BH Financial® Case Study
Direct-Hire Search for Finance Director
A contingency R&D Finance Director search for a publicly-traded pharmaceutical company. The client had not had a leader in this role before and it was a crucial hire given the complexity of the R&D function. The client was looking for someone from a pharmaceutical company with a drug on the market and recent product launch experience.
Challenge
The challenge was identifying someone with a strong R&D background, but also familiar with the intricacies of a commercial product launch. In addition to the uniqueness of the candidate profile, the search was initiated by the VP of Finance who had only been with the company for 6 months and was still trying to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the finance team.
Solution
Beacon Hill worked with the CFO to launch the search and then partnered closely with the VP of Finance to create a single vision for the hire. Although we had a long standing relationship with the CFO, this was the first interaction with the VP. Understanding the search process was crucial. Once the parameters were in place for a successful search, we were able to identify five quality candidates for initial phone interviews. Candidates were then narrowed to three for in-house meetings with the entire finance team. The last step was identifying one finalist to meet with the business partners on the research and discovery team.
