Executive Search

Retained executive search is a dedicated, confidential engagement to identify, assess, and place senior leaders for C-suite and other critical roles. Unlike contingent recruiting, a retained partner commits to the full mandate, from role scoping through onboarding — and is accountable to the quality and durability of the placement.

Retained search is often the best fit for hard-to-fill or high-stakes leadership roles where a mis-hire would create significant organizational risk. It is also valuable for confidential searches involving incumbent replacement, situations requiring access to passive executive talent, or leadership decisions that benefit from objective assessment.

We focus on C-suite and senior leadership including CFO, CEO, COO, and other operational leadership roles across private-equity-backed and investor-backed platforms in industries such as manufacturing, industrial services, logistics, and technology.

Retained search typically places senior leaders within 90 days, while roughly 40% of unaided executive searches drag past 90 days. Timing depends on role complexity, market scarcity, and how quickly the mandate is defined.

Confidentiality is designed in from the start. Research and outreach are conducted discreetly across target sectors to protect the organization, the search, and the candidates, which matters when replacing an incumbent or moving on a sensitive role.

We use structured executive interviews, leadership and behavioral assessment, and in-depth referencing and background checks. Structured interviews are nearly twice as predictive of performance as unstructured ones, and our AMPLOS organizational psychologists ground the assessment in behavioral science.

Our work continues past the offer. We provide offer strategy and negotiation support, onboarding and first-100-days planning, and a replacement guarantee with an ongoing cadence of check-ins to ensure the leader takes hold.

We combine retained-search rigor with an in-house organizational psychology team, AMPLOS. That pairing brings validated, science-based assessment of leadership fit and mindset to every search — a capability most search firms outsource or skip.

Why does leadership selection matter so much to performance? Because leaders set the conditions for everyone else. Managers account for up to 70% of the variance in employee engagement, and highly engaged teams deliver 17% higher productivity and 23% greater profitability. The right placement moves the whole organization.