Tim Ruef

Tim has 16 years’ experience in retained executive search and executive coaching. He has led over 400 searches throughout his career and coached hundreds of key executives.

Prior to founding Ruef & Associates LLC, Tim held key management positions for several prominent pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer and Merck, and launched over eight products in the U.S., Europe and Canada. One of these products, with 2nd year sales of over $2 Billion, was deemed the largest, fastest, and most successful launches in Merck history.

Tim started his industry career in pharmaceutical sales with Pfizer, and subsequently transitioned to marketing before joining Lederle Pharmaceuticals, now Pfizer, where he led the hospital/oncology business. During this period he launched new products for hypertension, arthritis, infectious disease and oncology, and led co-promotion integrations in the wake of two Pfizer acquisitions. During this time he also accepted a special appointment to speed development of a new oncology product. As Project Director, Tim built a multidivisional, high-performance team, which reduced the time required to bring the product to market by nine months. Tim then assumed responsibility as Vice President, General Manager of Medi Cine Inc., a healthcare advertising agency in New York City where he increased revenues 34 percent in his two-year tenure.

Returning to the client side of the business, Tim rejoined Pfizer where he developed strategy, positioning, and core launch programs for a new arthritis product and later developed key components of the launch strategy for a major cholesterol compound with sales of over $14 billion.

Tim holds a BA degree in Psychology from the University of San Francisco, an MPA in Human Resource Management from the University of Colorado in Boulder, as well as Executive Education certificates from the University of Virginia, Duke and Columbia and is currently a member of the Columbia Coaching and Learning Association. He has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Marketing at Fairleigh Dickenson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, and was a transformative growth workshop leader at Summit Communication in Los Angeles. Tim has authored several articles on Executive Integration, produced a video entitled, “Hiring for Success” and co-authored an article published in Pharmaceutical Executive, entitled “Breakthrough! A New Route to Develop Drugs More Quickly.” Tim is a member of the New Jersey Speakers Association, Toastmasters, SHRM and presents at numerous conferences on leadership, marketing, executive selection, on-boarding, and organization development.

Tim is a former Captain and Ranger in the United States Army.