Elena Cates
Elena Cates is the President of Cates Consulting, located in Los Angeles. Elena leads the financial and business services practice for Cates Consulting. Clients include MasterCard, Brunswick Group, Joele Frank and PIMCO. Elena conducts searches for several private equity Firms and a leading management consulting firm. Additionally, Elena co-leads Biopharma, focusing in Clinical Development and General & Administrative. Clients include Biogen, Audentes Therapeutics, 89Bio, Retrotope, and AskBio.
Elena began her career as a consultant at Russell Reynolds Associates and was promoted to Director of Research for the Southern California offices. Elena was responsible for creating and implementing the search strategy for recruiting efforts on financial and business services searches in both the US and Europe. In 1991, Elena Co-founded Cates Consulting with Partner and sister, Rachel Galligan. Elena received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She has served on the Board of the New York Executive Search Roundtable and was a Co-founder and President of the Southern California Executive Search Roundtable. Elena is the former Treasurer of the National Charity League and has served as a Vice President and on the Board of the Palisades Hills HOA in Pacific Palisades since 2010. Additionally, she served on the provisional Board of Save the Children in Los Angeles.
Rachel Galligan
Rachel Galligan is a Partner with Cates Consulting. She has over 25 years’ experience in executive search and has successfully completed global and regional searches with a focus in Pharmaceutical, Biotech, and Cell & Gene Therapy. Rachel has conducted searches across multiple functions and professional roles, including Research & Development, Operations & Manufacturing, Quality, Administration & General Management, Clinical & Preclinical, Translational, and Commercial. One of the hallmarks of her search practice, as is echoed throughout Cates Consulting, she will work tirelessly on behalf of candidates and clients.
Rachel began her search career with A-L Associates in the firm’s Research Department and was promoted to Director of Research. Her complete understanding of research as a discipline accelerates candidate vetting through the use of enhanced research parameters prior to the search itself. Rachel is known for maintaining long-term relationships with former candidates and converting them into top talent hires in record time. Additionally, Rachel is a member of the Advisory Board of Untapped Potential, a not-for-profit benefit corporation supporting “returnships” for professionals returning to careers after absences for family needs.