Adastrum Consulting is a retained executive search firm appointing the C-suite, board and technology leaders who drive change, transformation and growth. We start with the problem the appointment has to solve rather than the job title, map the whole market, inside your industry and well beyond it, and assess every leader we shortlist on how they behave under pressure, not only on what their CV says they have done.
Start Your Executive SearchAdastrum Consulting are executive search consultants who appoint technology-focused C-suite leaders into organisations in growth or transformation. Every mandate opens with the same question: what problem is this appointment meant to solve? We will challenge and re-articulate a brief before we open a search, because the wrong question produces a shortlist nobody can choose from.
We know the pressures on a leadership team that has to carry a change and run the business at the same time. What we look for is a leader who has already done something comparable, and who can translate it into your environment rather than repeat it.
Learn More About AdastrumEvery mandate is different. The rigour we bring to it is not. This is how a search runs from the first conversation to the day the leader we placed is established in the role.
Stage 1
We start by conducting thorough consultations with every stakeholder involved in the appointment, from the board to human resources, to understand your company's vision, culture and specific leadership requirements. Uniquely, we focus on the problem you are trying to overcome rather than the role you are considering, aligning the search with the business outcome you actually need.
Stage 2
Collaboratively, we define the role's key competencies, responsibilities and success metrics. That gives the search a brief which attracts the right leaders, and gives everyone involved in the decision one shared standard to assess against rather than six private ones.
Stage 3
Drawing on our network across industries, we map the leaders in technology and innovation who could become your next great appointment. We deliberately search beyond your own industry: leaders who have navigated a comparable challenge somewhere else bring fresh thinking, and that is usually where the competitive edge comes from.
Stage 4
Using original research and market data, we broaden the search to include passive candidates who are not actively seeking a move but fit your needs precisely. At this level most of the leaders worth talking to are not looking, which is why search exists, and why the pool we introduce is wider than the one that would ever apply.
Stage 5
Our multi-faceted screening process runs in-depth interviews, psychometric testing and background checks. Behavioural assessment evaluates leadership style, decision-making and the ability to drive change; for technology-focused roles we add a technical evaluation. We also look for leaders who will strengthen a diverse and inclusive environment, because a range of perspectives is what makes a leadership team adaptable.
Stage 6
We present a shortlist with a detailed profile and assessment report for every candidate. After the appointment we support the transition with performance benchmarks, cultural integration and executive coaching, and stay in regular contact with both you and the leader we placed, so a good appointment becomes an enduring one.
Timeline: most mandates reach shortlist four to six weeks after the briefing and run eight to twelve weeks from briefing to accepted offer. Board-level and highly specialised appointments take longer, and we will tell you that at the outset rather than later.
A CV tells you what someone has done. It does not tell you how they will behave when the programme slips, the board loses patience, or two of your strongest people resign in the same fortnight.
We interview at length and in conversation rather than running a scripted competency exercise, and, working 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. You receive a written assessment for every shortlisted leader, mapped against the problem you are solving rather than against a list of keywords.
We are retained across four principal areas of leadership. Each demands a different profile, and each is a market we know personally rather than one we search from a database.
In the era of digital transformation, skilled leaders with technology, product, and operations knowledge are essential to drive progress, overcome traditional barriers, and reach new heights of success.
For advancement and growth, we appoint veteran senior executives skilled in company expansion, developing new market and product strategies, or with expertise in mergers and acquisitions.
Transforming the leadership of data, digital and cyber, product, operations, HR, commercial, regulatory, risk and compliance teams. For turnaround and crisis scenarios, we can also deliver interim senior executives.
An exceptional track record of shaping and delivering business and digital transformation mandates, delivering new organisational capabilities and significant business change programmes.
Both fill a role. Only one of them starts from the problem, reaches the leaders who are not looking, and is still accountable after the start date. Here is the honest difference.
| Consideration | Contingent Recruitment | Retained Executive Search |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | A job specification, circulated to whoever happens to be available | The problem the appointment has to solve, defined with you before anyone is approached |
| Reach | The leaders who are already looking and have raised their hand | The whole market, including the leaders who were perfectly happy where they were |
| Commitment | Paid on placement, so your role competes with every other one on the desk | Retained, so the research time your mandate needs is spent from day one |
| Assessment | A CV screen and an interview against the job description | Long-form interview, psychometric profiling and a written assessment mapped to your brief |
| Candidate experience | Variable, and often several agencies approaching the same person at once | One considered, confidential conversation, handled consistently throughout |
| Accountability | Ends at the offer | Onboarding support, performance benchmarks and structured follow-up after the start date |
Our executive search expertise is solely focused on leadership talent for UK companies. We have spent twenty years appointing the business leaders needed to drive change and transformation. Operating with the reach of a global executive search firm, our understanding of the importance of cross-industry pollination is what makes our appointments so impactful.
Let's discuss your future C-suite executive, Digital Transformation Director, Programme Director, Start-up Leader, Data Strategy Director, Product Strategy Leader, Head of Innovation and Architecture, or Head of GenAI Transformation.
Talk to us about an appointment
Driving growth through diversity
Diversity is not a reporting line on a board pack. It is the difference between a leadership team that can see a problem from one angle and one that can see it from five.
Our guide sets out what diversity, equity and inclusion actually look like in UK technology-focused roles: where the pipeline narrows, which parts of a search process quietly filter people out, and what boards can change about the way they hire before they change anything about who they hire.
Download our free guidesWe conduct C-suite executive search across a range of sectors. Our sector leads bring established relationships and deep market knowledge within each industry:
From VC-backed scaleups to FTSE enterprises, we appoint the technology and digital leaders who can align commercial ambition with technical delivery. CTOs who can build teams. CPOs who understand customer outcomes. CDOs who can turn data into decisions. We understand the difference between a strong engineer and a strong technology leader.
Technology Executive SearchThis sector punishes poor leadership decisions severely. We appoint executives who combine genuine scientific or clinical credibility with the commercial and operational skills to lead complex organisations through regulatory pressure, funding cycles, and rapid innovation. We know the difference between a research leader and a commercial leader, and when you need both. We do not place clinicians or research scientists.
Healthcare Executive SearchAudience behaviour has changed permanently. Leaders in this sector need the strategic agility to navigate platform shifts, new revenue models, and the continued fragmentation of attention. We appoint commercial, product and technology leaders who understand the business of media in 2026, not the business it was five years ago. We do not place editorial or production roles.
Media Executive SearchThe days of the siloed legal department are gone. Client expectations are shifting and law firms are running more like lean businesses. We appoint the operational, technology and transformation leadership that runs a legal business: chief operating officers, chief information and technology officers, and the directors delivering change across a firm. We do not place practising fee-earners, partners or solicitors.
Legal Executive SearchFunding settlements, demographics and international numbers are all moving at once, and the digital estate underneath most institutions was assembled one problem at a time. We appoint the chief executives, chief operating officers and technology leaders who can change how a university or an education business runs without breaking what it is for. We do not place teaching, academic or headteacher roles.
Education Executive SearchOmnichannel is no longer a differentiator, it is the baseline. Retail leaders today need to balance customer experience, supply chain resilience, digital growth, and margin pressure simultaneously. We appoint the operators who have shown they can make decisions under that kind of complexity and still deliver growth. We do not place store or field operations roles.
Retail Executive SearchHospitality leadership is as much about operational discipline as it is about the guest experience. We appoint operations, commercial and digital leadership across luxury hotels, branded hospitality groups, and food and beverage businesses. We understand the leadership profile required at each level of the market. We do not place unit-level or property roles.
Hospitality Executive SearchExecutive search is a retained, research-led process for appointing senior leaders. A search firm is engaged to define the problem the appointment has to solve, map the whole market, approach leaders confidentially, and assess them properly before presenting a shortlist. Contingent recruitment works the other way round: it starts from a job specification, is paid only on placement, and reaches the people who are already looking. At this level most of the leaders worth talking to are not looking, which is why search exists.
Adastrum Consulting delivers Executive Search, Interim Management and Leadership Advisory services to businesses. We assist clients in evaluating, enhancing, hiring, and retaining the most suitable talent for their organisation, bridging the gap between People Performance and Business Performance. We call this integrated talent management.
WE CHALLENGE THE
WE
WE APPOINT
Tell us about the appointment you are considering. We will give you an honest view of what the market holds, what a realistic timeline looks like, and what the right leader for your specific situation would actually look like.
Contact Adastrum ConsultingCannot wait three months for a permanent appointment?
Explore our interim management service
Observations 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.
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
The most expensive senior appointment I have watched fail had the best roadmap I have ever seen. I mean that sincerely. It was a genuinely impressive piece of thinking. Every workstream mapped, every dependency identified, governance and sequencing and risk all accounted for. The board saw it in month three and applauded. He was still refining it in month fourteen, when they let him go.
The Commander is the schema you appoint in a crisis. It is also the one you have to watch once the crisis has passed. There is a phrase you hear in big organisations when nothing is moving. "It's just how things get done here." Say it out loud and it sounds like culture. Listen properly and it is something sharper. It means someone at the top is commanding, and everyone below has quietly learned to wait.
The board thought they had found the perfect CEO. Two successful exits. A scaled multinational division. References that read like a character witness: decisive, commercially sharp, a natural leader. In the interview he was confident, fluent, convincing on growth and culture and transformation. The appointment was unanimous. Twelve months later the same board was negotiating his exit. Revenue targets had been missed.
There’s one question almost every HR-led interview process insists on. “Tell me about a time you failed.” At junior level, it sometimes earns its keep. At C-suite, it’s a junk question. And it’s almost always the wrong thing to ask in the room. I’ll explain why I won’t ask it. And then I’ll tell you what I ask instead.
Most succession planning assumes someone is ready to step up. But what happens when the obvious successor is the one who leaves? A look at why heir apparent plans fail, the real cost of an unplanned leadership transition, and how boards build genuine continuity.
