Shaping a better future

Our Story

We’re small, tiny, microscopic almost. In a consulting industry that associates burgeoning numbers of people with success, we strive not to. The quality of our service is paramount and scaling up is no panacea for getting it right. We’re a start up with a very long history. As a team, over the past two decades, we have quietly lead the senior recruitment initiatives for some of the world’s largest IPO’s, MBO’s and M & A’s. We have, and continue to work in close partnership with over a dozen of the leading life science venture funds, a brace of global pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, crop and food science companies and a legion of early-stage enterprises. We’re proud to have helped many talented people develop their careers. And how…….perhaps because we’re not big. We’re large enough to serve you and small enough to care.

Every assignment is partner lead, with dedicated associates and researchers attached. Our resources are tailored to meet each client’s requirements, from geographic and linguistic considerations to therapeutic or  sector expertise. We engage closely with a suite of partnering organisations to ensure the very best executive coaching, due diligence, corporate intelligence and psychometric testing assets are used, and always with strategic dexterity and operational agility.

Our values are radically ordinary. We care, we listen, we deliver, we’re discrete and we prize integrity above our commercial interests. We speak honestly, act with integrity and uphold the highest ethical standards. We believe our world is better because it is diverse. We enthusiastically engage with people, never labels.

Partners

As a start up, we’re very aware that our journey has only just begun. Our path ahead will be shaped by the people we work with, not only today, but tomorrow as well. Our continued success depends upon channelled talent, shared values and a profound desire to work together. What separate’s Air from many others is the central instinct to work with the very best people in our industry. If your over-riding motivation is to excel in all aspects of executive search, from analytical research to consulting delivery, we’d like to hear from you. You will be challenged every day, the pace will be demanding and the expectations high. We see each other as partners, not just colleagues. We measure our success by our teamwork and shared results. In return, the rewards are unusually generous.

Johnny Popkess - Managing Partner

Johnny has over 20 years of global board level search experience. He helped found Biotech Executive in 2014, a mainly US West Coast consultancy specialising in accelerating growth strategies on behalf of life science investment funds and large pharmaceutical organisations. Prior to that Johnny worked within the international venture capital sector, based at various times in London, Paris and New York, firstly in biotechnology and then in agri-biotech and pharmaceuticals. Throughout his career, Johnny has specialised in hiring CEO’s and their leadership teams, with pivotal appointments in numerous early-stage and established UK, US, APAC and European headquartered businesses. He is heavily involved with the international investment, biopharma and academic communities. Johnny typically recruits chairmen, NED's, CEO's, COO's, CSO's, CFO's, CMO’s and VP’s across the research and development, commercial, marketing, business development and human resources functions.

Mobile: +44 (0) 7932 701573

Email: popkess@airexecsearch.com

Careers

Our Values