Executive Search
The right leader changes everything.
our
capabilities
Executive Search & Leadership Placement
- Confidential and incumbent-sensitive searches
- Board and CEO alignment
- Succession and leadership transition support
- Private equity and investor-backed leadership recruitment
Candidate Assessment & Leadership Evaluation
- Behavioral science-based evaluation
- Leadership and organizational fit assessment
- Structured executive interviewing
- Organizational psychology expertise
- Competency benchmarking
Market Intelligence & Talent Mapping
- Access to passive executive talent
- Hard-to-fill and high-stakes leadership roles
- Competitive talent market intelligence
- Compensation benchmarking
Executive Integration & Transition Support
- Offer strategy and negotiation support
- First 100-day planning
- Executive onboarding guidance
- Post-placement support and follow-up
- Long-term placement success
section
Earned Advantage™ is our AI framework that helps organizations move from experimentation to competitive advantage through four stages. Each stage builds capability and returns a different kind of value.
foundation
Capability built
Executive alignment, organizational fluency, basic governance, and the human system.
Value unlocked
Better judgment and investment decisions, less wasted effort, and more trust.
capacity
Capability built
Repeatable AI-enabled workflows. AI assists, a person decides.
Value unlocked
Time saved, fewer errors, higher throughput, and recovered capacity to redeploy.
leverage
Capability built
Cross-functional process redesign, agent-led, with process-level governance.
Value unlocked
Faster cycle times, greater consistency, scale, and better financial outcomes.
advantage
Capability built
Multi-agent orchestration, and strategic differentiation competitors cannot easily copy.
Value unlocked
New revenue, market expansion, pricing power, and a position competitors cannot quickly copy.
meet our
specialists
featured
insights
contact our team.
FAQ
What is retained 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.
When does retained executive search make sense?
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.
What roles do you search for?
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.
How long does an executive search take?
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.
How do you keep a search confidential?
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.
How do you assess candidates beyond the resume?
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.
What happens after a candidate is placed?
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.
What makes Elliott Davis's search different?
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?
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.