Challenge

• Sextant was tasked to recruit a CFO within a three-month time period to avoid a gap between the incumbent’s departure and the start of the new hire.
• The role required a candidate with international experience to assist the company in heightening its presence in the U.S.
• A candidate with experience in scaling an early stage organization was also necessary, as the company needed to complete the transition from a development to a commercial entity.
• Knowledge of capital markets and experience with buy/sell-side analysts and portfolio managers was essential.
• The successful candidate would need to have a willingness to trade-off current income for a high equity opportunity.

Sextant’s approach

• Sextant set out to target candidates with international experience and a combination of large and early stage company experience.

Sextant’s solution

Despite the numerous challenges presented by the search, Sextant was able to recruit a highly desirable CFO within the limited time frame. We leveraged Sextant’s investment banking contacts to identify candidates highly regarded on Wall Street. Moreover, our extensive experience with development stage companies was instrumental, as it facilitated our identification of entrepreneurial candidates.

Challenge

• The client sought a highly credible, experienced board chairman for a small, development stage organization.
• The successful candidate would be the first non-institutional investor board member.
• The role required an experienced biopharmaceutical executive with business development savvy and an extensive network of industry contacts.
• The position involved spending a significant amount of time working closely with the CFO, as well as serving as the board chair.

Sextant’s approach

• Sextant specifically targeted candidates with a combination of large pharmaceutical company and private equity financed company experience.
• The search team identified CEOs and board members of companies that were successfully acquired by large biopharmaceutical companies.

Sextant’s solution

Having previously completed numerous CEO and board searches for development stage companies, the search team was able to develop a highly qualified pool of candidates. Sextant’s lack of off-limits restrictions enabled us to recruit talent from all of the large biopharmaceutical companies. The search team introduced the client to five highly qualified candidates, all of whom resonated well with company’s board. After some difficulty in choosing from the high caliber finalist pool, the client selected a new board chair who is currently thriving.

Challenge

• The client had a novel investment platform that required Sextant to dig deeply into the investment strategy to be able to present the opportunity to a candidate pool that was unfamiliar with this business model.
• The perception within the candidate market was that the client’s investment approach required a more “hands-off,” financially-oriented approach.
• Because effective deal sourcing was as important as investment analysis, the client wished to attract a candidate from a top-tier traditional venture firm.  Consequently, the candidate pool was limited.
• The firm was deeply rooted in technology, but did not possess an established health care platform.

Sextant’s approach

• We drew upon our deep network in the limited partner and health care investment community to develop the candidate pool rapidly and to enable the client to gain an overview of the market.
• Much of the initial effort was focused upon educating the candidates about the economics of the opportunity.
• The search team blanketed the market to identify candidates with the appropriate client relationships, investment experience and domain knowledge.

Sextant’s solution

• Despite the numerous challenges posed by the atypical nature of the client’s business model, Sextant heightened the market’s familiarity with the opportunity’s potential.
• Within less than four-months, Sextant and our client successfully recruited a highly credible and qualified candidate from a top-tier Bay Area venture capital firm.

• The company had only raised $4M in financing from one Israeli venture firm
• All operations were located in Israel 
• At the time, all employees were technical; the company did not have a team preparing for product launch
• The spine market in the U.S. is very competitive, with intellectual property constantly being challenged
• The orthopedic marketplace is heavily protected by non-compete agreements, making it difficult to recruit from the direct market  

• We identified all of the senior executives with commercial backgrounds as potential candidates.
• In addition to leveraging our own networks, we also sourced industry thought leaders and orthopedic surgeons to get referrals to companies and candidates. 
• In agreement with the board, we approached potential first-time CEOs who could partner with a strong chairman with a track record of running early stage medical device companies.