Karen Bertrand is a seasoned executive search professional with a distinguished track record spanning over two decades. With a focus on the life sciences sector, she has successfully recruited C-Suite leaders and board members for a range of investor-backed and publicly traded companies. Karen’s expertise lies in assembling dynamic leadership teams for organizations at the forefront of healthcare innovation, reflecting her commitment to driving impactful advancements in the industry.

Karen is dedicated to building leadership teams with client companies that are developing breakthrough therapies and leveraging innovation in science, digital technologies, and related fields across the broad spectrum of healthcare. Notable client successes include Immunomedics, sold to Gilead; Cascadian Therapeutics, sold to Seattle Genetics; and GeneWEAVE, sold to Roche.

She has completed searches for senior executives in all functional areas including CEO/COO, discovery and clinical research, product development and commercial roles, business/corporate development and finance leadership roles. Periodically, she will tackle the challenge of a highly technical individual contributor role—a recent example includes a senior medicinal chemist for a multi-disciplinary developer of a drug assessment technology.

Karen excels in identifying and recruiting talent who can lead and guide an organization to the next level. Many of her client relationships are long-term collaborations where she continually engages as a trusted thought partner to support mapping the leadership evolution of a maturing organization.

Karen is a member of the Healthcare Business Women’s Association (HBA) and supports many community and grassroots nonprofit organizations. Personal interests include yoga, training in classical dressage, adventure travel, and reading.

Education

MA
University of Cincinnati

MA, International Relations
Université Paris-Sorbonne

BA, International Relations
University of California, Davis