When a permanent appointment is needed at the senior level, we find and place the right person.
The work is search in the proper sense: not advertising, not databases, not approaching everyone in a sector and seeing who replies. A confidential search begins with a clear understanding of the role to be filled and ends with a single carefully placed individual. The work in between is research, judgement, and direct conversation with people who would not be looking otherwise.
We run searches across the C-suite and at board level: chief executive, finance director, chief operating officer, chief restructuring officer, chief people officer, chief technology officer, Chair, and senior non-executive director appointments. Most engagements come through portfolio managers, chairs, or HR directors who need a search handled with discretion that an open process cannot provide.
The reason this matters in our terms is that the right person, properly placed, locks the structure of a business in a way no other intervention can. We sometimes describe that person as the keystone: the piece at the apex of an arch, the one that lets the structure carry its full load. Most of the time we just call it good search work.
How an engagement works
The first conversation, as you would expect, is a briefing. We want to understand the business, the role to be filled, and the kind of person who can carry it. We take engagements on only when we are confident a credible shortlist exists.
The work proceeds quietly. There is no public posting, no candidate database, no sharing of the brief beyond people we have approached directly. Candidates know who is searching for them; the wider market does not.
A shortlist is presented when we are confident in it, not on a fixed timetable. The right appointment takes the time it takes. We would rather extend a search than place someone who does not fit.
Why candidates engage
The senior people we approach are often not actively looking. Many are settled in their existing roles and would not respond to a public approach. The reason they engage with us is straightforward: the conversation is senior, the brief is real, and the discretion is mutual. A search we run will not appear on a job board, and the candidate’s interest in it will not appear anywhere either.
Fees
Search fees are agreed at the briefing stage, fixed at engagement, and tied to the seniority and complexity of the role rather than the eventual salary. We do not work on a contingency basis.
A confidential conversation, or a professional profile on request.