Leading a 30-Year Health Recruitment Business Through a Decade of Disruption

In 2015, I joined a recruitment business that had already been serving New Zealand’s medical and pharmaceutical sector for three decades. Over the following years I moved from industry participant to business partner alongside Gary Beattie, before ultimately taking full ownership in 2022.

At the time, I thought I was entering a well-established, relationship-driven industry built on trust, face-to-face engagement and long-term partnerships.

What I witnessed over the following decade was the beginning of structural change.

Health technology in New Zealand has become leaner, faster and far more demanding. Teams are smaller, territories are larger, expectations are higher, and global frameworks are increasingly applied to a market of just over five million people.

And yet we still sometimes talk about recruitment as if it’s transactional.

It isn’t.

In a commercially exposed market like New Zealand, every hire is a strategic decision. A poor appointment doesn’t just cost a recruitment fee — it can affect revenue, market access, team morale and leadership credibility. In lean organisations there is no buffer.

At the same time, we are asking more of individuals than ever before.

Today’s health tech professionals are expected to be commercially astute, clinically credible, data-literate and resilient under pressure — often with fewer internal resources than existed even five years ago.

One of the encouraging shifts I see across the sector is the strength of women operating within it.

Women in health technology are quietly carrying enormous commercial responsibility. They are leading territories, managing teams, driving growth and navigating complex healthcare systems — often without making a great deal of noise about it.

They are adaptable, commercially sharp and resilient.

But resilience should not be mistaken for unlimited capacity. If we want the next generation of female leaders to step forward, organisations will need to look beyond flexibility as a policy and invest in genuine leadership development and succession planning.

The next decade in New Zealand health technology will belong to organisations that understand local nuance, invest in capability and treat talent strategy as a commercial priority.

Longevity alone isn’t the goal.

Relevance is — and relevance requires a willingness to adapt, challenge assumptions and keep investing in the people who ultimately drive progress in healthcare.

Wendy Chrisp 

Managing Director