Experience matters

The Skills Alliance Leadership team bring an unparalleled depth of knowledge and passion to each of our client partnerships through our experience in the life sciences market.

Refreshingly
agile

Our clients often comment on our refreshingly flexible, “can do” approach as a key reason they choose to partner with us — we’ll provide you with an exceptional quality of service that meets your unique business challenges.

Empowered
by technology

Cutting-edge businesses require a recruitment capability that leads the field. We are proud to partner with innovative technology leaders to ensure our people are powered by the most forward looking and effective tools available — which means you always receive the most cost-effective and efficient service possible.

Long-term
partner

We believe in creating long-term partnerships with our clients. It enables us to provide flexible tailored talent acquisition solutions that match your time and budget requirements to meet your business goals.

Global reach,
local expertise

With our network of offices in London, Zurich, New York, Seattle, Frankfurt and Newport Beach and our network of specialist global partners, we’re able to provide a dynamic combination of local expertise and a global delivery capability.


Carl Marotta

Chief Executive Officer BSc (Hons) Physiology & Neuroscience

Carl is a seasoned recruitment leader with twenty years’ experience working within Life Sciences. Carl began his career in drug development & safety before moving into Executive Search & Staffing in 2004. Having taken three companies from start-up to investment across Europe and North America, including the private equity investment by Palatine into Skills Alliance in 2022, Carl is now driving the Skills Alliance Group forwards with the vision of becoming a global leader in the life science workforce solutions space. Alongside his core duties, Carl is future focused, embedding a sustainability framework into Skills Alliance through a transparent ESG programme designed to positively impact our clients, our employees, and the world around us, while creating value.

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Global operations
management team

Claire Bligh

Director Global Marketing

Claire leads and delivers on the global marketing strategy for Skills Alliance. She is passionate about the world of work and has over 20 years experience in Global Talent Acquisition, creating integrated marketing campaigns and engaging thought leadership for forward thinking Talent Acquisition leaders.

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Christopher Cook

Managing Director Global Operations

Chris leads our global Operations and the European Contract Division with over 12 years’ experience in Life Sciences. Joining a company of six people, Chris has owned the growth of the Contract business, developing a high performing team and supporting the build out of each vertical across the drug development life-cycle. He now also oversees our global Operations to ensure ambitious growth plans can be met and that our core service lines are offered to consistently high standards.

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Bec Barnes

Director Global Talent Acquisition

Bec has more than 9 years recruitment experience across a range of specialist markets and has worked in multiple countries including Australia, the UK & the USA. Bec joined Skills Alliance in 2017 and is responsible for our Internal Talent Acquisition function in the UK, Europe and USA.

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Tanesha Brown

Associate Director Global Compliance & Human Resources

Tanesha has over 7 years of Legal Compliance experience in the recruitment industry, she leads our global Compliance team who are responsible for ensuring we comply with all our Legal and contractual obligations regarding our clients’ pre-employment screening requirements. Tanesha joined Skills Alliance in 2018 and most recently has taken on the responsibility of our global HR function.

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Jason Linney

Associate Director Global Learning & Development

An experienced Learning and Development professional of 23 years, Jason has specialised in the recruitment arena for the last 11 and joined Skills Alliance at the start of 2018 as their Global Learning and Development Manager.

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Kayley McGillivray

Manager Human Resources

Kayley has over four years of HR experience across a range of specialist industries. Kayley joined Skills Alliance in 2022 and now supports our Global HR function In the UK, Europe and USA.

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Isabella Morrison

Team Leader Talent Acquisition

Isabella joined Skills Alliance as a Graduate in early 2021, working as part of the Talent Acquisition team to assist with our graduate schemes, experienced hiring, TA branding and onboarding. Isabella works across our global offices, identifying high level talent in the UK, USA and our European offices.

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Millie Lord

Global Marketing Lead Global Marketing

Millie has over 4 years of relevant marketing experience in the UK, Europe, and Asia. She focuses on content and social strategy, design and branding and has a proven track record of branding development and social performance. Millie joined Skills Alliance in 2020 and works closely with our Global Marketing Associate Director on our global marketing strategy.

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Turgut Sami

Finance Director Global Operations

Turgut joined Skills Alliance in 2016 to oversee the global finance function, taking responsibility for all financial activities along with driving operational efficiencies across the group. Turgut started his career working for Gravita after completing his degree in Finance & Accounting and went on to qualify as a Certified Chartered Accountant in 2010. Turgut has over 10 years’ experience working in the recruitment industry, all within the Life Sciences space and as such has specialist expertise in supporting the growth of recruitment companies from a start-up stage through to investment. In 2022 Skills Alliance completed a private equity investment round, with Turgut leading on all financial and operational aspects of deal execution.


Staffing
management team

Harpreet Mander

Managing Director European Permanent

With over 9 years of recruitment experience, Harpreet started his recruitment career with Phaidon International. He began his career focusing on Medical Affairs and Clinical Development, going on to place several CMOs in the Biotech space. In 2018 he joined Skills Alliance and now leads our European Permanent teams having built the London division from scratch. Harpreet is focussed on growing our global staffing division, both in new and current locations.

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Nicole Quirin

Associate Director Germany

Nicole started her career in recruitment at Sthree in 2010 and has been working in Life Science industry since then. Building strong Teams from scratch is one of her fortes, and since 2021, she has been responsible for building the german office in Frankfurt. Professionally, her focus lies with the placement of professionals/executives into permanent positions in the areas of Quality, Regulatory, Medical, Market Access, HR and Supply Chain.

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Caroline April Sargeant

Senior Vice President Seattle

Caroline is a recruitment leader with fourteen years’ global Life Sciences experience. With a BSc in Psychology, she began her career specializing in European R&D recruitment solutions, specifically clinical operations, before joining Skills Alliance in 2015. She moved out to launch our Seattle office and is now driving the US business forwards with the vision of becoming a global leader in the life sciences sector. Caroline is passionate about helping SME biotechnology companies scale up rapidly and brings a wealth of people-centric solutions to her clients.

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Mark Anderson

Director UK Permanent

Mark has worked at Skills Alliance since 2010. He oversees the UK Permanent Division, having previously managed the UK & European Clinical Operations Team for 5 years. Mark also recruits for senior clinical positions in the UK. The team places people from CTA to VP level in the UK and across the whole of Europe. He has over 10 years’ experience recruiting clinical professionals in the UK, Europe and the US.

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Akbar Ali

Associate Director European Medical Devices

Akbar joined Skills Alliance in 2019 with 7 years proven Medical Device recruitment experience and has taken on a Team Lead role, focusing on the Medical Device Market and delivering searches across EMEA.

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Kasim Zargar

Vice-President Client Services

For several years, Kasim has provided highly skilled technical resource to multiple major capital investment projects within the Biologics/Pharmaceutical sector across the Globe. Leading the TechOps Client Services team, he supports customers worldwide to ensure the continued successful provision of our contingent staffing services. Regions within his scope include: EU, US, Asia & the Caribbean.

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Rachael Parker

Vice-President New York

Rachael joined Skills Alliance in 2016 and possesses over 12 years’ of Life Science recruitment experience.  Having successfully managed multiple teams with a global footprint from London, Rachael is now located in New York where she leads an office of experienced recruiters and heads up our East Coast staffing business across both contract and permanent hires.

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Jim Bellicoso

Team Leader Procurement & Supply Chain

Jim brings 9 years of recruitment experience in procurement and supply chain, with a track record delivering at all levels from senior buyer through to VP Supply Chain/Chief Procurement Officer.
Supporting SME and global blue-chip life science organisations for these needs on either a permanent or contract basis. Global network that comprehensively covers the European and US markets.

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Mark Damian Crosbie

Team Leader Computational Sciences and Professional Services

Mark Damian joined Skills Alliance in 2020, having focused the previous eight years on leading cross-functional staffing teams in FMCG, Energy, and Life Sciences. He currently manages our Permanent Professional Services and Computational Sciences teams across Europe and the United States; predominately focusing on dedicating his time to providing people-centric solutions that help businesses of all sizes to unlock hidden potential.

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Jasmine Stewart

Team Manager Manufacturing

Jasmine focuses her expertise within in the manufacturing space in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and CDMO industries across France and Benelux. Having a scientific background, she has a passion for the industry and has successfully completed placements in niche areas within the Quality, Regulatory Affairs, Supply Chain, Technical Operations and Site Head departments. She specialises in management level positions to VPs/COOs.

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Mos Francis

Team Leader Medical Affairs & Clinical Developement

Mos entered the pharmaceutical industry in 2017 specialising in end to end R&D, Medical Affairs and Commercial staffing solutions across Europe and US, with a proven track record in supporting Biotechs, SMEs and established Pharmaceutical companies. Mos is highly passionate about the candidate and client journey in all his processes, bringing the best people centric approach to his partners.

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Lewis Nutley

Team Manager Quality & Regulatory

Since joining in 2019 Lewis has supported quality and regulatory contract placements for global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. His team has specialists to support quality and regulatory at every stage of the drug product life cycle and his personal focus is assisting clinical stage biotech’s.

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Executive
management team

Oliver Drew

Managing Director Executive Search

Oliver has over 8 years’ Executive Search experience in Europe, North America, APAC, and LATAM. After joining Skills Alliance in 2016, he co-founded the Executive Search practice which he now co-leads. Overseeing the Global Delivery team, Oliver and his team have extensive experience leading senior appointments and project work across all functions and geographies.

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Joe Kennedy

Managing Director Executive Search

Joe is a seasoned executive search leader with over 12 years experience, executing on complex searches across a range of functions globally, from director level to c-suite. Joe now leads our client function globally for executive search. He is responsible for setting and executing our strategy, building relationships and ensuring client satisfaction.

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Michael Kan

Associate Director EMEA

Possessing over 10 years of successful international recruitment specifically within the biotechnology, pharma and medical technology sector. Mike has nurtured relationships with industry clients across the globe placing many key roles within clinical development, medical affairs, regulatory and commercial. Mike’s focus is to extend the Executive Search proposition at Skills Alliance focusing on start-up organisations through to SME and large biotech / pharma companies globally.

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Malakai Rahmaninof

Principal CRISPR & Genomic Medicines

Malakai leads the Genomic Medicines Executive Search practice, placing Executives, senior leaders and NEDs across the Cell & Gene Therapy industry. Malakai’s team have a strong track record of executing on complex leadership builds for high-growth biotech and biopharma companies.

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Eleanor Mason

Principal Executive Search

Eleanor has 4 years’ experience working in Chemistry and Life Sciences recruitment across the UK, EU & USA. She joined the Executive Search Delivery team as a Principal at the beginning of 2023 and is responsible for leading searches across all functions in start-ups, SMEs and established global Life Sciences companies.


Consulting
management team

Dan Shillingburg

President & Managing Director North America & Consulting

Dan leads our global Consulting practice, which provides tailored enterprise solutions that enable our customers to engage with talent more effectively. He also serves as the President of our US parent company. Dan has been a leader in the talent industry for over a decade, with 14 years of experience bringing workforce solutions to the life sciences sector. His academic background includes a BS in Biology from the University of North Carolina and research in orthopedic biomechanics.

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Justin Hoeker

Solutions Architect Consulting

Justin brings extensive experience in talent acquisition, program development, and operations to lead our consulting solutions design. He has implemented, and lead delivery for, RPO and MSP programs of varying scale and created tailored strategies for our client programs. Justin has a strong passion for Life Sciences and novel technology in the industry.

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Nicole Romeo

Program Manager Consulting

With Skills Alliance since 2017, Nicole is a lead Program Manager for both MSP and RPO solutions in North America and Europe. Nicole has specific expertise in continuous improvement and process excellence, and her team plays a key role in creating an outstanding customer experience. Prior to this role, Nicole was a leader in talent acquisition and compliance. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Hofstra University.

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Ryan Gonce-McAlpine

Senior Recruiter Consulting

Ryan has led recruiting for both RPO and MSP solutions with life sciences companies of all sizes for the last 5 years. He specializes in driving tailored recruiting strategies to maintain excellent quality in high volume environments. Ryan is passionate about novel technology and brings a highly detailed approach to his work. He has a bachelor’s degree in Communications.

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Dave Watson

Vice President Consulting

Dave leads the Sales efforts for Consulting. He comes with 20 years experience in creating workforce solutions that help our clients achieve their business goals and objectives. Dave is passionate in building long lasting relationships and delivering thought leadership to help client save lives. He prides himself in understanding the talent chasllenges in the world of world and creating customized soluitions for each client. Dave has BS in Business Administration, with a focus on Marketing and Finance.

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Alert
It has come to our attention that clients and candidates are being contacted by individuals fraudulently impersonating Skills Alliance representatives. If you receive a suspicious message, please DO NOT click on any links or attachments. We will never ask for bank/card details through phone calls. Our recruitment services are provided to candidates free of charge. If you are asked to make a payment, it is NOT a legitimate request from Skills Alliance. If you receive any communication claiming to be from Skills Alliance and are uncertain about its authenticity, please contact us directly.