Trying to Hire a Pet Industry Executive? Don't Start With a Job Description.

If you're hiring a CEO, COO, VP of Operations or corporate development executive for a veterinary group, animal health company or growing pet business, the job description is probably not your biggest problem.

The candidate profile is.

Most executive searches go sideways before the first candidate is contacted because the company hasn't decided what it actually needs the executive to accomplish.

Start With the Problem

“Need a COO with 10+ years of healthcare experience” isn't a search strategy.

What does the COO need to fix?

Is the company opening 50 new locations? Integrating acquisitions? Professionalizing a founder-led operation? Improving margins? Building a regional leadership structure?

Those answers produce very different candidates.

Decide What Is Non-Negotiable

Pet industry companies often make the mistake of stacking requirements until the ideal candidate barely exists.

Do you really need someone who has spent their entire career in veterinary medicine?

Or do you need someone who has successfully operated a 100-location business?

Do you need animal-health experience?

Or do you need someone who has built a high-growth commercial organization?

Those aren't the same search.

Look Beyond the Obvious Candidate Pool

The obvious candidates are already being contacted by everyone else.

A strong pet industry executive search should look at adjacent industries where the same capabilities exist.

A multi-site healthcare operator may be an excellent fit for a veterinary platform. A consumer executive may bring exactly the growth experience an animal-health company lacks. A corporate development leader from another acquisitive industry may have more relevant M&A experience than someone with ten years of pet-industry tenure.

The industry on the résumé is only one piece of the equation.

Then Go Find Them

This is where executive recruiting becomes different from posting a job.

The best candidates for senior pet industry roles are often already employed, performing well and not actively looking.

They aren't necessarily sitting on a job board waiting for your opening.

They have to be identified, approached and convinced that the opportunity is worth considering.

That's the Search

The right pet industry executive search firm should be able to tell you who you're looking for, where those people are likely to be, why they're qualified and how the search will reach them.

That's a much better starting point than posting a job and hoping the right person applies.

Premier Search recruits executive leaders across veterinary, animal health and the broader pet industry, including CEOs, COOs, operations leaders and corporate development executives.

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