Bedford Group Transearch Launches Fifth Annual Biotechnology Executive & Board Compensation Report

Bedford Group Transearch Life Sciences is proud to announce the release of its 5th annual publication; 2025 Executive and Board Compensation in the Biotechnology Industry.

This complimentary report serves as a vital benchmarking resource for biotechnology organizations developing compensation strategies to attract, engage, and retain top executive and board talent in a highly competitive market.

“Despite a volatile Biotechnology market over the last several years, top executive and board talent remains a core pillar of sustainable competitive advantage, with companies competing aggressively for leadership,” said Darren Raycroft, Managing Director, North American Life Sciences at Bedford Group Transearch. “We saw median base salary and total compensation increases across nearly all market cap tiers and positions, with an average year-over-year increase in median total compensation of 20% compared to the prior year.”

The 2025 analysis also revealed notable trends in leadership composition:

• 18% of companies in the dataset reported a new CEO in the past year — up from 16.9% the year prior.
• Representation of women on boards has continued to grow, albeit incrementally, with 28.8% of directors and 11.7% of board chairs identifying as female, compared to 25% and 8.6%, respectively, when Bedford began reporting the data in 2020.
• The proportion of female CEOs declined slightly over this same five-year period, from 8.5% to 7.9%.
• With the repeal of the Nasdaq Board Diversity Disclosure Rule in February 2025, 47% of surveyed companies included a diversity matrix in their 2024 proxy, while only 22% kept them in their 2025 proxies.

The 2025 report analyzes executive and board compensation across 194 Nasdaq-listed micro and small-cap biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the United States. The dataset includes 1,350 individual board members and 738 Named Executive Officers (NEOs), offering comprehensive insight into:

• Base salary, annual and long-term incentive trends
• Board member, chairperson, and committee chair compensation structures
• Year-over-year compensation comparisons
• Termination and change-of-control provisions

The full report is available for complimentary download here.

About Bedford Group Transearch

Founded in 1979, Bedford Group Transearch is one of North America’s leading privately held executive search firms, recognized for its deep expertise in the Life Sciences sector. With offices across Canada and the United States, Bedford partners with organizations ranging from innovative startups to global multinationals. The firm’s Life Sciences practice spans Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology, Clinical Research, Pharmacy, and MedTech—helping clients build world-class executive leadership teams equipped to drive growth and innovation.

Learn more at www.bedfordgroup.com/healthcare