Executive search and leadership advisory, for the appointments that matter.
Aldworth & Wren is a London-based boutique advising the boards of listed companies, substantial private businesses, and the most considered private capital firms on Chair, Chief Executive, and senior functional appointments. Six partners. A small number of engagements each year. Retained only.
We were founded in 2012 on a thesis that has not changed in fourteen years — that the most senior search work is best done by a small group of partners who do the work themselves, on a fully retained basis, with the time and discipline that genuine board-level appointments require.
Four disciplines. All retained.
We work where the appointment will materially shape the next chapter of the organisation we are working with. The disciplines below are the work we do well. The disciplines we do not do, we will tell you so and recommend a firm that does.
Board & Chair
Non-executive directors, chairs, and senior independent appointments for listed companies, scale-ups, and substantial private businesses.
Chief Executive
CEO and Managing Director appointments where the search itself materially shapes the company's next decade.
Functional Leadership
CFO, CTO, COO, CHRO, and other C-suite functional appointments. Search work where domain depth and cultural judgement are non-negotiable.
Leadership Advisory
Assessment, succession planning, team effectiveness, and the considered work of building leadership capability beyond a single appointment.
The work, told quietly.
We do not promote our client relationships. With permission, and after appropriate time, we describe selected engagements — what was asked, what was done, and what we learned. Below are three.
Chair of a FTSE 250 Renewable Energy Group
A succession-led Chair appointment at a £2.4bn renewable energy operator, completed in twelve weeks against a brief that required deep regulatory experience and credibility with both institutional investors and a complex stakeholder base.
Chief Executive of a £40bn Asset Manager
A CEO succession at a long-established asset manager, completed after eighteen months of leadership advisory work that materially reframed what the appointment was for.
Chief Financial Officer of a Private Equity Portfolio Company
A CFO appointment at a private equity-owned consumer business, completed in nine weeks against an exit-bound timeline that required a specific kind of finance leader for a specific moment.
A partner-led firm is a structural choice, not a marketing claim. It means a partner takes your call, runs the brief, conducts the candidate conversations, and writes the assessment. It means we structure ourselves to run two or three engagements per partner at a time, not ten. It means our fees are higher per engagement than a contingent firm, and that comparison is fair. We are doing different work.
We believe that the most senior search engagements are usually best done in two phases. A long, considered, advisory phase that ends with the brief — and a comparatively short search phase that ends with the appointment. The discipline is to invest properly in the first phase. Most firms do not. We do.
What we are thinking about.
Long-form essays from the partners on the questions our clients are most often asking. Considered, occasional, and unhurried.
What boards get wrong about CEO succession
Most CEO succession processes start with the question of who, when the more useful question — and the one that takes far longer to answer — is what.
The quiet economics of retained search
Why the most useful conversation about a senior search is rarely the one about fees.
Leadership in the age of scrutiny
What it now means to lead a serious organisation in a market that watches more closely, judges more quickly, and forgives more slowly.
A conversation, in confidence.
If you are considering an appointment we should be working on, please write or call. The conversation is no obligation and, by convention, confidential. We respond within one working day.