Executive Search Success Story: Securing a VP of Operations to Build Commercial-Scale Manufacturing for a Venture-Backed Cell and Gene Therapy Company

How JRG Partners executed a confidential North American executive search that equipped a venture-backed cell and gene therapy company with its first VP of Operations and the manufacturing, technical operations, and supply chain leadership required to scale from clinical to commercial-ready manufacturing, reduce cost of goods, and establish the operational foundation for approval and launch.

The Challenge

A venture-backed cell and gene therapy company had generated strong pivotal data and was preparing for regulatory submission, with investors expecting a commercial-ready manufacturing strategy within twelve months. Clinical manufacturing had been performed at small scale with a manual, high-cost process, and the company had no operations executive, no commercial manufacturing strategy, and a cost of goods that would not support commercial pricing. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the path to launch:

• A manual, small-scale clinical process with cost of goods several times the commercial target
• No commercial manufacturing strategy — internal facility, CDMO, or hybrid — defined
• Process characterization and comparability requirements for regulatory submission not yet addressed
• Vein-to-vein logistics, chain of identity, and cold chain infrastructure built only for clinical scale
• Capacity requirements for launch far exceeding current capability
• A leadership team with deep scientific credentials but no commercial manufacturing experience

Recognizing that launch readiness required an experienced advanced therapy operations executive, the CEO and board engaged JRG Partners to recruit the company’s first VP of Operations, supported by a Director of Process Development & Manufacturing Sciences and a Director of Supply Chain & Logistics. The company required an executive search partner with deep biotech expertise and access to operations leaders who had scaled cell and gene therapy manufacturing to commercial readiness.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Cell and Gene Therapy Operations Expertise

JRG Partners possesses deep recruiting expertise across cell and gene therapy companies, advanced therapy CDMOs, and biologics manufacturers, including operations, process development, and supply chain leadership. This domain knowledge ensured an immediate understanding of scale-up challenges, comparability requirements, and vein-to-vein logistics unique to advanced therapies.

Scale-Up and Cost of Goods Leadership

Our team specializes in identifying operations leaders who have transformed manual clinical processes into scalable, automated commercial manufacturing while reducing cost of goods to commercially viable levels.

Venture-Backed Growth Experience

JRG Partners has extensive experience serving venture-backed biotech companies, with a clear understanding of funding milestones, regulatory timelines, and the urgency of first-time operations leadership placements.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Manufacturing Strategy Review

Our consultants partnered directly with the CEO, Chief Scientific Officer, head of quality, and board to assess the clinical process, cost of goods drivers, manufacturing strategy options, regulatory requirements, and logistics infrastructure. This review defined a VP of Operations profile combining advanced therapy scale-up, process industrialization, and launch supply leadership.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting operations leaders at cell and gene therapy companies, advanced therapy CDMOs, and biologics manufacturers who had led documented clinical-to-commercial scale-ups. Over 230 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of industrializing cell or gene therapy processes, achieving major cost of goods reductions, defining and executing commercial manufacturing strategies, demonstrating process comparability, and building vein-to-vein supply chains. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented a commercial manufacturing strategy and scale-up roadmap to the CEO, board, and lead investor, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified scale-up, cost, and regulatory outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 230+ cell and gene therapy and advanced biologics operations leader profiles mapped across North America.
• Placed the company’s first VP of Operations with proven advanced therapy scale-up experience in 57 days.
• Defined and secured board approval for a commercial manufacturing strategy within ninety days.
• Reduced projected commercial cost of goods by more than 60% from the clinical baseline.
• Demonstrated process comparability with no impact to the regulatory submission timeline.
• Established commercial-ready manufacturing and vein-to-vein logistics ahead of approval.