Our client, the CEO of an international investment firm with a global brand and reach, was seeking to fundamentally change the approach of its investment management division to turn around pockets of underperformance, expand its product base and drive AuM growth as a result. We were mandated to hire a CIO to help drive this process.

Our first act was to spend time with all of the key internal stakeholders in the business to ensure there was a consistency on their part about the specific attributes of the candidate they were seeking.

We also needed to understand in great depth the new strategy of the firm in order to ensure we could best articulate the proposition to the small talent pool that we were targeting. This was a highly confidential exercise for obvious reasons. We conducted an initial piece of research for the client to identify 5-10 potential candidates for the role who were based in the US, Europe and Asia.

After sign off from our client, we approached each of these individuals and invested time with them to understand in depth their current roles, career histories and aspirations for the future.

We facilitated introductions for half of this group based on feedback from our client. And then partnered each of the selected candidates through what was a 6 month process. The candidate that accepted the offer then looked to us to help him through his resignation process. His employer was a publicly quoted firm and there were significant client and regulatory issues that needed to be worked through.

On joining the firm, we then worked with him to build out his management team including a Head of European Equities and a Head of Global Equities - a testament to his experience as a candidate and our client's satisfaction with the initial process.