True Expands Non-Profit & Social Impact Practice
June 3, 2025 – Global talent provider True has expanded its non-profit & social impact practice with the strategic addition of Gautam Raghavan. An accomplished public servant and talent strategist, Mr. Raghavan most recently served as director of the White House Office of presidential personnel under the Biden-Harris administration. “Gautam is intimately familiar with public service, which gives him a unique understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the nonprofit and social impact space” said Brad Stadler, co-CEO of True. “His cross-sector perspective and proven ability to navigate complex systems position him to serve a wide range of organizations aligning talent with purpose.”
Mr. Gautam brings two decades of experience building and leading high-performing teams within complex, mission-driven environments including the White House, the Pentagon, and Congress. In his most recent role at the White House, he led the recruitment and selection of more than 7,000 presidential appointees—including Cabinet secretaries, agency heads, ambassadors, senior executives, and members of presidential boards and commissions. Under his leadership, the Office of presidential personnel set records in hiring speed, diversity, and retention.
“I am thrilled to join the dynamic, creative, and collaborative team at True,” said Mr. Raghavan. “I am especially excited and inspired by True’s understanding and track record of leveraging data and technology to work smarter, go faster, and help organizations across sectors and industries hire the best teams to do the most good.”
Working in both the private and public sectors, True Search has offices throughout the U.S. as well as the EMEA and APAC regions. Since the late 1990s, the firm’s founders have refined their search process with a blend of data-centric insights, relationship-building, and experience to produce a methodology that consistently improves hiring decisions and accelerates growth. The firm’s clients include Jet, Work Front, and Summit Partners. True Search is a subsidiary of True Platform, a global portfolio of human capital services and products for high-growth tech and tech-enabled organizations. True recently placed No. 6 on the Hunt Scanlon Media “Top 50 Recruiters” ranking.
New Dedicated MedSci Functional Team
True recently launched a dedicated MedSci functional team within its healthcare & life sciences practice. The firm explained that the MedSci team is designed to meet the growing demand for highly scientific, technical, R&D, and medical leadership across industries transforming healthcare and science. “The lines between discovery, treatment, prevention, and population health are becoming increasingly interconnected,” said Jim O’Sullivan, managing director, global co-lead of True’s healthcare & life sciences practices. “MedSci was created to address the growing need for strategic medical and technical leaders who can navigate this multi-layered landscape. By aligning the right talent with the right opportunities, MedSci aims to accelerate breakthroughs that improve lives and shape the future of healthcare”
“The convergence of breakthroughs in biotech, pharmaceuticals, and healthcare is ushering in a transformative era in medicine,” said Sophia Mowla, managing director, global co-lead of True’s healthcare and life sciences practices. “Scientific innovation is driving the development of precision treatments, novel diagnostics, and preventative solutions that have the potential to profoundly impact patients’ lives. MedSci was created to address the urgent need for leaders who can navigate this complex landscape, bridging cutting-edge R&D with real-world patient outcomes.”
Related: True Acquires Jopwell
True’s MedSci consultants identify and place senior executives driving advancements in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare services, digital health, and beyond. “While True has been placing R&D and medical talent for years, formalizing this sub-function will bridge the gap between scientific discovery and patient impact, addressing the evolving needs of organizations in an era defined by breakthroughs in precision medicine, genomics, and population health,” the firm said.
True Launches Hardtech Practice
True has launched its hardtech practice, a specialized initiative aimed at identifying and placing top executive talent in hardware-focused industries that drive advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). “The initial wave of AI adoption has been defined by software applications like language models and productivity tools,” said Josh Withers, True co-founder and GM, platform and North America search operations. “As the AI revolution accelerates, there is massive, untapped potential in the foundational hardware enabling AI advancements and the hardware areas that will be transformed most by AI. Our clients need partners who not only understand this technology, but who can deliver the executive leadership required to commercialize and scale it globally. That’s where True comes in.”
Mr. O’Sullivan joined True after a 15 year tenure at Ross & Company. Over his career, he has completed more than 500 projects, ranging from CEO, president, COO, board member, CRO, CFO, and other top management searches to capital sourcing and company formation. Mr. O’Sullivan specializes in health information, health data analytics, medtech, pharma IT/services, healthcare services, managed care, tech-enabled services and enterprise software/SaaS/cloud computing businesses.
Ms. Mowla is the co-founder of True’s global life sciences practice and now leads True’s healthcare and life sciences practices in EMEA & APAC specializing in biotech & pharma, life science tools / techbio, diagnostics and medtech. She was the chief growth officer / member of the executive team of an ARCH backed San Diego / Oxford biotech, leading HR, talent and investor relations where she built out the company’s U.S. presence, organizational structure, trans-Atlantic leadership and board.
Related: True Appoints Regional Lead for Middle East and North Africa
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
