Managing Partner – Sector Advisory — Biologics Platform

The mandate

An international advisory partnership has a respected life-sciences client base but an uneven biologics business. It is regularly invited to corporate-strategy and transaction discussions, then loses the work that follows because clients doubt its depth in development, CMC and technical operations. Separate teams advise on clinical portfolio, supply network, deals and organisation, often with different senior relationships and no shared view of where the firm should be distinctive. Revenue has grown, but too much depends on a small number of broad transformation programmes and individual partners.

The regional partner council has agreed to create a biologics platform practice centred in Cambridge. It will not attempt to cover every life-sciences question. The proposed edge is the set of decisions where science, operations and economics meet: development-route choices, modality and platform investment, technical diligence, partnership operating models, scale-up readiness and post-deal value realisation. The practice must earn the confidence of scientific and technical executives as well as boards and investors.

The Managing Partner – Sector Advisory will define the proposition, lead its most consequential client work and build a partner system around it. The role carries responsibility for approximately 275 partners, professionals and material affiliates across a wider regional perimeter, with direct economics tied to profitable growth, client quality and talent development. The appointee must be an active adviser; this is not an ambassadorial position filled by transferring delivery to a generic team after the opening meeting.

Based on site in Cambridge, the Managing Partner will report to the Global Managing Partner and regional partner council. The appointment is advisory in structure and subject to partnership approval, independence checks and client conflicts. The firm’s identity remains confidential because the role affects live succession and practice-boundary decisions.

Why this seat is open

The seat is newly created following a regional portfolio review. Existing partners will retain their accounts and specialist practices, but no one currently owns the biologics proposition across strategy, transactions and operations. The council chose an external search to add operating depth and a market point of view that cannot be produced by rearranging current reporting lines.

What you will own

• Define a focused biologics advisory proposition, naming the client decisions, buyer roles, evidence standards and capabilities the firm will pursue—and the adjacent work it will refer or decline.
• Build a three-year practice P&L covering fees, gross margin, partner contribution, pipeline quality, utilisation, investment and concentration risk across approximately 275 professionals and affiliates.
• Originate and lead board-level work on portfolio choices, technical diligence, development and CMC strategy, partnership models and operational value creation.
• Integrate clinicians, scientists, engineers, transaction specialists, strategists and organisation advisers into case teams with one accountable partner and coherent advice.
• Establish quality review for technically consequential recommendations, using independent challenge where a client decision affects patients, regulatory evidence or material capital.
• Recruit and develop a credible partner and expert bench, including leaders who can carry scientific conversations without overstating expertise or delegating judgement to subcontractors.
• Manage conflicts and independence across biotechnology companies, investors, licensors, manufacturing partners and transaction counterparties; decline work when safeguards cannot protect trust.
• Create reusable knowledge from completed work without exposing client data, proprietary methods or confidential programme conclusions.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Review the current client and capability base, interview selected clients and lost prospects, and test where the firm’s credibility genuinely breaks. Choose three or four priority offers, identify conflicts and partner dependencies, and take personal leadership of one lighthouse engagement that demonstrates the intended model.
• Months 4–9: Appoint the core leadership group, recruit missing technical depth and establish one pipeline and account-planning cadence. Package evidence and delivery methods for the priority offers, while making clear what must remain bespoke. Convert at least two existing relationships into multi-disciplinary biologics assignments with named client outcomes.
• Months 10–12: Deliver the lighthouse work to referenceable quality, achieve a diversified qualified pipeline and show that new revenue carries acceptable margin without excessive senior leverage. Complete succession and promotion plans for the practice, close propositions that failed market tests and agree the second-year investment envelope with the partner council.

What the board will measure

• Profitable fee growth from the defined biologics offers, separated from work merely reclassified from another practice.
• Qualified pipeline coverage, conversion and client concentration, with no single relationship or originating partner creating unacceptable dependency.
• Repeat or expanded assignments following delivery, supported by client evidence on decision usefulness and technical credibility.
• Gross margin and partner leverage that reflect real delivery effort, without inflating economics through unfunded expert or affiliate time.
• Development and retention of a partner and expert bench able to lead work independently of the Managing Partner.
• Conflict and quality performance, including work declined, challenged or redesigned to protect independence and technically responsible advice.

The person

You are a managing partner, senior partner, global practice leader or senior biologics executive who has already built a substantial advisory portfolio. At least 28 years of relevant experience is expected. You have owned a practice, P&L or advisory revenue perimeter equivalent to GBP 100 million or more and led a professional community of at least 150 people across multiple disciplines.

Your credibility comes from decisions, not vocabulary. You can engage a biotechnology board on development and partnership strategy, then interrogate the process, analytical and supply assumptions beneath the recommendation. You have led work involving biologics development, CMC, technical operations, platform economics or transactions and can identify where scientific uncertainty cannot responsibly be translated into a single forecast.

The partnership will consider a senior adviser from consulting, professional services, investment or specialist scientific advisory, as well as an operating executive with demonstrable client origination and team-building experience. A celebrated industry career without evidence of winning and delivering advisory work is insufficient. Conversely, a commercial rainmaker who depends entirely on others for technical judgement will not fit.

The role requires a Cambridge base, with regional and international client travel. The candidate must be able to enter a partnership culture: sharing economics, collaborating across account boundaries, investing in successors and accepting independent challenge on quality and conflicts. Personal portable revenue will be evaluated ethically and will not override restrictions owed to a current firm.

Compensation and terms

The indicative base or drawings range is GBP 350,000–520,000, supplemented by annual incentive and long-term participation under the firm’s partnership arrangements. Economics will consider originations, delivery quality, firm-wide collaboration, practice profitability and successor development. This is an advisory appointment. Final entry level, capital requirements, notice and treatment of deferred compensation will be addressed during partnership diligence.

Confidentiality

The advisory firm, existing partners, clients and live succession considerations are confidential. Identifying material will be shared only after mutual relevance is established and appropriate protections are signed. Candidates must not solicit clients, transfer restricted information or breach duties owed to another partnership.

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