Kerry Parker is CEO of SelectScience, the UK-based company with a claimed worldwide audience of 3mn scientists who share product reviews and resources with their peers. The secret sauce is the curation which means that – although scientists freely share reviews – each undergoes a 48-hour filter to ensure the probity of the content and the person who is posting it. The same goes for the content marketing which – although it is, of course, paid-for – is also vetted for overt advertising messages or invalid or hyped claims. The whole process is effectively guaranteed by a scientifically-qualified editorial team. SelectScience was founded 25 years ago and was acquired by private equity for £31mn in 2021.
The company is believed to have revenue of some £10-12mn. Its revenue is mainly derived from its 300 content marketing customers, 50% in the US. The company employs 70 people and is based in Bath, in the UK’s southwest.
Kerry Parker, who joined SelectScience as an editorial assistant 17 years ago, is a science graduate from the University of Warwick.
What were your earliest ambitions?
As a child I knew I wanted to travel the world and to do something other than a ‘normal’ office job, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do. I guess I have achieved that ambition – a real privilege of this career path is to have travelled all over the world and to have met so many inspirational people.
What was your first job?
My very first job was a Saturday retail role at age 15. I went on to juggle several jobs alongside my studies as I quickly realised the benefits of being more financially independent from my parents. I think this taught me a lot about customer service and being responsible. So the world of work was not a shock to me when I left university.
How did you come to join SelectScience?
Like many other science graduates, the obvious career option involves pursuing a scientific research career or working in a lab. I had realised quite quickly that I do not have the mindset for laboratory work (and have always been in awe for the scientists that do), but that I loved feeling part of this special world of science.
So, in 2006, following some work in headhunting (before recruiters used Linked-in!), I answered an ad headlined ‘science graduates wanted for publishing careers’. I met the founders of SelectScience and instantly felt a connection to the idea of communicating science. My first role was editorial/production assistant. I was the fourth person on the payroll.
What have been your milestones so far?
I think the first time I felt the ‘baton’ being handed to me was a critical milestone – that realisation that I had the power to drive my own path and test my ideas, and that where I focused this on business objectives I could be rewarded accordingly. As an editor, I could create a compelling feature, generate sponsorship for it and then fly off to Brazil to create it, making lots of memories and friends along the way. We were small enough then we could pivot and test quickly, and we didn’t have so many eyes on us! This is something I think about with the young people coming into my company now – how can we hand the baton, how easy is it for them to feel they can take responsibility and make a change. It is fantastic to see this lightbulb moment in others.
Another key achievement was when I was promoted from Editor to also manage sales in the role of ‘Editor-in-Chief’, a step that isn’t always obvious in publishing. My initial mission was to be the first to launch content marketing programs to our industry, which we did very successfully.
Almost 15 years after I joined the company in an entry level role, I became the CEO.
What’s special about the company?
As a publisher in the science industry we have a unique mission to ‘accelerate science’. Our people are passionate, curious, striving forward.
Our international audience of scientists work in critical areas such as cancer research, neuroscience, food safety, pharmaceuticals, medical labs, to name a few, and they need the best peer-to-peer quality information to make decisions about which equipment and products to use. Using the right products is an enabler to get faster or more meaningful answers in science. The suppliers of those laboratory products and services need a quality marketing service to reach, engage, sell, and gather market feedback.
We have always been the first-mover in our industry within digital marketing, but I am most proud of our unique and trusted brand which is truly symbiotic for all – the content marketing we produce is not just about selling products and generating leads, but it is also helping to raise the profile of game-changing topics and people in science.
What’s your own primary role?
We now have private equity partners, so my role is to focus on growth and scaling the business. We are still a small business – at around 70 people – and so where I spend my time can be quite varied. I must admit what is most fun is getting out and meeting customers and scientists – intelligent, purposeful people who are constantly creating. That’s the amazing thing about the science industry. To scale our business, I am quite focused on how to develop our teams and the next leaders in the company, which is very rewarding.
What’s your vision for the company?
We have seen the tremendous growth of our business in just the last couple of years and that is set to continue. My vision within the next five years is to provide end-to-end value for customers though product and service innovation. This is around continuing to provide digital marketing and content services, but to also deliver the best insights and data tools to help them become more strategic upstream, and more effective in sales downstream, thus really accelerating their personal and business growth. A number of our customers would say that we have helped with their own career trajectories, and I suppose that is the ultimate in providing value.
The positive external influences of AI and new digital publishing technologies are really helping us right now.
The main hindrance is the general pace at which the science industry adopts new marketing practices, but we are doing what we have always done – working with the early adopters and making it easy for the rest to follow. When SelectScience was launched in 1998, the early adopters embraced digital advertising for the very first time. In 2015, when we transitioned to content marketing, again the early adopters embraced this change and persuaded the mass market along the way. And today we are elevating the conversation yet again.
What does AI mean for SelectScience?
Right now, we are cautiously embracing the latest wave of AI-enabled tools to enhance efficiency in the business across sales management, audience engagement, tech team coding, content creation, and product development. We currently see it as a carefully-controlled support tool. As for what’s next, the challenges of AI are global and so we are looking at how we embrace its power ethically for us, our clients and the scientific community at large. The opportunities of AI are vast, in a data-driven business like ours.
Which other companies do you most admire?
The companies I most admire have been successful in creating compelling stories and staying relevant to their audience over time – Disney, Apple and Patagonia, to name a few.
What are the best lessons you have learned?
- Trust your gut feeling – this is not just a feeling, it is your body’s innate intelligence system, based on years of data, and is there to remind you of what you do in fact know!
- What somebody ‘will do’ is sometimes more important than what they ‘can do’ in a growing business. So hiring on ‘will do’ attitudes ensures you have someone who will progress the ‘can do’s’ themselves, and naturally grow within the business.
- Seek advice and expertise – which I have to keep reminding myself. Be creative and find the fun, even in the most challenging moments.
