As the remote work culture continues on a general upward trend, organizations have been successful in building their business but often don’t know where to begin their search for a great CEO or CFO. These are not the types of positions that should be filled from a network of family and friends – or from most respondents to a LinkedIn ad. This is where Truenorth Executive Search is creating a difference. The company’s expertise specifically details the prerequisites required and what a new executive leader looks like in order to successfully run their business.

“We open their eyes to the kind of talent in other companies that have achieved the growth multiples they yearn for, and how to entice these executives into their business,” explains Bruce North, Founder and Managing Partner of Truenorth Executive Search.

Truenorth fosters a true partnership with its clients as the cornerstone for every search engagement. The search firm believes a close, collaborative partnership involving its executive search expertise with the client’s intimate knowledge of the needs of its business will lead to a successful search outcome.

“Our clients are frequently embracing unique opportunities which present themselves as a “step-change” for an enterprise. These could include the opportunity to acquire a competitor or complementary business, the opportunity to gain entrance into a new market or a new customer which promises dramatically increased revenue prospects, or the commercialization of new technology or product that promises the disruption of traditional markets or services. These are everyday scenarios we are called upon to partner with our clients and we thrive in identifying and recruiting the talent that is required to meet and maximize the new opportunities and realities,” said Bruce.  

In fact, Truenorth is in a unique market niche – recruiting for companies in the $10 million – $500 million revenue range that are experiencing significant growth. That market segment (the middle market) represents about 1/3 of the North American economy and is its most resilient portion. Truenorth is a generalist executive search firm with demonstrated success working across a variety of industries and all functional disciplines. As a real partner, the company understands the challenges entrepreneurs face in the constantly changing business environment today and can relate to the stress their organizations experience.

“Our priority is to build long-term client relationships and as a boutique search firm we are able to be nimble throughout our process to identify and complete even the most difficult search mandates. We focus on quality and speed in executing the search process, bringing creativity, tenacity and our relentlessly thorough discipline to every search endeavor,” Bruce pointed out.

Over the years, Truenorth has achieved an outstanding record of success in recruiting high performance executives and leadership teams to execute on start-up, turnaround and high performing growth strategies with the objective of creating and growing enterprise value.

While explaining the value proposition of the company, North recalls an instance when the company helped a client. Truenorth was engaged by a private equity sponsor to oversee a search for a new Chief Executive Officer for a $70M revenue founder-run precision machining and fabrication company based in the rural Midwestern US.

Part of the challenge of finding the right candidate for this role was the location and compensation. Truenorth took an open-minded, multi-pronged approach, targeting individuals who may have had family roots in the region; candidates who had just completed a recent successful exit out of a similar situation (such as a middle market business built by a founder where the CEO had to navigate headwinds similar to what our client was experiencing); qualified candidates who offered the right experience and appeared to be location-agnostic; candidates with large company and small company experience who were from a location that although not local and yet offered a similar culture; and candidates who offered strong precision machining experience catering to similar industries as our client. 

The successful candidate we recruited had a compelling background, offering a solid foundation working in world-class manufacturing environments (such as Danaher) and was able to successfully transition and thrive in the middle market. The new CEO was highly effective and within 12 months led the business through a successful sale process to a strategic buyer, delivering a rewarding ROI for the investors.

Today, Truenorth Executive Search is focused on the North American market and has found growth in the lower end of the middle market.  “We have found there are not many recruiting firms that are positioned to help transition a family-run business into a larger professionally managed business with leadership outside of the family and local community.  We think our expertise in recruiting for family transition situations positions Truenorth for exponential growth,” concludes Bruce.