Chief Marketing Officer — Research-Tools Business

The mandate

A research-tools company is approaching the end of an exclusive distribution agreement that shaped its commercial model for almost a decade. The distributor provided reach and local service in several markets, but retained much of the end-customer data and promoted the portfolio within a broader catalogue. Two product families sold under licensed co-brands will now return to the manufacturer. The company has an opportunity to establish a direct scientific identity without undermining channel partners that will remain essential elsewhere.

Marketing is currently organised around launches, congresses and regional requests. Product claims are technically reviewed, yet the evidence connecting campaigns to protocol adoption, consumables usage and qualified demand is incomplete. Digital leads cannot always be matched to installed instruments or distributor transactions. Scientists encounter different naming, educational content and support journeys depending on channel. A rapid global rebrand has been proposed, but the board will not approve it until customer migration, partner economics and scientific credibility are addressed.

The Chief Marketing Officer will own portfolio positioning, scientific marketing, customer insight, digital demand, brand architecture and channel marketing. The role will work closely with product, application science, sales, service and distributors but will not turn medical or scientific experts into promotional endorsers. Approximately 200 employees and material partners sit within the wider marketing and customer perimeter.

This is a planned replacement based in Copenhagen with a hybrid working pattern. The CMO reports to the Chief Executive or designated executive sponsor and will travel to laboratories, distributors and industry events across Europe, North America and selected Asian markets. The board expects a disciplined transition that preserves existing revenue while making the company less dependent on intermediaries for customer understanding.

Why this seat is open

The current CMO will leave after completing the annual product cycle, following a mutually agreed succession. They built a capable regional-marketing system for the distributor-led model. The next phase requires direct customer data, portfolio architecture and partnership transition experience. An orderly handover is available, including the history behind branding and channel commitments.

What you will own

• Define the post-exclusivity brand and channel strategy by market, including direct, distributor and hybrid routes and the conditions under which each creates customer and economic value.
• Transition the two returning product families from licensed co-brands without confusing installed customers, disrupting service or losing scientific citations and protocol recognition.
• Build a consented customer and installed-base insight model linking audience, instrument, application, content, opportunity, service and recurring consumables behaviour where contracts allow.
• Lead scientific and product marketing, ensuring claims, comparisons and application content are evidence-based, appropriately reviewed and useful to laboratory decisions.
• Direct a broader community of approximately 200 employees and partners across portfolio, digital, regional, content, events, insights and connected customer disciplines.
• Replace activity-led planning with measurable journeys from scientific interest through protocol evaluation, instrument or reagent trial, adoption and repeat use.
• Renegotiate marketing-development funds, data exchange, lead handling and brand obligations with continuing distributors while respecting competition and privacy requirements.
• Rationalise brands, content and congress investment, preserving high-value scientific communities and discontinuing spend that cannot be linked to customer learning or demand.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Map all branding, data, customer-communication and inventory obligations in the expiring agreement. Interview scientists and channel partners in representative markets, reconcile product and customer identifiers, and establish transition principles. Freeze any visual rebrand work that lacks a migration or evidence plan.
• Months 4–9: Approve the brand architecture, launch customer and distributor communications in sequenced markets and move the first product family under the new model. Introduce channel-neutral demand and adoption measures, rebuild priority application content, and agree continuing distributor data and lead standards.
• Months 10–12: Complete the second product transition, demonstrate retained customer recognition and stable reorder behaviour, and show improved visibility from scientific engagement to qualified opportunity. Remove duplicate sites and content, publish the next portfolio narrative and embed a planning cycle based on customer evidence and economic contribution.

What the board will measure

• Revenue, reorder and customer-retention performance through the brand and channel transition, adjusted for distributor inventory movements.
• Recognition and correct association of returning product families among priority scientific audiences before and after migration.
• Growth in consented, usable end-customer and installed-base records, with provenance and contractual permission for each data source.
• Qualified demand and protocol adoption attributable to priority applications, not undifferentiated website traffic, impressions or scanned congress badges.
• Distributor performance against agreed data, lead, brand and joint-marketing obligations, alongside productive direct relationships where the model requires them.
• Reduction in duplicate brands, content and low-evidence event spend without loss of scientific engagement or launch readiness.

The person

You are a CMO, global marketing head, business-unit marketer or commercial leader with 22–28 years in research tools, diagnostics, life-sciences technology or another expert-led B2B portfolio. You have managed a material brand or channel transition and can show the effect on customer retention, demand and recurring economics. You have influenced revenue or portfolio investment of at least DKK 1.5 billion and led at least 120 employees and partners.

You understand scientific adoption. You can distinguish a researcher who reads content from a laboratory that has validated a protocol, and know how application evidence, peer use, product access, technical support and procurement shape the path. You have governed technical claims and built credible collaboration between marketing, application science and product teams.

The board will consider candidates from laboratory instruments, reagents, diagnostics, scientific software or specialist medical technology. Direct-to-consumer brand experience alone is not relevant. Distributor experience must go beyond partner events: you have negotiated data, leads, co-branding and market-development obligations and know how sell-in can disguise changes in end demand.

The role is based in Copenhagen with purposeful hybrid work and substantial market travel. International candidates may qualify if relocation is credible. The successful CMO will respect what the current brand and partners have achieved while being willing to retire identities, content and activity that no longer help customers make scientific decisions.

Compensation and terms

The indicative base salary is DKK 2,550,000–3,500,000, supplemented by annual incentive and long-term participation. Measures will combine transition continuity, scientific demand, customer-data quality, portfolio contribution and responsible brand stewardship. This permanent appointment supports hybrid work. Relocation and evidenced forfeited compensation may be included in final terms.

Confidentiality

The client, distributor, licensed brands and affected markets remain confidential. They will be identified only after candidate fit has been established and the required agreement completed. Applicants must not contact distributors, customers or former employees in an attempt to identify the business.

Each response must contain no more than 49 words.