Executive search proof

We have done this hundreds of times. Your niche is not the exception.

From semiconductor companies to global VP searches — the approach is the same and the shortlist lands in about three weeks. Book 15 minutes and see the proof.

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The doubt every CEO brings

You think briefing us will take weeks. It won't.

How bold would you be if you had placed hundreds of leaders already — across niche industries, complex markets, and senior roles most firms walk away from?

Your niche is unique. Your team, your technology, your growth logic — we need to understand all of it. And yes, we will. But we have placed hundreds of leaders before you, so we know the pattern. The niche is never the real blocker. The real blocker is not knowing what the role actually needs to deliver.

Every CEO in a niche market says it: our technology is too specific, our growth story is too complex, a generalist firm will never get it fast enough. We have heard that in semiconductors, cleantech, special machinery, and global supply chain. The fear is understandable. It is also wrong.

We do not start with your market. We start with one question: what does winning in this role actually require? That question cuts through any industry in under three hours. After that, we know exactly who to look for — and where.

Fifteen years in. The niche is never the real problem. The real problem is not knowing what the role needs to deliver.

The growth challenges behind the hires

Most executive search starts with a job description. The work below started with a much harder question: what does this business actually need to do next, and who can lead that?

The buy-and-build investor who needed a new kind of leader across the portfolio

A private equity investor was building a 500M EUR construction holding over seven years. The companies were run by excellent engineers — technically strong, not built for growth or KPIs.

We worked through the portfolio systematically. Replaced CEOs and department heads where the gap was structural. Rebuilt HR functions never designed for scale. Brought in regional experts to support new leaders through the transition.

The question was never who to hire. It was what the business needed to become — and whether the current team could take it there.

Five years into a seven-year strategy, the holding is operating as designed.

The founder who built a great business and needed it to outlast him

A business owner came to us with one quiet question: if I step back, does this business survive? His team had grown with him — loyal, capable, trusted — but no one was ready to lead it forward.

We started with a five-year succession plan. Placed a future CEO early enough to build real trust alongside the existing team. Then five further placements brought new energy into project management, commercial thinking, and execution. The average age of the leadership team dropped. The culture did not.

Five placements. A new generation of leaders. And a founder who could finally think about the next 20 years instead of the next quarter.

The owner stepped back because the business was ready.

The niche technology company whose ideal candidates technically did not exist

Their market was growing fast, the window was narrow, and the senior profiles they needed simply did not exist in the traditional sense. The Head of Global Sales was direct: bring me five to ten strong profiles, but I don't think you'll find them.

We started not with a search but with a story — a clear, honest account of what this company was building and what a senior leader could actually achieve here. That story reached people with the right mindset and adjacent experience who had never been approached this way.

The candidates existed. They just had never been given a reason to say yes.

The candidates came. The team was built. The company captured its growth window.

Seven mandates. Seven different markets. One approach.

Different sectors, different seniority levels, different countries. The search logic holds across all of them.

KST Berlin

B2B Services · Germany

90% of revenue in four clients. We placed a senior sales lead to drive new account acquisition and rebuilt go-to-market resilience with succession in mind.

Customer dependency dropped from 90% to under 50% within months.

Red Cross Germany

Non-profit · Germany

Entrepreneurial leaders assumed the DRK role meant process, not impact. We ran a CEO-targeted video campaign and attracted performance-driven candidates outside the traditional NGO bubble.

"These candidates would have never applied the normal way."

Ökotec / Veolia

Engineering / Digital · Germany & EU

Digital transformation needed leaders who respected a strong engineering culture while pushing it forward. We placed hybrid sales and software specialists across both Ökotec and Veolia's EU expansion teams.

Multi-mandate engagement across two companies.

Integrated Lab Solutions

Special Machinery / Tech · Germany

The CEO needed a CTO who could accelerate growth, not just maintain the current state. We mapped candidates with 10+ years of deep tech leadership focused on process agility and operational speed.

CTO placed with immediate operational impact.

Atotech Group

Supply Chain · Global (Asia-heavy)

VP-level supply chain leadership for a 3,000-person global business. We focused on execution power over politics, working directly with the CEO to ensure alignment and speed.

"Finally, a process that delivers impact — not theater."

EDF Germany

Cleantech / Energy · Germany

No local footprint, no candidate pool to clone. We placed general managers across hydrogen, battery storage, and digital energy — hybrid profiles with strategic thinking and real pragmatism.

100% retention after 12 months.

Protestant Church Germany

Institutional / Finance · Germany

The EKD needed a financial leader trusted by every voice in the room. We managed alignment across multiple decision-making bodies and matched cultural intelligence with financial leadership capability.

Broad stakeholder approval and visible early wins within months of placement.

These are someone else's stories. Let's work on yours.

Fifteen minutes. No slides, no pitch. Just a direct conversation about your hire and a clear view of whether this approach is right for you.

Grab your 15-minute strategy call

No commitment. No mandate. Just clarity on your specific challenge.

A closer look

Building EDF's cleantech leadership in Germany from zero

EDF needed to build its startup ecosystem in Germany from scratch. The brief was not to clone an existing hire. There was no local footprint, no obvious candidate pool, and no margin for a polished senior manager who could run a steady-state business. Jean-Marc Bazenet, then-CEO of EDF Renewables Germany, needed leaders who understood French HQ logic, German execution culture, and the commercial reality of an emerging cleantech market — at the same time.

We placed several general managers across hydrogen, battery storage, and digital energy. Hybrid profiles: strategic thinking combined with real pragmatism and the drive to build. Not the obvious candidates. Not the safe ones.

Today EDF's energy ventures are operational across multiple cleantech verticals, with a leadership core that built the German presence from zero. The search took about three weeks per placement. None of those leaders would have surfaced through a standard search process.

Market: Cleantech / Energy Country: Germany Roles placed: Multiple GMs across hydrogen, battery storage, digital energy Still in role after 12 months: 100%

Proof

Don't take our word for it

"Good advisors listen more than they talk. Dirk took the time to understand our specific situation — the market complexity, the cultural dynamics, the constraints. The result reflected that."
Jean-Marc Bazenet
CEO
EDF Renewables Deutschland

See If This Works For You

Bring your toughest hire. We will show you why the search can work in your niche, at your level, and what strong candidates would actually respond to.

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