Prior to founding Ruef & Associates LLC, Tim was a senior consultant at a well-known retained search firm in the greater New York area. Tim held key management positions for several prominent pharmaceutical companies before transitioning to his career in executive search. At Pfizer and Merck, Tim launched over eight products in the U.S., Europe and Canada and he directed the launch and commercial development of new products in arthritis and oncology for Merck. One of these products, with 2nd year sales of over $2 Billion, was deemed the largest, fastest, and most successful launches in Merck’s history. Tim later played a key role in business development and new product planning for Merck’s evolving oncology business.

Tim began his career in pharmaceutical sales with Pfizer, and subsequently transitioned to marketing before joining Lederle Pharmaceuticals, where he managed the anti-infective business, and then assumed leadership of the hospital/oncology business for Lederle, Canada. Moving back to Lederle headquarters as Business Unit Director, Cardiovasculars, Tim launched a new product for hypertension and led a co-promotion initiative with Wyeth/Ayerst and Robins. During this period he accepted a special appointment to speed development of a new oncology product. As Project Director, Lederle Oncology, 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 communications company 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 peak sales of over $12 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, Columbia and Duke. He has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Marketing at Fairleigh Dickenson University in Teaneck, New Jersey. 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 has presented at numerous conferences on topics involving leadership, marketing, executive selection, on-boarding and organization development.

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