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Who Needs Interim Management?

Interim - The Fastest Route to Results

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“Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make me feel important.’”

Mary Kay Ash, founder
Mary Kay Cosmetics

Who Needs Interim Management?

As baby boomers prepare to enter retirement, many aren’t ready to follow the same path as their predecessors. This generation of eligible retirees is well educated, vibrant and as life expectancy continues to rise, many are not prepared to spend this fruitful time of their life idly in the typical retirement fashion.

Defying tradition, this generation is more likely to pursue post-retirement jobs that utilize their experience, enact a positive change, but allow part-time hours, flexibility and bring in a paycheck. When retirees volunteer, they often feel that their skills are not fully utilized. However, with a paycheck they believe their work will be valued by their employers and their skills less likely to be squandered.

In Europe over the past 10 to 15 years, interim management has emerged to become an industry in its own right. While this concept and service is relatively new in America, the demand for interim professionals in key roles has evolved extensively. During the past two years, Ashton Tweed has been utilizing seasoned professionals that are either early retirement eligible or in transition. We have developed our capacity to serve the strategic and immediate needs of clients, with a particular emphasis in the life sciences, using Interim Senior Executives. These executives have a wide range of skill sets to include scientific, business, finance, human resources, etc. We can also place interim board/director level people.

The range and strength of our candidates that make up the exclusive Ashton Tweed Executive Talent Bank, enables us to place highly skilled professionals in any phase of a company’s business cycle.

Interim executives can be invaluable in times of:

• Start-up/Growth:
          New Ventures
          Product Development
          Rapid Expansion
          Acquisition
  
• Consolidation:
          Integrations
          Introduction of Best Practice
          Management of Subsidiaries
  
• Change/Turnaround:
          Transition
          Divestures
          Restructuring
          Crisis

In conclusion, interim management can be a cost effective service that helps businesses through a period where there is a need for a particular expertise for a limited amount of time. Interim management has advantages over consultancy assignments in that these interim executives are fully devoted to the task at hand and are willing to accept accountability along with responsibility. The selection of interim professionals usually follows a similar process to executive recruitment ... define position specifications, identify qualified candidates from the Executive Talent Bank, confirm availability, conduct interviews with client and candidate selection. However, unlike executive recruitment, this process can be very quick, often just a matter of days.

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BioTech 2006 Imagine. Collaborate. Innovate.

October 16-17, 2006 Philadelphia, PA

Biotech 2006 is the sixth annual joint symposium of Pennsylvania Bio and the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey (BCNJ). More than 1,000 attendees will converge to discuss the important scientific and business issues driving the region’s most dynamic industry — the biosciences.

Biotech 2006 highlights include:

• Session tracks focused on finance, hot topics in science, global topics, and medical devices and diagnostics
• A business development forum
• An innovation corridor
• A career fair
•Workshops focused on areas of interest at the early, mid, and late stages of company grow

For more information or to view sponsorship and exhibitor opportunities, please visit biotech2006.org.

Interim Executives

“The depth and breadth of the Ashton Tweed Talent Bank enables us to quickly provide interim talent to meet our clients needs.”

ashtontweed.com

Interim - The Fastest Route to Results

One of the many service offerings of Ashton Tweed is the unique ability to access the Ashton Tweed Executive Talent Bank to engage “just-in-time” talent to solve specific problems where hiring a permanent employee does not make sense or is not affordable. The availability of these highly skilled Interim Executives offers the advantage of the speed with which you can have a person with the right experience working as part of your management team. A case in point is the situation Lux Biosciences, Inc encountered in working with Ashton Tweed.

Lux Biosciences is a drug development organization with a focus on ophthalmologic compounds and a unique form of drug delivery. They don’t do the basic research. They license innovative drugs from research organizations and take them through the development process. They were looking for a seasoned Executive to manage the product development process and manufacturing of a specialty product they had licensed.

Jordan Warshafsky was introduced to Lux Biosciences by Prof. Joachim Kohn, a renowned research scientist from Rutgers University. Mr. Warshafsky first contacted Dr. Ulrich Grau, president and CEO of Lux. After learning about the needs of the company and the urgency of filling the position, Mr. Warshafsky went to work to find an appropriate candidate.

Using his network and the Ashton Tweed Executive Talent Bank, Mr. Warshafsky contacted a former colleague, Dr. Joseph Fix, “who was a perfect match for their criteria,” says Jordan. “Joe had many years experience in global product development in the area of drug delivery for companies such as Elan, NanoSystems and Cydex. He had started his own consulting practice out of Kansas City, KS and the model of interim employment appealed to him.”

Initially, the management team at Lux Biosciences was looking for a full time, permanent employee, someone who could work out of their offices in Jersey City, NJ. “After a review of Joe’s credentials and a telephone interview with Joe,” says Clarke Atwell, the COO of Lux Biosciences, “we were sure that Joe could fill the role, even given the fact that he would not be located in Jersey City. We were especially pleased that the entire process took less than two weeks.”

And how has the situation worked out? According to Clarke, “Joe has exceeded all of our expectations, he combines significant experience, a sense of urgency and the unique ability to look for solutions in a very demanding project and I cannot say enough good things about him!”

The task that Dr. Fix is managing is complex. His role has been to identify companies for delivery of raw materials, processing, manufacturing, packaging and sterilization. In addition to identifying these companies, Joe has put the program in place, from conducting due diligence to overseeing the logistics. In the end co-location with the Lux management team was not as critical as originally thought.

From Joe’s point of view, “The people at Lux Biosciences are a wonderful group to work with. Although this particular project will only last up to the clinical trial stage, I’d be glad to work with them on development of additional products.”

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The Advantages of Interim

Interim employment offers four strategic advantages to the corporation:

Speed

Companies can now apply “just-in-time talent” to any problem or to fill a sudden gap.

Quality

Interim makes it possible to hire the best.

Focus and Perspective

Companies can find precisely the skills needed for a project or corporate transition.

Cost

Interim turns talent into a variable cost.