An Interview with Kelly McEldrew, Senior Principal

Sometimes as executive recruiters we spend so much time getting to know the executives themselves and pitching roles, that we forget to share a bit about ourselves, too! This is why I was so excited to sit down with my colleague, Kelly McEldrew, who was recently promoted to Senior Principal, and dig into all of her learnings over the years. Read on for our conversation! 

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Polina H: First things first - congratulations on your promotion! And second, please tell us how you got started in recruiting. It's usually not a place that somebody falls into immediately after college graduation, so I’m curious about what attracted you to it in the first place.

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Kelly M: Yes, it is overwhelmingly a second career for people which I have used for my benefit because all of the people that I have worked with have given me such a wealth of knowledge from looking at this industry from a different perspective. That said, I don't think anybody knows how they get into recruiting! It’s not an occupation or profession in college that is really well known. But, I knew a couple things: I liked talking to people, I liked being in front of people, and I liked problem solving. When I came back from school, I was introduced to family friends that were opening up a regional office for a recruiting firm in Philadelphia, and I loved the idea of being a part of something that was new but had an established presence.

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Polina H: Did you go into retained search immediately or start in another branch? 

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Kelly M: So there's contingency and then there's retained executive search. And I started my career in contingency, which was an incredible way to get myself out there, develop thick skin, learn how to move in a resource-constrained and incredibly quick environment. That experience was invaluable. 

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But your livelihood and the revenue of the business is contingent on you placing a candidate. I found that - unsurprisingly - it's extremely transactional. The relationship oftentimes starts and ends once you place that candidate. Yes, you do have repeat business and you have repeat clients, but I wanted something that was more strategic, something that felt more like a partnership really. The partnership mentality and retained recruiting had always been something that was on my high list of goals, which is what led me to the next phase of my career. 

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Polina H: So after spending a few years within the retained environment as a generalist, working with companies big and small and in various industries, you’re now several years into being hyper-focused in the health innovation realm. How has the transition been?

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Kelly M: My career prior had been very focused on high-growth technology, B2B and consumer, and all about innovation. These companies had been using AI for a very long time, as an example. So to come into an industry that was just on the cusp of breaking into some of these really innovative areas was really exciting. I think we are at this tipping point with this industry where companies are able to grasp great technologies and utilize them in a way that's efficient and not just flashy. In this way, it feels a little bit like I'm blending my two experiences together. And I would even go as far as to say that there could be some crossover from some of the network that I developed in my old life to the current one. 

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Polina H: One of the other things that sets Aequitas apart from other organizations is the combo focus of health innovation and high-growth companies, which are usually venture or PE-backed. What do you see as some of the key differences in executives who would join an earlier stage company versus a more established one?

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Kelly M: There's so much more on the line recruiting for these individuals because they can really be “make or break” for the future of the companies. Every company that we're working for is at an inflection point where the hire that we've been tasked with is going to be the one that's going to take them to where they need to be to get to scale. Contrast this to my previous roles, where even if you bring in a great CFO or Ops leader, and they do a great job, their impact may still be incremental in the grand scheme. 

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There’s also a lot more emotion. The companies are all purpose-driven. And we're working with leaders who have put their blood, sweat, tears, and their reputation into this business. They understandably have a harder time trusting other leaders to feel the same way. So working with candidates through that process to grasp that not only do they have the skill set, but do they have the grit, do they have the mentality to want to dive into this just like a founder would, is a whole other level of recruiting in my experience.

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Polina H: What have been some of the favorite roles that you've worked on over the last couple of years? 

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Kelly M: Personally, I love working with HR leaders just because the role and individuals are so dynamic. HR is one of the functions that I've noted especially over the last decade that has changed so dramatically. HR 10 years ago is not what HR is today. And it's been interesting to see that evolution from a tactical HR mindset to a more strategic people driver, which I think has been one of the most interesting transitions. Often, you find HR leaders that did something totally different before, whether it's a strategy role or something else, then moved into a People role. I think it's one that's going to become more and more a part of every decision-making process as companies grow. 

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A personal favorite here, without naming names, was working with a Series B company in the interoperability space and they were looking for a CFO to help them get close to profitability during an incredibly turbulent market - most CFOs were burned out and we really needed someone that could do more than just a typical CFO job. More of a CFO ops leader. And they had to be in our client’s HQ. We found a wonderful female CFO / COO leader, who I believe is going to help take this company beyond what they initially anticipated. And I think it's always wonderful to get diversity into a role like that. It's something that I've consistently worked on in my entire career, and specifically with a function that is notoriously tough to get diverse executives. 

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Polina H: You mentioned earlier about how much you enjoy working with HR leaders and we often say that we're extensions of that HR, People or Talent Acquisition team. Can you share some tips for organizations that have, or conversely don’t have, talent leaders on how to work with an executive search firm?

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Kelly M: For both types of companies, as long as you trust us to understand what you're looking for, what good looks like in the role, we can be successful together. 

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For those companies that have a talent team, we're not viewed as “competition,” but as their extension. Some of the talent teams that I work with today, almost feel like friends. When they come to us and they're looking for something incredibly specific that's at the C-suite level, they just don't have the bandwidth or the network to do that on their own. So we're working together as a team. 

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If you don't have a talent leader, that's where we can step in. We take the time to learn not just the role, but the culture of the company, which I think is the most important aspect to get right. We do an incredibly in-depth intake and run a process to understand that it looks different everywhere. 

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For the companies who don’t have a formal talent leader, I think figuring out who's going to be involved in the hiring process is the most important thing. And I think that should be decided as soon as possible. Once that’s decided, the key decision-makers should get together to make sure they're on the same page. Oftentimes I see when searches go a bit sideways, it is because everyone has different priorities. It’s ok for everyone to have different ideas, they have different opinions, but there should be consensus amongst the hiring and the interview team on the role.

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Polina H: What's making up the bulk of your search work today?

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Kelly M: This year it is absolutely commercial leaders, VP of Sales, SVP of Sales, Chief Commercial Officers. It’s more of the team and broader commercial leader who can take a process and make it great, and then scale the company. Those selling to payers and employers are in very high demand. 

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Polina H: Any tips on how to find a great sales leader? There seems to be such high turnover within that function. I'd be curious about the green flags or red flags that you're paying attention to.

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Kelly M: It’s not unlike what we saw last year with CFOs, where we were looking for strategic finance leaders who also spike in operational strategy. That's what we're seeing here, too. We are constantly looking for great team managers, great sales leaders, people who can build a sophisticated process. But more and more we're hearing from our clients “what's next?” Are they also leaders who are going to be strategic external visionaries? Are they hearing what the market is saying? Are they listening to customers and are they bringing it back to the organization and helping that organization continue to stay relevant and innovate? Companies are learning from their predecessors and competition and want commercial leaders that are constantly going to be maniacal about the nuances of the customer. 

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Polina H: In your expanded role as Senior Principal, what are you looking forward to this year?

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Kelly M: I am looking forward to continuing to do great work with our clients and work closer with the rest of our team on other areas outside of search. While we are an executive search firm first, we have other offerings for our clients that I would love to get more involved in and as we continue to grow. I would also like to mentor and develop younger talent that come in, just like I was throughout my entire career, and pass this

lifelong recruiting knowledge down.

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Polina H: Thank you for the conversation!

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