LifeSci Partners Teams With Expert Network FirstThought

October 13, 2021 – LifeSci Partners, a life-sciences focused consultancy, has entered into a strategic partnership with FirstThought, a global life sciences expert network, which specializes in connecting clients with life sciences and healthcare subject matter experts. FirstThought’s services, which include one-on-one consultations (virtual or in-person), group meetings, surveys and direct engagements, will be accessible to clients and employees across LifeSci Partners’ platform, said LifeSci Partners. This includes the firm’s investor relations, public relations, capital markets advisory and consulting businesses, as part of their strategic partnership.

“Based on its highly specialized subject matter expertise across the entire healthcare ecosystem, including biotech, healthcare services, digital health, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices, FirstThought is the ideal expert network partner for LifeSci Partners,” said Andrew McDonald, founding partner at LifeSci Partners. “FirstThought’s potential to provide valuable services for our banking, equity research and investing affiliates as they conduct due diligence, while also bolstering our global KOL event platform, furthers our objective of providing high-quality and differentiated offerings to LifeSci’s clients and employees.”

FirstThought launched in early 2020 with a mission to bring subject-matter expertise back into the expert network industry. Focused solely on supporting research in life sciences and healthcare, FirstThought’s in-house team of scientists and healthcare professionals help clients identify and connect with best-in-class experts in their fields.

Global Consulting Services

LifeSci Partners is the leading provider of global consulting services in the areas of investor relations, public relations, executive search and capital markets advisory. LifeSci combines deep domain expertise in the life sciences with decades of experience in capital markets and corporate communications.

Last year, LifeSci Partners launched LS Associates, a global consulting service designed to provide companies with on demand C-suite leadership to flexibly and economically meet the strategic business needs of companies.

LS Associates leverages the expertise and network of the larger LifeSci Partners platform to deliver targeted and talented executives with relevant industry and subject matter expertise to companies at any stage of growth and transition, said the firm. The LS Associates “executive-as-a-service” model will enable customizable access to talent in a cost-effective manner to provide trusted guidance through strategic milestones and evolving corporate needs.

“LS Associates will leverage the unmatched global network and expertise of LifeSci Partners to deliver talented executives to help companies achieve their immediate goals while remaining well positioned for long-term success,” said Dr. McDonald. “Our on-demand approach is uniquely designed to tap into the LifeSci network to deliver high quality executives with industry and subject matter expertise that enable the execution of our clients’ strategic goals; navigating market conditions; executing diverse capital transactions; and building credibility and relationships among the investment community. Our network of leaders provides immediate expertise and importantly, customizable support tailored to meet the ever-changing growth, complexity and needs of our clients.”

Joining LS Associates was managing director Scott Janssen, who has a track record with high growth private and public companies. Mr. Janssen has over 25 years of accounting, finance and operational experience in the life sciences and technology space. Most recently, he served as managing director of the Connor Group, where he provided consulting services to clients, supporting their high growth and change management needs including numerous IPOs and public company transition engagements. Prior to that, he has served as CFO, CAO and VP of finance at several private venture-funded companies. Earlier in his career he was an auditor with Ernst & Young and Grant Thornton. Mr. Janssen holds a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics from UCLA.

Deep Domain Expertise

“We are thrilled to be launching a C-level advisory service which we believe is the ideal next step to complement and expand LifeSci Partners’ broad range of services which includes investor relations, executive search, strategic partnering and analytics, public relations, and capital markets advisory,” said Mr. Janssen. “We are confident that our LS Associates platform will provide accessible, cost-effective solutions to support our clients’ strategic vision and tactical execution.”

Last spring, LifeSci Partners’ life sciences-focused executive search division, LifeSci Search, opened a new office in San Francisco. The location is led by managing partner Elena Liapounova.

“Having a presence in San Francisco gives us an opportunity to provide a more personalized approach to clients on the West Coast,” said Andrew Cronin, president and co-founder of LifeSci Search. “We feel it is important to have people based in the geographies we cover so our clients know exactly who they are working with. In the coming months we also plan to hire consultants in the LifeSci Partners offices across Europe, APAC and Israel.”

As part of the same announcement, LifeSci Search said the firm also expanded its digital health, AI healthcare and medical technology expertise with the additions of Erin Crider and Micaela Sigel. Both have more than a decade of experience and will bolster the firm’s ability to place C-suite executives and board members.

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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