Aldworth & Wren was founded in 2012 by Edward Aldworth and Katherine Wren. The thesis on which it was founded has not materially changed in fourteen years.
The two of us had spent the previous decade and a half at the larger search firms — Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds — and were leaving with the same observation. The most senior search work was being delegated, increasingly, to research teams. The partner who took the brief was not always the partner who ran the candidate work. The fee structure was the same. The work was not.
We founded Aldworth & Wren in 2012 to do this work differently. A small group of partners, each running a small number of engagements at a time, each doing the work themselves. The economics of this model are tighter than the alternative. The marketing copy is easier to write.
The firm has, in the years since, grown to six partners. We are unlikely to be more than eight or nine partners in the foreseeable future. Growth, in our experience, is the enemy of the work — every additional partner reduces, marginally but cumulatively, the depth of relationship that the founders' generation took for granted.
Our clients are, in roughly equal measure, the boards of listed companies, substantial private businesses, and the most considered private capital firms. Our longest client relationships now span more than ten years and three or more CEO transitions at the same company. These relationships are the firm.
We are based in St James's, in London. We have no plans to open additional offices.
Every engagement is run by a partner from first conversation to final appointment. We do not delegate the work to research teams. The partner who takes your call is the partner who writes the shortlist and the partner who sits in the final interview.
We work exclusively on a fully retained basis. Contingent work rewards speed and volume; retained work rewards depth and selectivity. The two models are not interchangeable, and we are structurally committed to the second.
A serious senior search has two phases. A long, considered, advisory phase that ends with a brief the board has genuinely agreed on, and a comparatively short search phase that ends with the appointment. We will frequently decline engagements where the firm wants to skip the first phase.
Our longest client relationships now span more than a decade. The work we do best is work we do repeatedly for the same firm, with the same Chair and CEO, over years. We optimise for the long relationship, not the immediate fee.
