Engaged Executive Search
Engaged executive search for the top two to three layers of your organisation.
Engaged mandates only. C-level, VP, Director and succession-grade leaders placed into scale-stage and mature operators across APAC and EMEA. Small caseload, deep market work, conviction shortlist.
Not sure how to frame the role? Start with an AI Capability Assessment — it clarifies the brief before you commit to a mandate.
Mandate Context
Built For
Boards, founders and CEOs hiring inside the top two layers of the organisation, where the wrong call costs years rather than quarters.
Engaged executive search exists because contingency search cannot answer the only question that matters at this level: would we hire this person ourselves, with our own money, into our own company? Our small caseload, deep market work and conviction shortlist are designed to give a board three names it can defend in a closed session - not a longlist to triage.
- Typical Mandates
- CEO · CTO · CIO · CDO · Chief Transformation Officer · VP Engineering · Head of Platform
- Sector Focus
- Scale-stage and mature operators in technology, FinTech, infrastructure, regulated enterprise
- Geography
- Singapore · Amsterdam · Dubai · cross-border APAC and EMEA
- Engagement Model
- Engaged search only · NDA standard · Never contingency
The Methodology
Seven questions where others ask seventy.
This is engaged executive search, not contingency. We commit to a small number of mandates so we can go deep into both the brief and the market. The output is conviction, not coverage. We do not present a long shortlist of candidates who passed a competency filter; we present the small number of leaders we would hire ourselves into our own firm.
That distinction changes how we search, how we assess, and how we advise. It also changes what your board sees twelve and eighteen months after the hire signs. Read our FinTech CTO succession playbook or our Displacement Index research for the underlying market view.
Skin-First Credentials
We look for leaders who have owned outcomes, not managed proximity to them. A CTO who shipped, not one who oversaw. A COO who turned around, not one who reported on the turnaround.
Motivational Truth Analysis
Compensation is a hygiene factor. We find out what a leader is actually moving toward, and whether your organisation can credibly offer it. Counter-offer prevention begins in the first conversation.
Diagnostic Capacity Over Political Intelligence
Technical leadership at the C and VP level requires the ability to diagnose systems under pressure, not just navigate stakeholder dynamics. We test this. Most search firms don't.
The Interval
If the methodology is what you're missing, the next step is a twenty-five minute mandate review — partner-led, no pitch deck.
Secure calendar allocation — active or impending cross-border mandates only.
What We Place
C-level, VP, Director, and succession-grade leaders.
We place leaders in the top two to three layers of the organisation. Not profiles on a slide, candidates we have already advised your hiring manager to interview.
Profile
CTO, CIO, CDO, CTPO
C-level technology, information, data, and product leaders accountable for platform direction.
Profile
Chief Transformation Officer
C-level transformation leaders running AI adoption and operating model redesign.
Profile
VP and Head of Engineering
VP-level leaders rebuilding velocity, architecture, and team operating models at scale.
Profile
Head of Infrastructure, Platform, SRE
Senior operators of data centre, cloud, and platform estates where reliability is a board-level concern.
Profile
VP Data and Head of AI
VP and director-level data, applied AI, and ML leaders translating models into production.
Profile
Succession-Grade Senior Leaders
Director and head-of-function operators already at near C-level impact, hired as the named successor or strategic minus-one.
Not on this list? If the seat sits in the top two to three layers and requires a passive candidate and a confidential approach, we can run it.
Our Position
Conviction over coverage.
Most retained search firms measure productivity in candidates surfaced. We measure it in candidates we chose not to present. Every name on our shortlist is a name we've already stress-tested against your brief, your culture, and your market.
We don't convince ourselves first and then convince you. We are comfortable telling you that the market for what you're looking for is thin, and that the timeline needs to reflect that. We'd rather lose the mandate than misrepresent the search.
We are not for every client. We don't fill every seat. But the seats we fill, we fill once.
"We don't present profiles. We present candidates we would hire ourselves."
— FREQUENTLY ASKED
Common Questions
Know what you're missing before you brief us.
We offer a no-obligation briefing call. 30 minutes, no pitch deck. We listen to the role, tell you what the market looks like, and whether we're the right firm for it. If we're not, we'll tell you who is.
Initiate Confidential Briefing →We respond within one business day. Conversations are confidential.
From the record
“Executive searcher for Continental Europe — Senior Director and VP level across Digital, Data Science, Analytics and Consulting. A real recruitment partner to country managers and VPs in a highly matrixed organisation.”
Selected testimony from mandates led by Harald H.R. Agterhuis, now founder of Sercxi. Verbatim on LinkedIn; excerpted here. Verify on LinkedIn ↗
The Mandate Doesn't Wait for Consensus.
Engaged search from brief to close, partner-led. No contingency, no shared desk.
Confidential · 30 minutes · Partner-led · No obligation
Three candidates, every one we would hire ourselves.
Commission a Search
You know the role. You need the operator. Define what this hire needs to unlock.
Begin AI Assessment
Two weeks of precision diagnostics before committing to a search. Know what you need before you hire for it.
See the AssessmentSubmit a brief without your company name. We confirm fit before any details are exchanged.
Request Partner Allocation
A confidential briefing with a resident corridor partner. No gatekeepers, no intermediaries.
Request Partner AllocationSecure calendar allocation — cross-border mandates only.