The Only Exclusively MedTech Firm Among the Top 175 of 22,000+ US Recruiting Firms.

ORLANDO, Fla., June 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — For the tenth time since first appearing in 2019, Legacy MEDSearch has been named to Forbes America’s Best Executive and Professional Recruiting Firms, presented by Forbes and Statista. Legacy MEDSearch separates itself from virtually every firm on the list regardless of size and scale with true medtech depth. Legacy MEDSearch, with a 10-person team, joins this prestigious list of the country’s largest firms, like Robert Half with more than 16,000 employees worldwide; Heidrick & Struggles a global leadership advisory firm with offices across more than 30 countries; and Korn Ferry, the world’s largest executive search firm with more than 9,000 employees.

Recognition is earned exclusively through independent peer survey. Firms cannot apply, pay, or influence the result in any way — making placement on this list among the most credible third-party validations in executive search.

“Medical device professionals in our ecosystem have been talking to the same Legacy MEDSearch teammates for the better part of two decades. The sales rep who called us early in their career is now a Vice President. The VP we placed years ago is today a Chief Commercial Officer,” said Paula Rutledge, Founder & CEO, Legacy MEDSearch. “We place C-level and Board members because companies and professionals know us. We know them. That continuity — built on trust, sustained over careers — is what MedTech Talent Intelligence™ actually means in practice. Not a platform. A relationship.”

LEGACY MEDSEARCH BY THE NUMBERS

YEARS WITH THE FIRM

Average tenure of the senior recruiting
team. The same team placing today’s
MedTech C-suite placed their
predecessors.

26+

YEARS IN THE DISCIPLINE

Average years each recruiter has spent
in HR, recruiting, or MedTech —
including Founder Paula Rutledge’s
two decades in direct commercial
leadership at publicly traded Fortune-
class device companies.

150+

COMBINED YEARS OF MEDTECH
DEPTH

Combined MedTech industry and
recruiting experience across the team
— in operating rooms, boardrooms,
surgical skills labs, and conference
floors on four continents.

The Legacy MEDSearch team has been built from MedTech, rather than simply recruiting for it. The team brings clinical and commercial fluency earned in operating rooms, surgical skills labs, and on stages at 16+ medical device and medtech investment conferences annually across four continents. Before any search launches, a proprietary MedTech DNA Analysis aligns Boards, CEOs, HR, and hiring managers on the precise leadership profile required — preventing the most costly failure mode in executive search.

Notable in 2026: Legacy MEDSearch has placed or is actively placing the first U.S.-based executives for OEMs headquartered across four continents — North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Founder Paula Rutledge’s forthcoming book, How MedTech Careers Evolve from Early Success to the Corner Office — 280 pages, arriving fall 2026 — donates 100% of proceeds, to the Alzheimer’s Association. A Board member of her local chapter and Founding Chair of the Purple Gala to End Alzheimer’s, Rutledge wears hats at every conference to honor her mother, an avid hat collector who passed from the disease #EndALZ

ABOUT LEGACY MEDSEARCH

Headquartered in Orlando, Florida with an office in Dallas, Texas, Legacy MEDSearch conducts retained executive and professional searches exclusively within the medical device and medtech industry. Powered by MedTech Talent Intelligence™ and MedTech A.I.™ (Authentic Influence), with a proprietary network of 500,000+ medtech professionals. legacymedsearch.com

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