Leading regional lifestyle Financial Planning business based in North West looking to bolster senior leadership team with key Managing Director appointment. 90+ Headcount; >£1Billion AUM.

Although a similar role had existed within the practice previously, the role had never directly existed since the wider expansion and development of the Senior Leadership Team. Initially there was a discussion as to the core functional responsibilities of the role, weighing up the operational responsibility and people leadership elements, however after much discussion it was agreed that the appropriate designation and remit of the role would be Managing Director.

Once this was agreed, there was an acknowledgement that the talent pool for a like-for-like appointment was extremely limited as Equilibrium represented one of the most developed and mature advice businesses in the region. If it is likely that we will not be able to find a like for like appointment, how far outside of the core market were we prepared to consider from an experience perspective?

Engaged to run this mandate on our premium service level, Executive Finder, the project team agreed to expand the candidate research to financial planning, wealth management, and Financial Services more broadly, but we also considered the professional services and other highly regulated industries around the target geography.

Once the mutually agreed marketing strategy for the project was initiated, we systematically approached and engaged the entire candidate universe to arrive at a robust longlist of interested candidates.

Guided by our qualification framework this longlist was slimmed down to a shortlist of 5 highly engaged and qualified candidates that all completed EQs preferred personality profiling tool to assess cultural fit within the key relationships and wider SLT and business.

Through a pre-determined 3 stage interview process, the shortlisted 5 candidates was slimmed down to 2 final candidates and ultimately 1 accepted offer.