FOR PHARMA & LIFE SCIENCES EXECUTIVES
If you are within five years of a transition, the board seats are going to someone else — and this page explains exactly why.Board recruiters Google you before they call. What do they find?For most senior pharma executives — VPs of Clinical Operations, Regulatory Directors, SVPs of Medical Affairs, Heads of Commercial — the answer is almost nothing. A LinkedIn profile. A company bio. A press release from 2019 you didn't write.That is not a reflection of your expertise. It is a reflection of how careers in this industry are built. And it is fixable.
THIS IS FOR YOU IF— You are a pharma or life sciences executive — VP, SVP, C-suite, or Director-level with 20+ years — planning a transition in the next one to five years— You have been passed over for a promotion, an advisory role, or a board consideration that should have been yours— You are currently employed but know the industry well enough to see what is coming — and you want the pipeline built before you need it— You have tried networking, conferences, and keeping your LinkedIn current — and the right opportunities are not materializing the way they shouldIf none of these fit, this page is not for you. If one of them does, keep reading.
The problem nobody in your position talks about out loudThe executives landing scientific advisory board seats at early-stage biotechs, speaking at DIA and BIO, getting calls from executive search firms — they are not more experienced than you.In most cases they are not even more accomplished.What they have that you do not is a published body of work. Articles in the publications your peers actually read — Pharmaceutical Technology, Applied Clinical Trials, RAPS Regulatory Focus, BioPharm International, Directors & Boards.Published expertise compounds. Each article builds on the last. Over 9 to 12 months, a body of work establishes you as a known quantity — the kind of person a biotech founder points to and says, "I've been reading her for a year. She's exactly who we need."Without it, you are invisible to the people doing the pointing.
I have spent 25 years solving exactly this problemMy name is Judy Curtis. I am a senior communications strategist and ghostwriter specializing in life sciences and technology executives.Before building SIPR Encore, I spent two and a half decades crafting brand narratives for technology and life sciences organizations — learning how to take genuinely complex ideas and distill them into messaging that resonates with exactly the right audience.What I noticed, repeatedly, was that the most impressive people in the room were almost never the most visible ones. Not because they had nothing to say. Because they had never had a system for saying it.SIPR Encore is that system.
Here is exactly how it worksWe meet in regular structured sessions — efficient, designed around your schedule.I interview you. I ask the questions that surface the frameworks, the judgment calls, the hard-won perspectives you have accumulated across your career. The things you could talk about for hours.Then I do the writing, the editing, and the placement.You never sit in front of a blank page. You have a conversation about what you actually know. I handle everything else — including placing the work in the publications where your target audience is already reading: biotech trade journals, pharmaceutical industry platforms, LinkedIn Articles, and the governance and science publications that board recruiters and conference organizers actively monitor.You talk. I write. The market finds you.
What this has produced for clients
VP OF PHARMACEUTICAL DEVELOPMENT — AGE 56Zero external visibility. Three years from retirement. Started building her body of work with us. Within 14 months: a scientific advisory board invitation from an early-stage biotech, equity compensation included. Active conversations with two executive search firms who reached out after finding her published work."I thought I was too late to build a reputation outside my company. Turns out I just needed help translating what I know."---DIRECTOR OF REGULATORY AFFAIRSWanted to leave corporate but had no consulting platform and no external brand. Published regulatory insights for 12 months while still employed. Left at month 15 with three committed clients already signed. Now fully independent, working selectively.---VP OF CLINICAL OPERATIONS — PASSED OVER FOR SVP TWICEStrong performance reviews. No external visibility. Published on clinical trial strategy for nine months. Promoted to SVP at month 13. Her CEO cited her "emerging industry leadership" — the same leadership that had existed for years and simply had not been visible.
THE GUARANTEEStart with a single session. No commitment beyond that.We define your publishing territory, identify the publications where your target audience is active, and develop your first three article ideas.If you leave that session without a clear path and real momentum, you do not continue. That is the whole risk.Most clients describe the first session as the clearest they have felt about their professional direction in years.
The encore chapter is available to you. Most executives never claim it.Board seats. Advisory roles. Consulting work that uses everything you have built. A professional identity that does not depend on any single employer.That chapter goes to people who made their expertise visible — methodically, before they needed to. The executives who built it started 12 to 18 months before they needed it to pay off.If you are within five years of a transition, the right time is now — not after the next reorg.
Two sentences about your background and what you want to build.
I respond within 48 hours.
© 2026 SIPR Encore · [email protected] · sipr.com
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FOR CFOS IN TECH & LIFE SCIENCES
If you are a CFO planning your next chapter — and the board seats aren't coming the way they should — read this before you spend another six months doing the same things that haven't worked.
THIS IS FOR YOU IF
— You are a CFO in tech or life sciences — public company, late-stage private, or PE-backed — and you are 1 to 5 years from a planned transition— You have attended board readiness programs, taken calls with executive search firms, and refreshed your governance credentials — and the right opportunities have not materialized— You are currently employed and want to build the board pipeline before you need it, not after— You have been told you are "board ready" by everyone who knows you and are puzzled that the boards don't seem to agreeIf none of these fit, this page is not for you. If any of them do, stay with me.
The CFOs landing those board seats have something you don'tYou have spent your career doing exactly what a great CFO does.Closing the books. Managing the audit committee. Navigating capital raises in markets that weren't cooperating. Giving the board the hard truth when the CEO didn't want to hear it. Making the call on M&A that turned out to be right — or the one that didn't, and managing the aftermath.That judgment is real. It is hard-won. It is genuinely valuable to boards that need someone in the audit committee chair who has actually done the job at scale.And it is completely invisible to the nominating committee that just filled the seat you wanted with someone else.Board nominating committees build their short lists from people who are known quantities — whose financial thinking has appeared in CFO Magazine, Directors & Boards, Harvard Business Review, or the governance and investor-relations platforms that board directors actually read.Not your former CEO's reference. Not your LinkedIn headline. Published work that answers the question every board is quietly asking: What does this person actually think? How do they reason? Are they safe to put in front of our shareholders?If you have done everything right by the old playbook and it is not working, this is almost certainly why.
I have spent 25 years solving exactly this problemMy name is Judy Curtis. I am a senior communications strategist and ghostwriter specializing in life sciences and technology executives.Before building SIPR Encore, I spent two and a half decades crafting brand narratives for technology and life sciences organizations — learning how to take genuinely complex ideas and distill them into messaging that resonates with exactly the right audience.What I noticed about CFOs specifically: you are among the most analytically rigorous people in any organization, and you are among the least likely to have ever published anything under your own name. Not because you have nothing to offer. Because your career actively rewarded discretion over visibility.SIPR Encore is built for exactly that gap.
Here is what the engagement looks likeWe meet in regular structured sessions built around your schedule.I interview you on the territory you know cold: audit committee governance, capital allocation in high-rate environments, the CFO's evolving role on the board, what management teams get wrong about investor communications, how to evaluate a CFO candidate from a board perspective, M&A due diligence at the level only someone who has done it understands.I shape your thinking into substantive, publishable articles. I place them in the publications your target audience — board directors, governance committees, executive search firms — reads actively.Over 9 to 12 months, your name becomes associated with a specific, credible point of view on financial governance. When a board recruiter searches for an independent director with your background, your work surfaces. When a founder or chair is compiling a short list, your name is already familiar.You never write a word. You have a conversation about what you actually know. I handle the rest.
The numbers are worth being direct aboutA single independent director seat at a public tech or life sciences company typically pays between $200,000 and $350,000 in total annual compensation — cash retainer, committee fees, and equity. Audit committee chairs command a premium.Three seats is a portfolio that replaces — and in many cases exceeds — a late-career operating salary. On 20 to 25 hours a week, with the flexibility to work on your terms.The CFOs building those portfolios started building visibility while still employed — 18 months, sometimes two years, before they needed the pipeline to pay off. No pressure. No desperation pricing. The opportunities found them.That is the move. It requires starting before you think you need to.
What this has produced for clients
CFO — PUBLIC MID-CAP COMPANY, AGE 64Zero online presence. Planning his transition. Started building a body of work focused on audit committee governance and capital strategy. By month 12: three board seat offers. The executive search professional who made the first call told him she had been reading his published work for six months before reaching out.---CFO — LATE-STAGE BIOTECHWanted board seats but had spent 18 years heads-down in operating roles with no external profile. Published on capital allocation and investor relations strategy for 10 months while still employed. First board conversation initiated by the board — not by him — at month 11.---VP OF FINANCE — TECH COMPANYPassed over for CFO twice. No external visibility. Published on financial governance and FP&A strategy for eight months. Promoted to CFO at month 10. Her CEO cited her "growing industry profile" as a deciding factor.
THE GUARANTEEStart with a single session. No commitment beyond that.We define your publishing territory, identify the publications where your target audience is active, and develop your first three article ideas.If you leave that session without a clear path and real momentum, you do not continue. That is the whole risk.Most CFOs describe the first session as the clearest their transition plan has ever felt.
The board portfolio you want is available. The CFOs who have it started earlier than you think.They did not wait until the operating role ended. They built the visibility while they still had the title — which meant when the transition came, the pipeline was already running and the opportunities came on their terms.Twelve months from now, you could have a published body of work, active conversations with board search firms who found you, and a clear sense of which companies want what you know.Or you could be 12 months further into doing the same things that have not worked yet.
Two sentences about your background and your transition timeline.
I respond within 48 hours.
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