The Institution
A teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital is recognized internationally for patient care, biomedical research, and professional training. The Hospital has centers of excellence in cardiac care, cancer treatment, neurosciences, orthopedics and arthritis, and women's health.

The Challenge
Help Brigham and Women’s build its campaign advancement team quickly through multiple searches to fill diverse, director-level positions.

The Inside Story
In anticipation of a campaign, Mark Kostegan, Brigham and Women’s chief development officer, was charged with expanding and reinvigorating the Hospital’s advancement organization. In 2005, when Leodas Search Group (and its predecessor firm, Leodas Solymar) began recruiting, the Hospital was raising about $10 million annually. Kostegan needed to fill important positions with people who could perform, and he needed to do it quickly. Working with the Leodas team, Brigham and Women’s made nine hires between 2005 and 2007. The proof of quality is evident: in 2007, the expanded development group brought in approximately $65 million.

The Searches
For the initial four searches, the Leodas team exercised the power of its network to bring the Hospital development professionals with impeccable track records. As the firm learned exactly what Brigham and Women’s was looking for in hires – and as the imperative for speed became more important – it began to introduce a mix of traditional and nontraditional candidates, all of whom possessed star quality. In ongoing work for the Hospital – including searches for senior development officers for the high-profile Women’s Health Initiative and Cardiovascular Center – Leodas Search Group continues to present slates of exceptional people, some with prior development experience and some without.

The Hires
The Leodas team has helped Brigham and Women’s recruit new hires for nine varied positions: senior director of development, Biomedical Research Institute; senior development officer for major gifts; development officer and senior development officer, Department of Medicine; director of stewardship; development officer, Institute for the Neurosciences; senior development officer, corporate relations; development officer, foundation relations; and senior director of development, operations. Some of these searches took as little as three months, and several of the positions were filled by nontraditional candidates. In addition to the hires from these nine retained searches, Leodas Search Group is so committed to the Hospital that it also brought in two top-notch recruits to fill positions for which it had not been contracted.