Week In Review:
December 12, 2025
On The Ground
For the 6th year in a row, Aequitas has brought forth compensation insights to the healthcare innovation industry in the largest, most comprehensive, and most free study available. We released the full results on base, bonus, and equity to participants yesterday (check your inbox), and thought that we would share some takeaways with the rest of the ecosystem.
2025 was a tale of two halves - the first mixed with volatility and uncertainty reminiscent of 2024, and the second remarkably active, with what felt like new momentum and tailwinds. The space came to life mid-summer and has stayed red hot since then.
Overall, compensation increased by 3.7% in 2025 over 2024. Across the various capital stages we look at, Early Stage companies are the biggest drivers of compensation growth, which is ironic if they are the ones that have the least amount of revenue and/or capital. But as we’ve seen over the year, expertise matters when you want to move fast, and companies, executives, and Boards know this. The biggest beneficiaries of this increase are VP level leaders - these are individuals who are particularly important to companies in those stages, the ones who can pull double-duty in being both strategic and tactical. The hands-on leader, so to speak.
While the rise in compensation is modest on average, with only three areas seeing a down-tick, key functions are seeing outsized growth in comp, demonstrating higher demand and more competition. Founding CEOs are finally getting their base compensation marked closer to market with 8.4% growth. C-level Growth and Revenue leaders are driving their guaranteed comp higher as topgrading within the function continues year over year, with 6.6% and 12.4% increases, respectively. And the tremendous amount of funding for AI companies has heightened the demand for Technology leaders, with a 10.2% increase in base.
On The Move
- CentralReach, an EMR platform for Autism and IDD Care, appoints Kimberly Gerard as Chief Financial Officer and Samantha Goldman as Chief Marketing Officer (Source)
- Eleanor Health, an online addiction treatment company, promotes Julia Carabas as Chief Operating Officer (Source)
- DaVita, a provider of kidney car services, appoints Stephanie Hendrickson as Chief People Officer and Steve Phillips as Chief Strategy Officer (Source)
- Rightway, a pharmacy benefit management and personalized care navigation company, promotes Ashley Hasle as Chief Commercial Officer (Source)
On The Hunt
- Cedar, a financial engagement company, is hiring a VP, Sales Engineering
- HealthJoy, a care navigation platform, is hiring a Regional Vice President (FL)
- Spring Health, a mental healthcare company, is hiring a Lead Product Manager - Payer
If you’d like to see a comprehensive list of mid/senior-level jobs or for your company to be listed in this newsletter, please add your career page to the Health Talent Exchange.
The roles represented here have been shared by the companies themselves via their own career pages and aggregated on the Health Talent Exchange. Given that these organizations are not necessarily Aequitas clients, we cannot vouch for or provide further insight than what has been shared here.
Founded in 2014, Aequitas Partners is the preeminent talent partner for high-growth healthcare companies. With a diverse portfolio of offerings, we work with some of the most exciting companies in the industry, assembling teams tackling the biggest challenges facing healthcare, while supporting Founders, CEOs and Boards in all facets of human capital development.
Over the last decade, Aequitas has brought you insights on a quarterly basis in our Catalyst Newsletter - everything from interviews with groundbreaking healthcare leaders, to windows into who is hiring and who they are looking for, to trends on all things talent-related in digital health. But the industry moves fast, and the pace of change is constant.
Our job is to keep our fingers on the pulse of everything going on in health innovation and how it impacts executive talent - and by extension - company building. In service of that, you’ll get a distillation of our insights every Friday. After all, aequitas means “equity” in Latin and sapientia potentia est (knowledge is power).
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