The right leader
is rarely the
one who is
looking.
Retained executive search for board, C-suite and senior functional appointments. We map the whole market, approach discreetly, and present a shortlist you can defend to a nominations committee.
Where we search
Functional depth matters more than breadth at this level. Our consultants work a defined market, know who is credible in it, and can reach the people who never answer an advert.
Chair, non-executive and full C-suite appointments, including succession planning where the incumbent is still in post and discretion is absolute. We work to a specification agreed with the board, not a job description.
General counsel, heads of compliance, regulatory and risk leadership across regulated industries. We screen on jurisdictional exposure and regulatory record, because a strong CV in one regime does not always transfer to another.
Senior finance appointments across corporate, private equity backed and listed environments, including transformation and transaction leadership where the mandate is time bound and the stakes are public.
Or retain us for the year, not the role.
A single search is a transaction. Where a board is rebuilding a leadership team, or a portfolio company needs four appointments inside eighteen months, a retained program costs less per appointment and moves faster, because the market intelligence compounds instead of being thrown away at the end of each mandate.
Retained programs
Several mandates, one agreement.
An agreed number of searches across an agreed period, on one retainer with one consultant who learns your business once rather than five times. The fee per appointment is lower than running them separately, and the second search starts from the map the first one built.
Succession and bench mapping
Know who is next before you need them.
A live map of the credible successors to each critical role, inside the business and outside it, refreshed on a schedule and held confidentially. It turns the emergency search that follows a resignation into a phone call you have already had.
Leadership team build
A whole team, in the right order.
Where a new chief executive or an investment thesis needs several appointments, we sequence them so the first hire helps select the next, rather than running four searches in parallel and hoping the people fit together when they arrive.
Markets we know from the inside
Sector fluency is what separates a credible approach from an unanswered one. These are the markets where our consultants already hold the relationships.
How a search actually runs
Search fails for predictable reasons. A specification nobody agreed, a shortlist drawn from who was available, and a process that leaked. Ours is built to avoid all three.
Specification before search
We start with the business problem, not the job title. What the appointment has to change in the first eighteen months, what the board will measure, and what genuinely disqualifies a candidate. That document is signed off before we approach anyone.
The market, mapped
We build the full universe of credible people in the defined market, not a list of who is on file. You see the map, including the people who said no and why, so you know the shortlist is a decision rather than an accident of availability.
Discreet by construction
Approaches are made personally and confidentially. Where a succession is sensitive or the incumbent is still in post, the search runs without the client name in market until you decide otherwise.
Referenced properly
References are taken on the record and off it, from people who worked above, beside and below the candidate. We report what we find, including what gave us pause, because a search you cannot defend later is not worth running.
How a retained executive search runs, week by week.
A retained search is bought in thirds, not on success. That changes what you are entitled to ask for at each stage, so here is the sequence, the deliverable at each point, and when each installment falls due.
Brief and market map
Stakeholder interviews, agreement on the specification and the scorecard, and a mapped view of the addressable market. You see the map, including the people we cannot approach and why.
Fee: first installment on engagement.
Approach and longlist
Direct approach to the mapped market. Weekly written progress, naming who has been contacted, who has declined and what the market is telling us about the brief. Uncomfortable feedback included.
Fee: second installment at longlist.
Shortlist and assessment
Competency interviews against the agreed scorecard, written candidate reports, and formal referencing before the shortlist is presented rather than after an offer is made.
Fee: no installment at this stage.
Offer and onboarding
Offer structuring, counter-offer management and resignation support, then contact at 30, 60 and 90 days with both sides. Off-limits on the placed hire runs for the agreed term.
Fee: final installment on acceptance.
Twelve weeks is the pattern for a mapped, referenced search at leadership level. Board and regulated appointments run longer. If a brief cannot realistically be filled in the window you need, we say so at the point of engagement rather than at week eight.
Start a confidential conversation.
Tell us the appointment and the constraint around it. We will come back with a view on the market, a realistic timeline, and whether we are the right firm for this particular mandate.