Executive Search
Retained search for consequential leadership decisions, in regulated and reputation-sensitive markets where a single appointment compounds — or erodes — enterprise value for years.
Selective by design.
We are retained on a small number of appointments each year. The partner who takes the brief runs the search — the research, the approaches, the assessment, the offer and the first year — from board conversation through to the executive delivering against the scorecard. Nothing is delegated.
Every mandate begins with an appointment diagnostic.
Structured interviews with the board, the committee and the second line, to establish what the role must actually achieve and where the stakeholders disagree. That work sometimes concludes that you should promote internally, appoint an interim, split the role, or wait. Where that is the honest answer, we say so. Where a search follows, the diagnostic becomes the specification: a written scorecard of time-bound outcomes — commercial and regulatory — signed off before a single approach is made.
How we work a mandate
Four principles hold across every engagement.
Partner-led throughout
The partner who took the brief owns the research, the approaches, the assessment, the offer and the first year. Nothing is delegated.
Confidential by default
Most of the people we approach are not in the market, are performing well, and would not respond to an unsolicited process. That access is built over years and spent carefully.
Evidence over proximity
We assess causation, not career adjacency — what a candidate personally changed, escalated or was overruled on, referenced at depth with people who watched them make those calls.
Shortlist in four to six weeks
Shortlists are presented against the scorecard, not around it. Where the market genuinely does not contain the right person, we say so before proposing the compromise.
Process
Our search process
1. Appointment diagnostic
Structured interviews with the board, committee and second line. Where the honest answer is not a search, we say so.
2. Scorecard and specification
A written scorecard of time-bound outcomes — commercial and regulatory — signed off by the board before a single approach is made.
3. Research and approach
Confidential mapping of the market. Approaches made personally by the partner, to people who would not respond to an unsolicited process.
4. Assessment against causation
Structured assessment and deep referencing of what a candidate personally changed, escalated or was overruled on — not their career adjacency to the role.
5. Shortlist, offer and negotiation
Shortlists presented in four to six weeks against the scorecard. The partner runs the offer and negotiation to close.
6. First 30, 90, 180 and 365 days
We hold the logic of the search in place through the first year, reviewed against the regulatory calendar as well as the business plan. The mandate closes when the executive is delivering against the scorecard.
Where we are engaged
Sectors and appointments
Financial services and fintech
Appointments that carry personal regulatory accountability, including firms in authorisation, supervision or remediation. Executives whose track record stands up to both the board and the regulator.
Healthcare and life sciences software
Leaders who treat clinical and regulatory data as a governance responsibility, not a quality-team problem — where data integrity is the asset and the exposure.
Technology and enterprise AI
Executives who have shipped at scale and can prove it, not those who have simply been near it. Chief Technology, Chief AI and model-oversight leadership.
Regulatory, risk and compliance
Leaders with the standing to hold a position against commercial pressure — Chief Risk, Chief Compliance, MLRO, General Counsel — so a board hears "no" as protection rather than obstruction.
Why clients retain us
Because our independence is worth more to them than the fee on a search that should not happen. We hold a deliberately small portfolio of engagements — the number that lets each one have the partner’s judgment, patience and discretion. Where a search is the right answer, it is run against a scorecard the board has already signed off, and closed only when the executive is delivering against it.
- 35+ years of industry expertise
- Global and local talent network
- Research-driven, professional methodology
- High retention and success rates
- Personalized, client-focused approach
Considering an appointment where the wrong hire would be costly to unwind?
Speak with a senior partner about the diagnostic, in confidence.