Chief Medical Officer, Healthcare

Travis & Company was retained by a prominent regional healthcare company to recruit a senior vice president/chief medical officer to replace its outgoing chief medical officer, who was retiring. The position reported to the president/CEO.

Our client needed a top-notch M.D. to represent the company to external parties at a local and national level, contribute to innovative new programs, and direct a large clinical services department.

Search Strategy

Our client wanted to conduct a comprehensive national search to ensure they hired the best talent available. In addition, they asked us to evaluate internal candidates and other candidates who came to them through their own network. Working with the client, we defined a multi-pronged approach to identifying and assessing candidates. The major components of this approach included:

• a national search of industry leaders to identify candidates outside of New England;
• interview and assessment of two internal candidates;
• a thorough search of the local marketplace; and
• evaluation of candidates referred by the incumbent and other members of the client's management team.

Challenges

During the search we encountered and overcame several challenges:

• There is intense competition for M.D.s with management skills and business savvy in this regulated and competitive industry. We had to sell our client's opportunity to a pool of recognized and highly regarded leaders in the medical community.
• There were two internal candidates, both of whom were highly valued by the client. We needed to handle their candidacy with sensitivity so they would recognize the fairness and objectivity of the process, even if they did not ultimately win the job.
• In this tightly knit local market, competitors often work together on issues in which they have a mutual interest. As a result, many potential local candidates were actively collaborating with our client or had done so in the past. We had to make sure all of these candidates had an enhanced opinion of our client after going though the search process.

The Search Process

We contacted 396 industry leaders and potential candidates and generated interest from 67 individuals. In this highly selective process, we interviewed 19 of these candidates and recommended 4 for interviews with the client. In addition, we attended a national managed care conference. The speakers were industry leaders, some of whom were candidates. This provided us with the unique opportunity to assess their capabilities in a meeting of their peers.

Outcome

The search was successfully completed in four months with the hire of a local candidate. The national search we conducted enabled the client to move forward with a local candidate, secure in the knowledge that he was the best person available in the nation.