidates coming out of similar sized organizations had broader experience in setting up processes and teams, but also had strong entrepreneurial skill sets that were highly relevant for this type of position and business.

The selected candidate had a strong mix of startup experience as well as working for a larger organization earlier in their career. He was recruited from a direct competitor to our client.

Life Sciences, CEO

PE backed Life Sciences Firm, CEO

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THE CHALLENGE

Miramar was retained by its client, a mid-market Private Equity (PE) firm, to appoint a CEO of a life sciences business that provides high-grade chemicals, reagents, and components used in electron microscopy applications. The successful candidate would report into the executive team at the organisation. The challenge was to replace a previous incumbent who had been with the business since its inception, 35 years ago.. The previous incumbent was able to act quickly and take advantage of market opportunities because of their product knowledge and sourcing capabilities. The new CEO had a challenging role to fill and needed the required experience to retain and build upon those capabilities, enabling the business to maintain competitive advantage and organic growth rate as they prepare for an exit process. As the company was set for some major organisational changes the client was seeking a CEO tasked with successfully strategising and leading the organisation through the drastic changes.

 

THE SOLUTION

The new CEO would be responsible for collaborating with both the PE firm and the executive team within the organisation to ensure both parties were kept up to date throughout the exit process. The client had essential requirements that the CEO must possess domain expertise within Life Sciences, Material Science, Chemistry or Broader Diagnostic / Laboratory Solutions markets. We delivered a focused strategy to target individuals with a track record of driving revenue growth and EBITDA while having product expertise and technical knowledge. We targeted candidates that were familiar with the Company’s customer base and had a track record of selling into the same customers to make the transition easier and smoother for the business and placed candidate, allowing them to make an immediate impact.

 

RESULT

We successfully delivered a diverse slate of candidates where our client had two finalists to choose from and we supported the client throughout the interview. The company had a strong level of experience in operations and finance therefore the CEO needed to fill the gap and be more commercially inclined than the team which was currently in place. We found a commercially oriented CEO with a proven track record of success creating growth within established markets along with the creation of new business opportunities who was successfully appointed to the role.