A fractional research partner for boutique and mid-market executive search firms. Market mapping, sourcing, and benchmark research on Director, VP, and C-level mandates, designed to fit how partners actually run searches.
Translate a kickoff into a defensible research plan. I build the target universe, sharpen the candidate persona, and map where the talent actually sits before sourcing starts.
Org charts, talent flow, comp ranges, and the moves that matter. The intelligence layer that gives partners and clients real conviction in a slate.
Deep, written profiles of the people on the longlist: career arc, scope, scale, motivations, and the questions to actually ask. Not a LinkedIn copy-paste.
When a search needs more lift than the in-house team can run, I embed. Direct sourcing, outreach copy, and pipeline hygiene, handed back clean.
Most of the firms I work with don't need another vendor. They need another seat at the research bench.
I work as a fractional extension of the team: in your weekly cadence, in your search docs, in the rhythm you already run. The output reads like it came from inside the firm.
Embedded on one active search: strategy, market map, candidate sourcing, and ongoing research support through close.
Ongoing research and sourcing capacity across the firm's active book, with a flat monthly fee that flexes across mandates as priorities shift.
Standalone deliverables: a market map, sourcing sprint, comp benchmark, longlist refresh, or pre-pitch intelligence pack.
Partners running senior mandates who want research depth without adding headcount.
Platform teams sourcing leadership for portfolio companies and running founder-led searches.
Operating partners running C-suite and leadership hires across the portfolio.
Research is a partner-grade output. I treat it that way. Every market map, every profile, every memo.
The firms that win mandates and close searches faster are the ones with better research underneath them. I built my practice around that simple observation. And most search teams don't have enough of it.
I work with a small number of clients at a time, embedded enough to know the brief without being briefed twice. I write the way a partner would write: in full sentences, with judgment on the page, not just data.
I'm comfortable across functions and stages, from early stage to growth equity to late-stage VC to buyout. What I care about most is doing the work well, with people who value that.
Ian