Executive Assessment & Selection
For CEO selection, board appointments, and senior hires.
Independent senior assessment for the appointments boards and CEOs cannot get wrong. We combine the Leadership Versatility Index, structured executive interviews, and twenty-plus years of pattern recognition to produce defensible recommendations — written for boards, not for HR files.
The challenge
The appointments boards and CEOs make at the top of the house compound for years. The candidate slates they evaluate are usually presented by the people most invested in the slate being approved — search firms, the CHRO, the prior holder of the seat. The board rarely gets an independent read against the role itself.
Who this is for
The leaders we work with
- Boards conducting CEO and senior executive searches
- CEOs vetting their own top team
- Private equity firms evaluating portfolio company leadership
- CHROs assessing internal slates for critical succession roles
How we work
A diagnostic, developmental, validated arc.
- 01
Brief
A working session with the board chair, CEO, or sponsoring committee. We define the role the candidates are being assessed against — the actual role, on the actual timeline, with the actual operating challenges in front of it.
- 02
Assess
Structured 360 plus LVI on each candidate. Multi-hour structured executive interview by a senior practitioner. Reference work where the brief requires it.
- 03
Recommend
A written assessment delivered for the board — comparing internal and external candidates against the role, not against each other. The recommendation is named and defended in writing.
What changes
By the end of the engagement
- An independent read on each candidate against the role
- A defensible, board-ready written assessment
- A named, defended recommendation
- A development plan for the candidates the board chooses
Frequently asked
What clients ask before they engage.
- How is this different from a search firm assessment?
- It is independent of the search. The work is sponsored by the board or the CEO, not by the firm running the search. The deliverable is a board-ready assessment, not a candidate dossier.
- What does the deliverable look like?
- A written assessment, structured for the board, with the LVI-anchored read on each candidate plus the senior practitioner’s recommendation. Length scales with the consequence of the appointment.
- Can you assess external candidates as well as internal?
- Yes. We assess both, and we explicitly recommend against each other so the board sees the comparison the search firm rarely provides.