Case Studies

Case Studies

A Message from Our Founder

I have worked across multiple industries for my entire career. From my very first project, I found a passion for helping companies build their organizations for growth, filling multiple positions and putting teams in place that move a business forward. That work also meant finding difficult-to-recruit talent and building teams against tight deadlines. I choose not to identify recent or current clients on this website. The named companies below represent work from earlier in my career, when my practice was more heavily focused on life sciences. However, these examples demonstrate more than industry knowledge, reflecting the recruiting process and personal approach I bring to searches across industries. For me, a successful search begins with understanding the people behind the business. We take the time to learn what makes each organization different so we can connect it with talent that supports its goals and culture. Thorough research, compelling company branding and storytelling, direct outreach and persistence matter more than relying on a familiar job title or an existing network. If you are hiring a recruiter and all they are selling is their past work on a particular title or the size of their network, think twice. You may not be getting the process or depth of experience your search really needs. I invite you to explore the case studies below with that distinction in mind.

John Ruhmann Founder and CEO

Explore the companies

Engineering & construction

Confidential Client

This client provides design and construction services for heavy civil and industrial projects. The company ranks among the top three in its market niche.

Company scale
750 employees

Our Work

The company approached us several years ago, frustrated by multiple recruiting firms that had delivered few or no results. One position had remained open for several years. The company saw significant opportunities to grow its market presence and revenue and needed a dedicated, effective recruiting partner. We created comprehensive company profiles and job descriptions, researched potential candidates, then used person-to-person recruiting to highlight the company's culture. Since our partnership began in 2023, we have filled nearly 20 positions across the organization. These include a Commercial Director for industrial markets, a Manager of Industrial Engineering, multiple Senior Engineers, Project Managers and Sales Managers, as well as Designers, Drafters and a Cloud Engineer. These additions to the team helped support the client's 30% year-over-year growth in both 2024 and 2025.

Biotechnology · Vaccines & blood testing

Chiron

Chiron was one of the first biotechnology companies. Founded in 1981 in Emeryville, California, by University of California scientists William Rutter, Edward Penhoet and Pablo Valenzuela, it grew into a business spanning biopharmaceuticals, vaccines and blood testing. Its research led to the first genetically engineered hepatitis B vaccine, and in 1989 Chiron scientists identified the hepatitis C virus — an achievement honored with the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The company's Procleix system, introduced in 1999, used nucleic acid testing to screen donated blood for viruses in their earliest infectious stages.

Company scale
5,400 employees

Reported workforce in 2005, the year before the Novartis acquisition.

Our Work

This was the first project I secured and conducted at the start of my career. Chiron was a young company of about 300 people at the time. I walked in to discuss one position, and by understanding where the organization was headed, I left with 10 roles to fill across its Technical Services, Assay Development and Clinical Groups. Over the following years, I conducted several more searches for Chiron as the company grew, until it eventually built out its own talent acquisition department.

Acquisition or transition

Novartis completed its acquisition of the remaining Chiron shares on April 20, 2006, at $48.00 per share — approximately $5.7 billion including options and transaction costs. Chiron's vaccines and blood-testing units formed the core of the new Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics division, and the vaccines business was later sold to GlaxoSmithKline, completing in 2015.

Specialty pharmaceuticals

Acusphere

Acusphere developed drugs and improved drug formulations using proprietary microsphere technology, including Imagify, a cardiovascular imaging candidate intended to help detect coronary artery disease. Acusphere was one of the biotechnology startups co-founded by Robert S. Langer, the most cited engineer in history. He is among the ten most cited individuals across all fields and has authored more than 1,600 scientific articles. Langer has also co-founded more than 40 biotechnology companies.

Company scale
118 employees

Reported workforce about a year before the 2009 restructuring.

Our Work

This search demonstrates our ability to identify rare talent and bring difficult assignments to a successful conclusion. Acusphere's microsphere technology required a principal investigator specializing in bubble physics. With the internet still in its infancy, we relied heavily on scientific literature searches and direct networking to generate candidate names and referrals. Our research identified just 27 people worldwide with relevant training or experience. Most were studying cavitation effects on marine propellers, rather than biomedical applications. We successfully filled the role, and the individual remained with Acusphere for seven years, through the end of the company's operations. Acusphere ultimately closed. Its experience illustrates the challenges biomedical startups can face when translating technology to human use.

Acquisition or transition

Nasdaq trading was suspended in January 2009, and Acusphere filed to suspend SEC reporting in March 2009.

This establishes a public-market exit, not a verified final business-closure date.

Building materials · Gypsum

Lafarge Gypsum

Lafarge entered the U.S. gypsum market in 1996 by acquiring two older wallboard plants from Georgia-Pacific in Buchanan, New York, and Wilmington, Delaware. It then expanded with new plants in Silver Grove, Kentucky, and Palatka, Florida, built as two of the country's largest and most advanced single-line wallboard facilities. These plants used synthetic gypsum recovered by emissions-control systems at nearby coal-fired power plants, turning an industrial byproduct into wallboard for residential and commercial construction. In 2013, Lafarge sold its North American gypsum wallboard and joint compound operations to an affiliate of Lone Star Funds for $700 million.

Company scale
500+ employees

Our Work

We began working with Lafarge Gypsum six months before the launch of its new facilities in Florida and Kentucky. The company still needed to fill key plant management and engineering positions, while building a sales force to support increased production and expansion into new territories. Within that six-month period, we placed 15 people across the organization. These hires included the majority of its sales team, architectural sales professionals and a variety of plant engineering roles.

Acquisition or transition

The sale closed on August 30, 2013, and the business began operating independently as Continental Building Products.

Biopharmaceuticals · Acute care

Cubist Pharmaceuticals

Cubist researched, developed and commercialized acute-care medicines, with a marketed portfolio that included the antibiotics Cubicin and Dificid.

Company scale
$1.05 billion

Full-year 2013 net revenue, before its acquisition by Merck.

Our Work

At my former firm, we worked as a team on some clients. This example speaks to two of my core competencies: filling multiple positions and taking on difficult roles. Cubist was one of those companies. Before its acquisition, we conducted six searches for them — the Chief Medical Officer, the Senior Vice President of Regulatory, and four Directors or Senior Directors of Regulatory or Pharmacovigilance. CMO and Regulatory searches are always challenging. I personally conducted the Senior Vice President of Regulatory search and two of the Regulatory Director placements. One of the regulatory roles focused on Advertising and Promotion — the first time in our firm's history we had to contact more than 800 people to fill a single role. All of these placements played a role in preparing the company's products for the sale to Merck.

Acquisition or transition

Merck completed its acquisition on January 21, 2015, and subsequently reported that Cubist's operations had been largely integrated into Merck.

Diagnostics · Quality controls

SeraCare

SeraCare provides controls, reference materials and biological reagents for diagnostic testing and assay development, including infectious-disease testing and clinical next-generation sequencing.

Company scale
170 employees

Headcount reported at the November 2018 acquisition, across two US sites.

Our Work

SeraCare was another multiple-search client. I began working with the company after its acquisition by Linden Capital Partners, with a clear goal: help SeraCare build out its existing products and develop new product lines in next-generation sequencing and genomics in preparation for a subsequent sale. To support that growth, I placed the Chief Scientific Officer — who is still with the organization — along with the Vice President of Clinical Genomics, the Director of New Product Development, the Director of Quality Systems, the Director of Market Development and a Director of Marketing.

Acquisition or transition

LGC acquired SeraCare in November 2018, and SeraCare continues as a brand within LGC Clinical Diagnostics rather than having left the marketplace.

Life science tools · Single-cell biology

Berkeley Lights

Berkeley Lights developed functional cell biology tools that captured phenotypic, functional and genotypic information from thousands of single cells to support biotherapeutic development.

Company scale
$78.6 million

Full-year 2022 revenue for Berkeley Lights alone, before the IsoPlexis combination.

Our Work

Although it operated in life sciences, Berkeley Lights was at heart an engineering play in research instrumentation. Its product was remarkable — technology that used light waves to move single cells for processing on a microchip. I conducted more than 20 searches for the company. These included the Chief Financial Officer who drove its early financing and the IPO, the Chief Commercial Officer, the Vice President of Diagnostics, Board Member Feasibility Studies, the Vice President of Marketing, the Vice President of Sales, the Director of Marketing, the Director of Product Management and Product Managers, along with a variety of Sales District Managers and Mechanical, Optical and Microfluidic Engineers.

Acquisition or transition

Berkeley Lights completed its IPO in July 2020, selling 9,315,000 shares at $22.00 per share on the Nasdaq Global Select Market for gross proceeds of $204.9 million. Following its acquisition of IsoPlexis, Berkeley Lights became PhenomeX in March 2023; Bruker completed its acquisition of PhenomeX on October 2, 2023.

Medical devices · Orthopaedics

Synthes

Synthes developed and manufactured implants, instruments and biomaterials for skeletal and soft-tissue surgery, spanning trauma, spine and cranio-maxillofacial applications.

Company scale
$3.69 billion

Full-year 2010 global net sales, before the Johnson & Johnson acquisition.

Our Work

I conducted two difficult searches for Synthes. It was a large organization with talent groups of its own, but as an orthopedic device company it struggled to recruit in the emerging area of biomaterials. I filled the role of Global Head of R&D for Biomaterials. Five years later, the company suffered significant setbacks following patient deaths involving the off-label use of a bone cement. Senior management was in turmoil — several executives had been charged, and large fines were levied for conspiracy and misbranding. The company needed a Global Head of Clinical and Regulatory to join the team cleaning up the situation and help package the company for sale. Amid all of this turmoil, I was able to recruit a leader with significant medical device experience who had also served as Chairman of the Board and President of the Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society (RAPS).

Acquisition or transition

Johnson & Johnson completed the $19.7 billion acquisition on June 14, 2012, combining Synthes with its DePuy franchise to form DePuy Synthes.

Industrial biotechnology · Algae products

Algenol

Algenol develops and manufactures algae-based products and customized biology solutions for personal care, food ingredients and industrial applications.

Company scale
160 employees

Historical workforce in a corporate overview archived in 2013; not a current employee count.

Our Work

I conducted a variety of searches across the algae-based biofuel sector, including multiple Chief Scientific Officers. By the time Algenol began recruiting a Chief Scientific Officer, many companies in the sector had already competed for the same talent, leaving a small pool of available candidates. Drawing on the network I had built through earlier searches, I recruited a Chief Scientific Officer whose career combined biofuel research with industrial biotechnology. This individual had worked in biofuels early in their career at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, followed by significant industrial biotechnology work at Monsanto and Dow, and then served as Vice President of Research for Biofuels and Chemicals at Synthetic Genomics. Unfortunately, the sector struggled to scale its technologies to large-scale industrial production, and many companies ultimately closed. It was a disappointing outcome for the businesses involved and for the environmental promise of algae-based biofuels.

Company evolution

Algenol's early work focused on algae-based biofuels. Its website now highlights algae-derived personal care ingredients, food products and industrial applications.

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