Robin Toft (17)

Toft Group Executive Search

Robin Toft is the founder and CEO of Toft Group Executive Search, where she combines a deep inside knowledge of the life science industry with a passion for building game-changing management teams. In more than a decade in the executive search industry, Ms. Toft has placed members of boards of directors, CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CCOs, CMOs, CTOs, and other senior management positions in North American companies in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices, life science tools and digital health. A champion of diverse executive teams, Ms. Toft has built a reputation for recruiting women and minorities into top roles and helping the life science industry overcome unconscious bias in hiring. Ms. Toft is the author of the book WE CAN, the Executive Woman’s Guide to Career Advancement and leads Toft Group’s WE CAN™ movement to expand networking and learning opportunities for female executives nationwide.   Prior to founding Toft Group in 2010, Ms. Toft served as Managing Director of Sanford Rose Associates – San Francisco, an executive search firm also specializing in life sciences. In joining Sanford Rose in 2006, Ms. Toft essentially launched a second career, following more than two decades as a biotech executive. Her prior roles include Senior Vice President of Global Commercial Operations at Roche, Vice President of Virology at Roche, and Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales at ViroLogic Inc. (now Monogram Biosciences), a San Francisco startup where she was instrumental in the company’s first product launches and IPO. Ms. Toft also served in a variety of senior management posts at LabCorp, one of the world’s largest clinical diagnostic companies, after beginning her career at SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories.   Ms. Toft serves on the board of Scripps Mercy Hospital Foundation; The Clearity Foundation, supporting ovarian cancer patients; and LEAD San Diego, the only organization in greater San Diego dedicated to developing civically engaged leaders. Additionally, Ms. Toft has been active on American Heart Association’s “Go Red for Women” executive leadership team and has participated in the annual Susan G. Komen walk to support breast cancer research since 2010. Ms. Toft’s leadership talents have not gone unnoticed: she was awarded Woman of the Year in 2017 by the San Diego Business Journal; in 2018, she was a finalist in Ernst & Young’s prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year awards; and she’s been honored as a finalist for San Diego Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business and Most Admired CEO awards in multiple years. Under Ms. Toft’s leadership, Toft Group was honored as a finalist in Athena San Diego’s Diversity and Inclusion awards and received their prestigious Pinnacle Top Company Award.   Ms. Toft holds a B.S. in Medical Technology (Clinical Laboratory Science) from Michigan State University and a teaching credential from San Diego State University.