Client Overview
The client is a leading biotech company specialising in pioneering, targeted platform gene therapies. Having recently completed a successful fundraise, the organisation was entering a pivotal year, facing heightened expectations from a newly appointed Board. The focus was firmly on delivering against critical Series B milestones while laying the foundations for the next phase of growth.
Challenge
Working in close partnership with the Chief People Officer, our mandate was to help develop and strengthen the leadership team during this pivotal year. A key focus was ensuring leaders could effectively engage with the Board, inspire and align the wider organisation, and drive performance within their respective functional areas. Framing the challenge through these three dimensions—leading up, leading across, and leading out—provided a strong foundation for our approach.
Approach
We began by engaging individual leaders to identify their priorities and areas requiring focus. Shortly after, a leadership transition was announced with the appointment of a new CEO, shifting the challenge to ensuring a smooth transition while maintaining stability and delivery momentum.
In the new CEO’s first week, we facilitated a two-day session with both the outgoing and incoming CEOs. The team aligned on how to manage the transition, agreed a concrete three-month action plan to deliver Series B commitments, and initiated longer-term strategic thinking. Crucially, the team also began building new ways of working together by making critical business decisions collectively and clarifying expectations of one another.
Three months later, a second workshop focused on preparing the organisation to evolve into a multi-asset clinical-stage company. The team combined real business decision-making with reflection on team dynamics and individual working styles, further strengthening alignment and collaboration.
Outcome
The leadership team successfully navigated a complex transition period, maintaining organisational focus and momentum while integrating a new CEO. Within weeks, they had established a clear action plan for delivering on Series B commitments and begun shaping the longer-term strategic agenda.
Over the course of six months, the team evolved into a more cohesive unit, demonstrating increased confidence and credibility in leading strategic conversations with the Board. There was a clear shift from a collection of functional leaders to a unified organisational leadership team, aligned around a shared vision for the future.
Through the facilitated sessions, the team built stronger alignment, improved decision-making discipline, and created an explicit framework for how they wanted to work together. This enabled them to engage more effectively with the Board, inspire confidence across the organisation, and lead their functions with greater clarity and impact.
As the company advanced towards becoming a multi-asset clinical-stage biotech, the leadership team was better equipped to balance immediate execution with forward-looking strategy, setting the foundation for the next phase of growth.
