Stephen Provost, Managing Director, Prestige Scientific

Invest: had the opportunity to speak with Stephen Provost regarding the progression of the life science industry in Massachusetts, and how market fluctuations and advancements in technology are helping to sharpen Prestige Scientific’s precision in its search for quality candidates.

What is Prestige Scientific’s mission and how does the company go about building high-performance teams for its clients?

Prestige Scientific is a boutique executive search firm, and it’s focused on building leadership teams for emerging life science companies. Our mission is to help clients attract, hire and retain leaders who will help commercialize transformational therapies to help their patients. 

How does today’s demand in the executive search space compare to recent years, and what are you hearing from your clients today in terms of their talent needs?

The life science industry experienced a pullback in 2023, and there was a reduction of venture capital being deployed in our sector. Large pharma was implementing cost-cutting measures in the wake of rising interest rates, but our firm didn’t overcorrect during that downturn. We preserved much of our core team, and now that capital is flowing back in, we’re poised to capitalize on that return. We have experienced significant growth in the last six months. There has certainly been a shift in demand due to that tailwind of venture capital flowing back into the industry. Biotech is again experiencing a significant increase in demand, but there has been less demand in hiring over the last 12 to 18 months on the early stage research and commercial sides. Our highest search demand is in the middle of the development life cycle where there are drugs in clinical trials that need to continue moving forward and hitting milestones. Leaders of those functional areas are still highly sought after.

What makes Boston an ideal headquarters for life sciences innovation?

Biotech has a significant presence in Massachusetts due to its access to prestigious academic institutions where cutting-edge research is being conducted. Massachusetts  has labs generating cutting edge science at universities such as MIT and Harvard, which has attracted a number of venture firms to the area.

How have ongoing labor shortages affected your firm?

There tend to be some areas in life sciences that are cyclical when it comes to hiring. We’ve recently experienced a downmarket in 2023 where less capital was deployed into research, which has resulted in cost-cutting in larger pharma and minimal investment in smaller venture backed companies. Companies are focused on deploying their remaining capital toward projects that are going to produce data, lead to an inflection point,and create value. Any early stage research has been affected, and on the commercial side, companies will outsource rather than building a commercial team.

In addition to your performance-based hiring system, are there any other ways in which you are leveraging technology to enhance your services and customer experiences?

We have invested in  a sizeable tech stack and access to a lot of tools that allows to be maximize effectiveness for our clients. One example, is, we have made custom changes within our database, so we can share our search progress with our clients in multiple ways, like in the form of custom documents or links providing updates in real time, so clients have access to the status of their searches and have full transparency of the progress of their search in real time

What obstacles does Prestige Sciences face?

It’s never been easier to find the names of talented people, but it’s never been harder to get their attention due to the sheer number of methods in which a person can be contacted and the low bar of entry into the recruiting industry. We’ve been able to overcome that challenge because we’ve known a significant number of these individuals throughout their entire career, so we understand their long-term goals, and they return our calls as new search opportunities arise. 

How do you recommend attracting and retaining top talent in such a specialized field as the life sciences industry?

You need to have a compelling story about the future and a strong management team. Culture is continually becoming more important and higher on candidates’ list of criteria.

Flexibility in a post-COVID world is especially high-ranking, and there are many employment decisions made solely based on this factor. Usually one of the first questions I’m asked is if the candidates are asked to work in-house five days a week, if they can work hybrid, or if they can operate fully remotely.

What resources do you provide in terms of training and development for recruitment professionals?

We look outside for training and have continuous training baked into the DNA of our company. We conduct no less than three internal training meetings weekly, during which we cover the basics of what we do. Recently, we had a meeting regarding AI and how our office personnel can utilize technology to operate more efficiently.

What sets your company apart from other executive search companies?

Communication is our main differentiator. We tend to think we’re overcommunicating with our clients, but our clients are providing positive feedback. We are also providing our honest opinion. Our clients’ success is our success, so we want to be wholly transparent, and we survey each client and candidate once our search is completed.

What are Prestige Scientific’s top priorities for the next few years?

Our mission is simple,to continue to find ways to help more clients. We’ve made an impact on almost 300 biotech companies in the last two decades, and we look forward to the impact we expect to make over the next two decades. We are going to continue to evolve with technology and implement more efficient ways to help our clients fulfill their  mission of bringing therapeutics to patients who need them the most.

What is Prestige Scientific’s strategy for growth moving forward?

We aim to increase our marketing and expand via referrals. More exposure would be the most effective way to accomplish this, and we intend to continue hiring additional, experienced talent on our end.