During our 2025 Global Meeting in Madrid, we sat down with Gerald Knol, Managing Partner at Holtrop Ravesloot and Life Sciences and Healthcare Practice Group Leader at IIC Partners, to discuss how leadership in healthcare is evolving in response to both internal and external pressures. Gerald reflected on the growing importance of humility, collaboration, and technological expertise. He emphasized the capacity to acknowledge uncertainty, embrace diverse perspectives, and help strengthen the broader ecosystem beyond a single organization.

He also explored how AI and digital innovation are transforming healthcare, not just through data-driven insights and robotization, but by enabling leaders to address workforce shortages and rethink care delivery models. Watch the full interview to hear how IIC Partners firms are helping healthcare organizations navigate change, foster inclusive leadership, and shape a sustainable, digitally enabled future.

Learn more about our work in Life Sciences and Healthcare >>

Interview Transcript

In healthcare, the leadership characteristics in demand are continually evolving. We increasingly see that having the courage to admit you don’t have the answer is a powerful leadership skill. Having the skill to recognize the talent of the people surrounding you and creating a collaborative environment to drive success. Another key strength is being able to look outside of the boundaries of your own organization, working together to strengthen the entire chain.

AI is everywhere at the moment with developments making headlines across the daily papers and prime time news. In healthcare, we’re also seeing promising advances in AI and digital technologies. We see it in mastering the very large amount of available data in healthcare from the perspective of how can AI turn raw data into useful information that can transform the sector. We also see a lot of developments in digital applications or robotization, where slowly these tools are becoming helpful in a very scarce labour market. Perhaps in healthcare or patient care central we can take a greater pride in showing the possibilities AI can offer.

From our point of view, in terms of mindset, one of the most necessary characteristics for future leaders is that all teams related to the future are dealt with together. Together with people from inside and outside of your organization, so every vision starts with challenging that vision and enriching it with the ideas and knowledge of others. And yes, embracing the sustainable digital innovations and the unique circumstances they are creating. The future is what is ahead of us with all of its uncertainties not what is already behind us.

IIC Partners is a unique cooperation of executive search organizations. We are bound together by our independence. This ensures that all partners are intrinsically motivated to share knowledge and help each other. IIC Partners is extremely useful when we have a client with an international subsidiary, allowing us to build a bridge between our client and our trusted partners abroad.