CEO, CFO, CMO, CSO, CBO, COO, CTO. Permanent C-level for biotech, in Europe and the US.
Christian Rados, biotech headhunter since 2011. 100+ clients, 1,000+ placements, most of them at Director and VP level.
Not your fault. You are running a company, not a search. Three things are stacked against you.
You have a trial to run and a round to close. A C-level search done properly takes weeks of focused work, and every one of those hours comes out of the company.
A scientist-CEO hiring a CFO. A CFO hiring a CMO. You can judge the person. You cannot judge the function, and the CV will not tell you whether they have done it at your stage.
The best person for the seat is usually employed, not looking, and three conversations away from your network. Applications show you who is available, not who is right.
The bill comes later. A year of lost momentum. Sometimes EUR 20 to 40M of avoidable dilution.
I have seen this across fifteen years and over a thousand executive conversations that ended in a placement. It is a structural problem, so I run the search structurally. That is what this page describes.
Every search starts with the whole market, not with who is available. Region, contract, salary, relocation, readiness for a change. I map every person who could hold this role at your stage, in Europe and the US, and I go to them. Most of them are employed and not looking.
The Rados Method checks three fits. Skill fit comes first: expertise, experience, track record. Every serious search checks it, and so do I, on every candidate. It gets a person onto the longlist, not into the role. My briefing starts with the company. Stage fit and need fit are where hires succeed or fail.
What does your company need from this executive next?
A Series A company and a Phase 2 company do not need the same CFO. Same title, different job. I place the company on a six-stage lifecycle from what can be observed: the round, the headcount, the clinical phase, the board. Then I define what the next stage needs from this role, and which drivers the role will feed and starve. That is the profile I search against, not the title.
Will this role keep the executive performing?
Two drivers run every executive, and they barely change over the years. When the role feeds them, the energy holds. When it starves them, even a strong executive slowly checks out. I read those drivers from decisions that cost them something, not from a questionnaire.
Four steps, one person across all four. The speed comes from fifteen years of knowing what this stage needs in this seat, not from skipping the work.
Day 1 to 3
The first conversation is about the company, not a briefing call. Which stage is the company in. Which seat is due, and is it due now, or is the board reacting to noise. You get a written brief that defines the role for this stage, not the title in general. Searches that miss usually spent too little time here.
Day 3 to 15
I map the whole market for this seat and go to the people who are not looking. Research and AI compress the mapping. The judgement is mine. Every strong candidate clears skill fit and then stage fit and need fit before you see a name.
Day 15 to 25
A short shortlist. Each name comes with a written rationale: why this person for this stage, and where the risks are, before your first interview. Then introductions, second rounds, references and chemistry calls. I sit in where it helps your decision.
Day 25 to 30
Offer, counter-offer, negotiation, signature. From the day the person starts, the guarantee below applies.
The guarantee.
If a permanent executive I placed leaves within twelve months, I run the search again at no additional fee. The three fits are not a promise of effort. They are a promise of outcome, and I carry the risk of being wrong.
Book a callKlaus Orlinger, Christoph Klaus, Roman Necina, Florian Haas and Christian Nafe have recommended my work in public, from their seats at VALANX Biotech, Klosterfrau, Hookipa, BioNTech and leon nanodrugs. Every quote is linked to its original.
Read the five recommendations and the searches behind them.
Which seat is due, and by when? A first conversation costs nothing and takes up to sixty minutes.
A first conversation is the cheapest part of any executive search. Sixty minutes on a call to understand the stage you're in, what you actually need, and whether I'm the right person to help.
