London, UK, 28th November 2017: The RSA Group, the leading global Life Sciences executive search firm, has published the latest of its Talent Equity® reports, analysing the performance of biotech Boards, CEOs and Chairs in Europe and the USA from an investor viewpoint. The results run counter to accepted wisdom, showing European companies significantly outperforming their US peers to deliver greater investment returns. Unsurprisingly, US-based companies win by a landslide when measuring average market capitalisation $3.1 billion vs. $727 million, but this simple measure doesn’t tell the whole story.

To understand the relationship between company leadership and investment performance, the new report compares publicly traded biotech companies across European exchanges (LSE, FSE, Euronext and SIX) against companies on NASDAQ, and identifies the top 20 Boards behind the leading companies in Europe and the US. Analysis in the report identifies the ideal Chair and ideal CEO profiles, and studies the profiles of the top 20 CEOs and 20 Chairs who outperformed their industry peers during the 3-year period up to June 2017.

The report also takes a forensic look at the elements that have contributed to the performance of their Boards, including:

  • Share ownership
  • Over-commitment
  • Succession planning
  • Diversified composition
  • Gender diversity
  • Remuneration

As Executive Chairman Nick Stephens explains: “Our goal was to bring insights that can be used in data-driven decision support, vital for building, assessing and refreshing Boards. Better leadership planning can help ensure the best return on technology and capital.

For people running public companies or private companies with public ambitions, there is a responsibility to patients and shareholders to ensure that the Board is as effective as it can possibly be. We believe that the new information uncovered by our research can play an important role in contributing to the success of biotech companies and in doing so, change patients’ lives”.

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