Adastrum Consulting is an executive search firm in London that appoints C-suite, product and technology leaders for organisations in growth or transformation. We start with the problem the appointment has to solve, and assess how a leader behaves under pressure as well as what they have done.
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Great leadership does more than fill a position. It changes the direction of an organisation. We appoint chief executives, COOs and other board level leaders, and the senior technology, product, data and engineering leadership that a modern organisation depends on.
Clients work with us because they value a search partner who listens, challenges and brings measured judgement to every recommendation. We look beyond a candidate's technical history to how they lead, how they communicate and how they shape the environment around them.
Clients partner with us because they want more than a list of candidates. They want measured advice from someone who understands organisational dynamics, and a search firm that combines evidence with experience.
We never rely solely on a generic job description. We start with the problem each executive role has to solve, then assess how candidates lead when the pressure arrives. That level of understanding is something a machine simply cannot replicate.
Our consultants maintain long-term relationships with C-suite and technology executives, which lets us engage the market with credibility and discretion. Every conversation with us is confidential.
We combine executive search, interim leadership, behavioural assessment and team development, so an appointment is supported well before and well after the offer is signed:
Every mandate opens with the same question: what problem is this appointment meant to solve? We challenge and re-articulate a brief before we open a search.
Developed with the social psychologist Dr Ian Stewart. We assess how a leader operates when the room is calm, and what they reach for when it is not.
Copying a competitor rarely produces a breakthrough. We map inside your sector and well beyond it, and let the problem decide where the right leader comes from.
We stay close through the first hundred days, then our Meta Team programme develops the team the appointment lands in and retests to measure the difference.
When a leadership gap appears, the organisation cannot wait. Our interim management service places proven senior leaders who can stabilise a function, guide a transformation or deliver a critical programme, including interim CIO, CTO, CISO, product and engineering leaders.
Securing the right leader is only one part of the equation. Our leadership development, executive assessment and team development programmes help an executive team build alignment, make better decisions and work together with purpose and trust.
Technology has stopped being a support function and started deciding whether a strategy lands. We appoint the technology, product and data leadership that boards, chief executives and investors are relying on to carry a change: the leaders who have already built the thing being asked for, rather than the ones who can describe it fluently.
Explore This Sector: Technology Executive SearchLaw firms are governed differently from almost any other kind of organisation, and that difference decides which appointments hold and which quietly come undone. We appoint the operational, technology and transformation leadership that runs a legal business. We do not place practising fee-earners, partners or solicitors.
Explore This Sector: Legal Executive SearchHospitality is judged on the guest experience and run on operational discipline, and the two rarely answer to the same instinct. We appoint the commercial, digital and operational leadership of multi-site and branded hospitality groups, the roles where a decision taken in the spring shows up in the peak trading season.
Explore This Sector: Hospitality Executive SearchHealthcare and life sciences run on two clocks that disagree with each other: the innovation clock and the assurance clock. We appoint the commercial, operational and technology leadership that has to hold both, across life sciences, biotech, medical technology and care providers. We do not place clinicians or research scientists.
Explore This Sector: Healthcare Executive SearchEducation has become two businesses wearing one word. A university runs on governance, public funding and a mission older than anyone in the room; an EdTech company runs on product, investors and a clock. We appoint the executive, commercial and technology leadership both of them need when the operating model has to change.
Explore This Sector: Education Executive SearchRetail leadership is judged on margin, customer experience and supply chain at the same time, and a strong CV from a well-known name mostly tells you which of the three someone was standing near. We appoint board-level, commercial, digital and transformation leadership. We do not place store or field operations roles.
Explore This Sector: Retail Executive SearchDistribution moved, audience behaviour moved, and the revenue model had to be rebuilt while the business kept running. We appoint the commercial, product, technology and transformation leadership that holds those three together in media, publishing and broadcast businesses. We do not place editorial, production or creative-craft roles.
Explore This Sector: Media Executive SearchThe energy transition is a capital programme, a regulatory negotiation and an operating-model change happening at the same time, usually under a regulator's timetable. We appoint the executive, commercial and technology leadership that carries it across generation, networks, utilities and infrastructure. We do not place field operations or engineering roles.
Explore This Sector: Energy and Utilities Executive SearchObservations from twenty years of appointing leaders into complex organisations: how a senior appointment is scoped and assessed, what separates one that compounds from one that quietly comes apart, why succession plans drift towards the most visible candidate, and what a board ought to ask before it signs off the brief.
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In two studies of large buyouts, in the United States and the UK, about seven in ten companies changed their CEO under private equity ownership. We read the deal data and the surveys behind the widely quoted figures to see when the changes happen and how they relate to holding periods and returns.
What does a chief technology officer do, and how do you hire the right one? A practical guide to the CTO role, its responsibilities and the hiring process, drawing on published research and twenty years of technology leadership appointments.
The Collaborator is the schema you appoint to make a divided organisation move as one. It is also the one most likely to keep seeking agreement long after the moment for agreement has gone. The most dangerous phrase in a senior team is not “I disagree.” It is “let’s get everyone aligned first.” I watched a leader run a good business into a wasted quarter on that phrase, and almost nobody in the room could see it happ
Retained search for C-suite and technology leadership, starting from the problem the appointment has to solve.
CEO, CTO, COO and CHRO appointments, and the succession planning around them.
Portfolio leadership for buyout and growth investors, assessed against the hold period.
Senior capability in the seat within days, where a permanent search cannot move fast enough.
How a leader operates when the room is calm, and what they reach for when it is not.
Diagnosing how a leadership team works, developing it in the flow of work, then retesting.
Reorganising leadership and teams around customer outcomes, starting with the board.
