Executive search - and far beyond.
Trusted partner of forward-looking companies.
Modern leaders face increasing challenges and pressure to perform at all fronts. In Finland, the median tenure for CEOs and other C-suite leaders has shortened linearly for over 10 years.
What if executive search and headhunting firms, instead of just recruiting leaders from one company to another, would actually coach, support, and develop the leaders? What kind of compound effect would it create if all search firms would do this systematically?
Our mission is to make Finland a land of extraordinary leaders. One assignment at a time.
Premium value with reasonable investment.
Find out how we’ve reached the 97 % hit rate in executive search, with 86 client NPS and outstanding candidate experience.
Passion for sustainable leadership.
Chief is a value-driven boutique executive search firm with an international soul, located in Helsinki city center. We exist to improve the business results of our clients. Our team has a strong track of executing over 400 demanding CEO, Board, and executive team assignments successfully since 2011.
The new Chief in town.
As our name ‘Chief’ indicates, our focus and best expertise is in CEO, Board, and C-suite assignments. Generally, and strategically significant roles above €100.000 in annual compensation are within our scope.
For good.
We define our success not by the number of placements but by the results and impacts of the work of both us and our clients. Sustainable leadership both makes the world a better place and enables long-term success.
People are at the heart of executive search.
We work relentlessly to provide an outstanding experience and value to our clients and candidates. While our work is highly confidential by nature, we thrive to improve and push the whole industry forward.
What makes Chief different?
Delivering executive search to the highest standards requires having all the essential elements of a high-quality search process in place.
In addition, we’ve designed a Leadership Performance Program (LPP) that is provided for all hired candidates as an essential part of our search process. The program takes place during the leader’s first 12 months.
The LPP enables the candidates placed by Chief to perform better than the same candidates placed by another search firm would.
The research-based and holistic program accelerates leader’s onboarding, optimises performance, and improves the effectiveness of their leadership and decision-making. Sustainable leadership leads to sustainable results.
Average total annual salary
of all leaders placed by Chief during the past 12 months
€204 000
Sample assignments
CEO
Private Equity backed growth company
CFO
Construction company
CEO
Stock-listed IT company
CHRO
Process industry company
Our expertise.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & DIGITALISATION
Different growth stages set changing and increasing demands to the leadership competence. Chief’s signature expertise is in helping the fastest growing tech and software, especially SaaS, companies in the Nordics to find leaders that can successfully navigate the company to the next stage of growth through funding rounds, and towards IPO or other type of the exit. We’ve hired and coached several successful tech CEOs and other executives, as well as CIOs and CDOs for non-tech firms that thrive to stay ahead of the competition.
INDUSTRY & MANUFACTURING
Industrial companies are the cornerstone of the economy. In the ever-increasing global competition, the winning companies innovate continuously, modernise their operations and streamline their production. All this requires talent. Growing demands from clients set the bar even higher when it comes to account management and digital services. We’ve helped several stock-listed Nordic industry and manufacturing companies in finding new leaders for demanding roles outside the obvious sources.
BUILDING, CONSTRUCTION & REAL ESTATE
The development towards energy effective and carbon-neutral economy, increasing productivity, and acquiring and developing talent: these are the 3 main trends and challenges for the building, construction, and real estate industry in the 2020s. The trends are interrelated, as the right talent boosts productivity and helps in modernising the operations. Turbulence in society increases the demand for strategic thinking and visionary leadership. Those who think and act ahead of others are the winners of tomorrow.
PRIVATE EQUITY & VENTURE CAPITAL
New ownership changes the game in any company. Private Equity and Venture Capital investors essentially look for passionate and talented entrepreneurs and winning teams that can make the company achieve extraordinary success. We have designed a full investment lifecycle service offering for leading VC and PE investors that want to get the best possible return on their investments, from Due Diligence all the way to the successful exit. Having Chief to support your portfolio company, you can sleep calm through the nights.
Our Principles.
TRANSPARENCY
Our desire is to make hiring new executives as easy as possible. Our transparent fees include value beyond standard executive search. We make sure that you’ll always know exactly what will happen next. Have you ever had to call a search consultant and ask about the progress of the recruitment? With us, you won’t need to.
DILIGENCE
Our process discipline is rigorous. In Chief’s search process, no stone remains unturned. Instead of trusting only our own network or Boolean search in LinkedIn, we conduct a full Candidate Market Mapping, based on the Search Strategy. Every step in our diligent delivery process is designed to add value to you. We go beyond the ordinary and run the extra mile.
INTEGRITY
We pick our battles. If your need doesn’t match our best expertise, we’ll let you know and even help you find a suitable colleague in the industry. We are masters in transparency and managing the expectations of both our clients and candidates. Should there be any surprises, they will be positive. We are in this business for the long term.
SUSTAINABILITY & DIVERSITY
Diversity is embedded in our search strategy. We introduce our clients to the strongest candidates from all corners of the talent pool; female and male, young and experienced. We support LGBTQ candidates and international talent. Sustainable business is good business and all talent is equal. We believe that good leadership reflects the well-being of employees and the business.
Get in touch.
Reach out to our team to get the discussions started.
Yrjönkatu 5
00120, Helsinki, Finland
Chief – Executive Search Helsinki Oy