THE CHALLENGE
Our client required a Senior Regulatory Affairs Leader to oversee the regulation of their functional ingredients division. The successful candidate would lead a team of regulatory directors for the proteins, food preservation, pharma, probiotics, and enzymes business units whilst also acting as the director for the probiotics business unit themselves. Based on previous success in this field, we were asked to lead the search for the candidate. The key challenge was finding a regulatory leader with expertise in probiotics who also had the leadership skills and broader knowledge of the functional ingredients sector, which is a highly specialised field.
THE SOLUTION
We identified all the regulatory affairs personnel in both Europe and the Americas across the probiotics value chain who were already in a leadership position or who showed potential to now have the experience to move into a leadership role. We initially focussed on the competitors who were functional ingredients manufacturers producing probiotic strains, but we secondarily targeted the customer market who also produce the probiotic supplements and finished products, allowing us to widen our search and ensure full coverage of individuals who might be suitable for the role. Through gathering market intelligence, extensive cross referencing and sourcing, the market analysis allowed our client to understand the competitive landscape and prioritise the experience they were targeting.
THE RESULT
We collated a shortlist of 6 candidates, 3 being based in Europe and 3 in the USA. All the candidates presented had significant expertise in probiotics and regulatory affairs leadership.
The first-choice candidate was already working within the nutrition industry and had experience leading regional teams across different product portfolios, but also had consistently been involved in probiotics throughout their career. The client’s first choice candidate offered and accepted.
