C-Suite Executive Search Solutions

Specialist search for CEO, COO, CIO and CTO appointments across the UK

Find C-suite talent today

C-suite recruitment tailored to your business

Most C-suite leaders worth hiring are not looking. They are performing well in current roles and will not respond to an advertised vacancy.

Coreus places CEOs, COOs, CIOs, CMOs and CTOs for SMEs and corporate brands across the UK. Our candidates are not on job boards. They are approached directly and assessed against your brief before you see a single name.

We identify passive candidates through direct headhunt and targeted outreach built on six years of sector-specific relationship building. You receive a curated shortlist of serious options. The person who takes your brief is the person who delivers it.

The C-suite roles we place

CEO Executive Search

COO Executive Search

CIO Executive Search

CTO Executive Search

Specialist sectors: Technology, Professional Services, Accountancy & Finance, Legal, Hospitality and Marketing roles

Partner with us and find out why 94% of our placed candidates accept their offer and go on to start.

CEO Executive Search

Your Chief Executive shapes the direction every other leadership decision follows. Most CEOs worth approaching are running businesses or leading divisions. They are not on the open market and will not respond to an advertised vacancy. Our CEO executive search hire approaches them directly and establishes genuine interest before your business is mentioned.

Typical CEO candidate profile:

– Managing Director or divisional leadership background with full P&L ownership
– Track record of leading businesses through growth, transition or restructure
– 15+ years senior leadership experience across relevant sectors
-Available on a permanent, interim or fractional basis

COO Executive Search

The COOs we place have built and managed complex operational functions. They understand how to align people, process and resource without losing pace. Candidates are assessed on delivery track record and their ability to work directly alongside a CEO or board.

Typical candidate profile:

– Built and led operational functions in scaling or restructuring businesses
– Direct experience working alongside a CEO or reporting to board level
– Commercially aware with a delivery-first approach
– Available on a permanent or interim basis

CIO Executive Search

Decisions made at senior leadership level involving IT systems and tech strategies have consequences that outlast the leader who makes them. The CIOs we place have the commercial judgement to align your technology agenda with business priorities. They understand governance, vendor relationships and the internal credibility required to drive change across an organisation.

Typical CIO candidate profile:

– 10+ years in senior IT leadership roles
– Direct experience managing technology through periods of business change
– Strong on governance, vendor management and stakeholder credibility
– Available on a permanent, interim or fractional basis

CTO Executive Search

The CTOs we place combine deep technical knowledge with the leadership capability to build and manage high-performing engineering teams. They understand how to set technological strategies that serve the business well in order to achieve maximal growth.

Typical CTO candidate profile:

– Engineering leadership background with experience scaling technical functions
– Proven at building and managing high-performing development teams
– Commercially grounded with direct board-level exposure
– Available on a permanent, interim or fractional basis

Discuss your executive search hire

Three ways to hire C-suite leadership

Permanent C-suite search

  • Full market mapping before any approach
  • Direct headhunt of passive candidates not available through conventional search
  • Structured assessment covering capability, sector fit and leadership approach
  • Offer management through to day one

Interim C-suite search

  • Candidates matched to your sector and specific situation
  • Every candidate assessed on capability and assignment fit before introduction
  • Available for turnaround, transition, cover and strategic change assignments

Fractional C-suite search

  • Typically two to three days per week
  • Suited to owner-managed and growth-stage SMEs where senior leadership is business-critical
  • Available across CEO, COO, CIO, CMO and CTO disciplines

C-suite executive search across specialist sectors

Accountancy & Finance

Finance leadership in accountancy and financial services carries regulatory weight that other sectors do not. We place CEOs, COOs and CIO-level leaders for accountancy practices, financial services businesses and corporate finance firms where technical credibility at board level is non-negotiable.

Legal

Law firms and legal partnerships operate under distinct governance and partnership structures. We place C-suite leaders who understand how legal businesses work, plus the commercial pressures and client relationships that determine whether a senior appointment succeeds or fails.

Technology & Saas

Technology businesses scale faster than their leadership structures can keep up with. We place CTOs, CIOs and CEOs for technology and SaaS businesses where the gap between a strong appointment and a poor one is visible within months.

Professional Services

Consulting, advisory and client-facing professional businesses depend on leadership that to hold senior client relationships. We place C-suite leaders across professional services organisations, including luxury hospitality chains, where sector knowledge carries as much weight as functional capability.

Why enterprises like yours choose Coreus

Retained search, not contingency

Most agencies work on a contingency basis. Multiple firms chase the same brief with no clear accountability and the process reflects that. Coreus operates exclusively on a retained model for C-suite search. The consultant who takes your brief is the consultant who delivers your shortlist. The assignment is never handed off.

Confidentiality as standard

A C-suite search cannot be advertised without risk to your business. Leadership changes at board level are sensitive and the wrong signals reaching the wrong people can cause damage before a placement is even made. Every search we conduct is handled with complete discretion. Candidates are approached confidentially and your business is not disclosed until genuine interest is confirmed.

Specialist reach, not volume

Large generalist firms apply the same approach to every brief regardless of seniority. Coreus is a specialist consultancy working within professional and regulated markets. We take a focused number of mandates at any one time. Your search receives the attention a board-level appointment requires.

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Coreus enables you to attract great talent and avoid bad hiring

We’re a specialist talent acquisition consultancy based in Brighton and London. For 6+ years, we’ve helped SMEs and corporate brands recruit skilled professionals in competitive markets. We pride ourselves on delivering great candidate placements for businesses like yours and with decades of combined experience, we know we can help transform your senior leadership department.

Results

Rigorous briefing processes to ensure a match and long term success.

Quality

Hire with confidence and avoid delays, repeat interviews, and re‑advertising

Experience

We handle the heavy lifting of hiring and ensure experience is of the highest standard.

What you should do next

You have a C-suite requirement that needs the right person, not the nearest available one. Share the brief with us and we will tell you directly whether Coreus is the right fit and what the search would look like in practice.

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Common C-suite questions

What is C-suite executive search?
It is a specialist process for identifying and placing senior leaders at CEO, COO, CMO, CIO and CTO level. The fundamental difference from standard recruitment is that we are not waiting for candidates to apply. We are approaching people who are already employed, performing well and not looking. That requires a different methodology, a different network and a different level of commitment from the firm conducting the search.
What is the difference between retained and contingency executive search?
With contingency recruitment, multiple agencies work the same brief and only get paid if they place someone. That sounds low risk but it creates a race to submit CVs rather than a thorough search. Retained search means you engage one firm exclusively. We are accountable for the outcome from day one and the search is conducted properly rather than quickly.
How long does a C-suite executive search take?
For a permanent appointment, most searches move from brief to shortlist within four to six weeks. Interim appointments move faster. Fractional searches depend on candidate availability and the scope of the engagement. The honest answer is that rushing a C-suite search to hit an arbitrary timeline is how bad appointments happen. We move at pace but we do not cut corners on assessment.
Why can't I fill a C-suite role through a job board or standard agency?
Because the person you need is almost certainly not looking. The strongest candidates at CEO, COO, CIO and CTO level are in roles, performing well and unlikely to respond to an advert. They need to be approached directly by someone they trust, with a brief that is genuinely compelling. That is what executive search does. A job board cannot reach them and a contingency agency rarely has the relationships or the methodology to do so effectively.
What happens if the placed candidate doesn't work out?
It is a fair question and worth discussing openly at the briefing stage. The more important conversation is what we do during the search to reduce that risk. Thorough assessment, reference validation and staying close through the onboarding period are specifically designed to protect the placement. We do not consider the job done at offer acceptance.
Can't we run this search internally first?
You can, and many businesses do. The difficulty is that the candidates you need are not reachable through your existing network or a direct LinkedIn approach. They are not signalling availability and they are unlikely to engage with an approach that does not come through a trusted intermediary. The cost of a slow or failed internal search at C-suite level is rarely worth what you save by trying it first.
Will we receive candidates other firms have already approached?
Not on a retained mandate. We conduct ground-up research specific to your brief. Target candidates are identified through market mapping rather than pulled from a shared database. The shortlist you receive is built for your requirement. That is a meaningful difference from contingency search where the same candidates circulate across multiple agency briefs simultaneously.
How involved will we need to be during the search?
Less than you might expect. We handle the market mapping, candidate approach and assessment. You are involved at the briefing stage, at shortlist review and through the interview process. Beyond that the search runs without requiring your day-to-day involvement. The person who takes your brief manages it through to placement. There are no handoffs.
What sectors does Coreus cover for C-suite executive search?
We place C-suite leaders across accountancy and finance, legal, technology and professional services. Every sector carries its own leadership dynamics and candidate expectations. Our search process is built around your sector from day one rather than applying a generic approach to every mandate.