Regional Managing Director — Cell-Therapy Programme

The mandate

A cell-therapy developer has regained United States commercial rights after its regional partner withdrew from selected therapeutic areas. The asset is approaching a regulatory filing, clinical relationships remain constructive and the returning partner will provide defined transition services. What does not return is a ready launch organisation. Contracts, centre onboarding knowledge, channel assumptions and parts of the access plan sit across two companies, while the developer’s own US team has been built principally for clinical-stage work.

The board must choose between three routes: create a fully owned regional business, retain strategic control while outsourcing substantial infrastructure, or license the rights again on terms that protect value and continuity. Time makes a superficial answer dangerous. Building too early could consume capital needed for manufacturing and confirmatory evidence; delaying every commitment could leave qualified treatment centres unable to serve patients if approval arrives. The decision requires a regional operator who can value control, understand hospital workflow and commit only against verified readiness.

The Regional Managing Director will own the United States strategy and, if the company proceeds, the launch P&L. The remit covers regional planning, transition from the former partner, treatment-centre activation, market access, patient services, distribution, medical and commercial interfaces, and the organisation needed to operate responsibly. Approximately 650 employees and material partners sit within the broader perimeter, including clinical, manufacturing and service contributors whose priorities the MD must align without taking over their independent accountabilities.

This is a Boston-based, on-site appointment reporting to the group board and Group Chief Executive. The role will carry substantial travel to treatment centres, payers, logistics providers and manufacturing operations. It demands ownership before certainty: making reversible commitments where possible, identifying the few no-regret investments and giving the board a clear point at which an owned launch no longer creates sufficient value.

Why this seat is open

The seat is newly created following return of the US rights. Regional responsibilities were previously shared between global development leaders and the partner. The board has concluded that neither a transaction team nor a pre-launch committee can carry the integrated market, patient and financial accountability now required. Appointment is planned, but the decision window makes early availability valuable.

What you will own

• Produce the board recommendation on owned launch, infrastructure partnership or re-licensing, comparing cash requirement, retained economics, control, timing, execution risk and exit consequences.
• Lead the transition of US rights, records, vendor arrangements and operational knowledge from the former partner against an agreed separation and service schedule.
• Build a treatment-centre network with verified capacity for referral, patient selection, collection, bridging care, product receipt, administration, adverse-event management and follow-up.
• Own US access and patient-service design, incorporating hospital economics, benefit verification, prior authorisation, outcomes evidence and support that does not distort clinical choice.
• Establish the regional P&L and control up to USD 350 million of pre-launch and early-commercial investment, with hiring and contracts released through explicit regulatory and readiness gates.
• Align demand, centre scheduling and manufacturing slots so commercial pressure cannot override patient suitability, product release or chain-of-identity controls.
• Select the regional leadership team and define boundaries among medical, commercial, quality, manufacturing, pharmacovigilance and global functions.
• Represent the company with major centres, payers, patient organisations and transaction counterparties while complying with all pre-approval and promotional restrictions.

The first 12 months

• Days 1–90: Secure the transition inventory from the former partner, identify gaps in centre, access and contractual knowledge, and stabilise essential relationships. Build the three strategic cases with downside funding and timing. Agree no-regret commitments and pause contracts that presume a route the board has not selected.
• Months 4–9: Obtain the board decision and implement it. If launching, activate a bounded set of priority centres, contract channel and patient-service capabilities, appoint the regional team and connect scheduling to available manufacturing. If partnering, protect continuity and operational obligations in the transaction rather than optimising headline consideration alone.
• Months 10–12: Pass an evidence-based regional readiness review or complete the rights transaction with an executable transfer plan. Demonstrate that selected centres can move a simulated patient through referral, access, collection, delivery and follow-up within target intervals. Lock the next capital tranche to regulatory timing and observed network performance.

What the board will measure

• A timely regional-route decision supported by full cash needs, retained value, operational dependencies and credible failure cases.
• Completion of partner transition items without loss of essential records, rights, centre relationships or service continuity.
• Number and geographic coverage of centres that demonstrate end-to-end readiness, distinguished from sites that have merely signed an expression of interest.
• Alignment of manufacturing capacity and centre demand, with no commercial commitment that exceeds qualified supply or chain-of-identity control.
• Pre-launch spend and organisation growth inside approved gates, and clear cancellation or scaling rights in major external contracts.
• Access pathways and hospital economics validated with representative payers and centres before the forecast assumes treated patients.

The person

You are a regional president, country or regional managing director, cell-and-gene commercial leader or business-unit head in innovative biopharma. Your career of at least 28 years includes enterprise responsibility for a hospital-administered or operationally complex therapy. You have owned a P&L or launch investment of at least USD 300 million and led or matrix-directed at least 400 employees and dedicated partners.

You have made a genuine build, partner or licence decision and can discuss the control rights, stranded cost and transition work—not only the valuation. Experience activating specialised treatment centres is essential. You understand how referral, access, hospital readiness, patient logistics and manufacturing capacity interact, and you have changed a demand plan when one of those constraints invalidated it.

Relevant backgrounds include cell or gene therapy, transplant, complex oncology, rare disease and other products requiring certified sites and high-touch patient operations. Direct US payer and provider experience is required. The board will not equate a large field-force launch with this mandate unless the candidate also carried product-flow, site-readiness and patient-service accountability.

The MD must work from Boston and travel extensively across the United States. International applicants may qualify if their recent operational accountability is specifically US-based and relocation is immediate. The role requires a leader who can advocate for regional needs without allowing local urgency to fragment global evidence, safety or manufacturing standards.

Compensation and terms

The indicative base salary is USD 500,000–750,000, plus annual incentive and long-term participation. Performance conditions will reflect regional-route value, transition completeness, centre readiness, capital discipline and compliant patient access. This is a permanent on-site appointment reporting to the group board and Group Chief Executive. Relocation and proven forfeited equity may be considered in final terms.

Confidentiality

The company, asset, former partner and returning-rights terms are confidential. Identifying information will be released in stages after suitability has been confirmed and the required agreement signed. Candidates must not approach treatment centres or use transaction rumours to determine the client.

Each response must contain no more than 49 words.