Executive Search by Role & Specialty
The title names the seat. It does not define the job.
A company says “we need a CFO.” That tells us remarkably little. The mandate could be financial cleanup, capital allocation, M&A execution, PE exit readiness, public-company preparation, or becoming the CEO’s primary operating counterweight. The same title describes fundamentally different jobs depending on the ownership model, company stage, leadership team, and conditions the executive will enter.
In my practice, executive search begins by diagnosing the seat — what the role is genuinely accountable for, where practical authority lives, what the previous occupant left behind, and what kind of judgment the board or founder actually requires. The title is the starting point. The mandate is the search.
Searches are conducted on an exclusive, retained basis through Alder Koten, with international coordination through IMD International Search Group — more than 40 offices in 25 countries.
Here are some of typical engagements in Executive Search by Role & Specialty
Executive Search by Role & Specialty: Board & Governance
Board appointments require evaluating how a director behaves when conditions deteriorate, not merely how their biography reads. We recruit chairs and independent directors who bring active inquiry, constructive challenge, and genuine stewardship.
- Board Chair: Leading board dynamics, managing shareholder relationships, guiding CEO succession, and establishing the strategic agenda.
- Independent Board Director: Objective oversight, capital allocation expertise, industry insight, and risk governance for public, family-owned, and PE-backed enterprises.
- Audit & Compensation Committee Chairs: Financial stewardship, regulatory compliance, executive compensation design, and governance integrity.
Executive Search by Role & Specialty: Advisory Leadership
Advisory appointments carry a different structure than formal board governance. Advisory board members do not hold fiduciary authority — their value depends on whether their judgment reaches the founder early enough, with enough context and independence, to influence real decisions.
- Advisory Board Members: Domain specialists and commercial leaders supporting high-growth platforms, market entries, and cross-border expansions through structured advisory relationships.
Executive Search by Role & Specialty: CEO & General Management
CEO and general-management mandates change dramatically with ownership, company stage, decision rights, and the condition of the leadership team the executive inherits. A founder-led succession, a PE portfolio CEO appointment, and a family-enterprise transition are three different searches even when the title is identical.
- Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Enterprise leaders for founder-led businesses, sponsor-backed portfolio companies, corporate transformations, and generational family enterprise successions.
- Chief Operating Officer (COO): Operating leaders whose scope may include execution, cross-functional integration, transformation, or multi-site operations depending on the mandate and the CEO relationship.
- Managing Director / General Manager: Full P&L leaders running business units, regional operations, or standalone operating entities.
- Country Manager (Mexico & LatAm): Cross-border P&L leaders who operate between global headquarters expectations and the practical realities of Mexico and Latin America.
Executive Search by Role & Specialty: Finance & Legal
CFO mandates range from building financial control to allocating capital, supporting transactions, preparing an exit, or becoming the CEO’s primary strategic counterweight. The mandate determines the profile — not the other way around.
- Chief Financial Officer (CFO): Capital structure architects, M&A leaders, PE portfolio finance heads, and strategic partners driving cash flow, margin expansion, and enterprise valuation.
- VP Finance & Corporate Controller: Financial reporting, internal controls, tax optimization, and operational finance leadership across multi-entity and cross-border platforms.
- General Counsel & Chief Legal Officer: Legal risk leadership, corporate governance, cross-border regulatory compliance, contract architecture, and transactional oversight.
Executive Search by Role & Specialty: Technology, Product & Data
Technology leadership is rarely just an engineering problem — it is a translation problem. We place technology executives who align technical architecture with commercial strategy and build engineering organizations designed to last.
- Chief Technology Officer (CTO): Technical leaders scaling infrastructure, modernizing legacy systems, and leading high-velocity engineering organizations.
- Chief Product Officer (CPO): Product strategists defining roadmaps, pricing, market fit, and user experience across enterprise SaaS, industrial tech, and digital platforms.
- Chief Information Officer (CIO): Enterprise IT infrastructure, ERP implementations, digital enablement, cybersecurity, and operational technology across complex distributed environments.
- Head of AI & Advanced Analytics: AI integration, machine learning deployment, data governance, and predictive analytics applied to enterprise operations.
Executive Search by Role & Specialty: Operations, Manufacturing & Supply Chain
Operations seats require leaders who build systems that outlast individual heroics. From multi-site manufacturing to cross-border logistics, we place executives who create durable operational capability.
- VP Operations & Manufacturing: Multi-plant leadership, lean transformation, continuous improvement, and operational turnaround across industrial ecosystems.
- Plant Director / Site Leader: On-site manufacturing executives running high-volume facilities, IMMEX operations, quality systems, and workforce relations.
- Chief Supply Chain Officer (CSCO): End-to-end supply chain leadership managing procurement, supplier qualification, freight networks, inventory optimization, and nearshoring realignments.
- VP Procurement & Strategic Sourcing: Direct and indirect spend optimization, supplier risk mitigation, and dual-sourcing strategies across North American trade corridors.
Executive Search by Role & Specialty: Commercial & Revenue
Commercial mandates differ by route to market, customer concentration, pricing model, growth stage, and the balance between relationship-driven and system-driven selling. The title — CCO, CRO, VP Sales — matters less than what the commercial organization actually needs to become.
- Chief Commercial Officer (CCO): Unified revenue leaders aligning sales, account management, pricing, and business development toward sustainable enterprise growth.
- VP Sales & Business Development: B2B sales leaders, key account strategists, and commercial builders scaling distribution and direct enterprise sales.
- Chief Marketing Officer (CMO): Brand positioning, demand generation, product marketing, and customer acquisition across traditional and digital channels.
Executive Search by Role & Specialty: People & Organization
People leadership mandates range from building foundational HR infrastructure to executive succession, compensation architecture, organizational design, labor relations, and CEO advisory. The scope of the CHRO seat varies more than almost any other title in the C-suite.
- Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO): Strategic advisors to the CEO and board on organizational design, executive succession, compensation, and cultural stewardship.
- VP Labor Relations & Compliance (Mexico / USMCA): Collective bargaining, union negotiations, labor compliance, and workforce stability in complex manufacturing and industrial environments.
Executive Search by Role & Specialty: Investment & Portfolio Leadership
Ownership structures create distinct operating conditions. PE hold periods, family governance dynamics, and institutional investment theses all change the executive mandate — even when the title stays the same.
- Private Equity Operating Partner: Value creation specialists driving operational improvement, working capital optimization, and exit readiness across portfolio companies.
The Same Title Can Mean a Different Job
A CFO in a founder-led manufacturer and a CFO in a PE-backed technology company may share a title while operating under very different authority, capital, ownership, and performance conditions.
We define those conditions before evaluating candidates. The Race Conditions Model™ is the diagnostic framework used to distinguish what the seat is called from what the executive will actually be required to do.
Explore the Race Conditions Model™ →
Search by Industry
Looking by sector rather than role? The same executive title operates under fundamentally different conditions in biotechnology, manufacturing, sports, mining, or technology. Our industry practices are organized around those operating differences.
Discuss an Executive Search
If you are defining a new executive seat, planning succession, or reconsidering the scope of an existing role, the first question is not who fits the title. It is what the role actually needs to accomplish.
→ Start a Confidential Conversation
Charlie Solórzano is a Managing Partner at Alder Koten, a boutique executive search firm specializing in C-suite and board placements across the U.S. and Mexico markets. He advises founders, investors, and boards on leadership transitions using The Race Conditions Model™, a proprietary diagnostic framework built on the thesis that leadership success is determined by conditions, not credentials. He also leads the Sports Practice at both Alder Koten and IMD International Search Group, a globally coordinated executive search network operating across 26 countries.
Discuss an Executive Search
If you are defining a new executive seat, planning succession, or reconsidering the scope of an existing role, the first question is not who fits the title. It is what the role actually needs to accomplish.
Schedule a Confidential Consultation