Case Study: Non-Executive Director Recruitment
Our client was a leading global financial services organisation which wanted to fundamentally restructure its Board. The project came about as a result of an initial brief to recruit a single Non-Executive Director who could bring strong banking and finance credentials, a process which resulted in the appointment of a recently retired Group CFO from a bulge bracket Wall Street firm. Until that point, the Board suffered from a lack of individuals with a well-established background in risk from the financial services arena.
The subsequent brief required that further candidates should be identified who could bring specific expertise, relevant to the strategic challenges facing the organisation as a result of the subprime-inspired meltdown in the markets. This project was undertaken at a time when our client was facing extreme external scrutiny and experiencing unparalleled levels of structural stress.
Our final longlist of eight candidates was whittled down to a shortlist of four all of whom met our client face-to-face. Although the original brief was for only one candidate, two were ultimately offered and joined the Board. Both fitted the original brief and had led substantial international IT services organisations. An incremental and structured search process was adopted over a twelve month period which resulted in a further eight appointments — including the Chairman — representing three quarters of the Non-Executive composition of the Board in total. The successful candidates brought expertise in audit, organisational transformation and CEO-level business leadership in addition to risk management. The vast majority of appointees had backgrounds in financial services covering banking, insurance, and wealth & asset management. The search was global in its scope and resulted in the appointment of candidates of five different nationalities, comprising both currently serving and recently retired executives.
