Organizations change fastest at the top. A new managing director resets strategy within a quarter. A finance director rebuilds the planning cycle in a year. The wrong appointment costs both, plus the time it takes to correct the mistake.
Pearson & Partners recruits managers and executives for organizations in the Netherlands and across Europe: managing directors, finance and operations leaders, commercial directors, and the layer that reports to them. Founded in 2019 in Amsterdam, we work for corporates, scale-ups, and family businesses in technology, finance, engineering, defense, and the public sector.
The market
Executive recruitment is a different trade from filling vacancies. The candidates are not applying. They lead teams, carry targets, and rarely answer job ads. Firms such as Egon Zehnder, Spencer Stuart, and Russell Reynolds built a global industry on this fact: leadership appointments, board searches, and succession planning are won through networks and judgment, not through advertising.
The same logic applies below board level. Directors, vice presidents, and senior managers decide how strategy lands on the work floor. Research on leadership transitions shows the pattern: the first year decides whether an appointment works, and preparation before the signature weighs heavier than onboarding after it.
What we recruit
- Managing directors and general managers
- Finance leadership: CFO, finance director, head of control
- Operations and supply chain leadership
- Commercial leadership: sales directors, country managers
- Technology leadership: CTO, engineering directors
- Interim executives for transformation and coverage
How we work
One consultant owns the assignment from intake to signature. No handovers between a salesperson and a delivery team. The consultant who understood your organization is the one who calls the candidates.
The process is structured and confidential. We map the market, approach candidates directly, and verify motivation, salary expectations, and notice periods before a first interview, not after. You see a shortlist of people who can do the job and want it. Both sides know where they stand at every step.
Discretion cuts both ways. Clients replace leaders who do not know it yet. Candidates explore a move their employer must not hear about. We treat both with the same care.
Succession, not panic
The best executive appointments start before the seat is empty. We help clients keep a current view of the external market for their key roles: who is ready, who is nearly ready, and what a transition would cost. When a departure comes, the search starts from a map, not from a blank page.
Talk to us about a leadership search, or see our open roles.