Advisory is the through-line—not a phase.

I spent the first half of my career as the operator—Wired in 1995, Razorfish and Sapient through the first wave of digital transformation. The second half recruiting leaders at scale. That's how I approach search: diagnose the problem, shape the brief, understand where the market is heading. The output is talent. The lens is advisory.

When I was building marketing teams agency-side, the roles required unique people—leaders who could bridge strategy and execution, brand and growth, creative and analytical. Recruiters struggled to find them. They'd never sat in the seats. I could recognize these leaders because I'd built alongside them. I saw the same gap at the large search firm I joined.

I founded TMG to do the opposite: diagnose first, then select.

Three dimensions, one judgment.

Searches fail when they start too far downstream—at the brief, at the credentials. I work across three dimensions simultaneously.

  1. The business - The brief, the org design, the outcome you're solving for. I read an org as an operator who's lived with the consequences of the hire, not as a recruiter assessing a spec.

  2. The technology. I know what technology can do. I know where it stops. When a candidate talks about "leading digital transformation," I can hear whether they built the system or inherited it. Executive search at this level isn't a matching problem. It's a judgment problem.

  3. The human. The deeper work is hearing what candidates are actually building toward—not what's on their resume, but the thread running through their career. When I match that thread to a mandate that lets them do their best work, fit lasts. That's the art.

The craft is moving between all three—and knowing which one, when.

How the Search Works

Before sourcing begins, I pressure-test the brief. Most specs are compromise documents—shaped by who just left, competing priorities, unclear decision rights. The first conversation is about the mandate underneath the brief.

Once the brief and strategy are defined, we review archetypes—not candidates—to validate the direction. "Here's what a 70/30 growth-to-brand leader looks like versus 60/40. Here's an early-stage builder versus a scale operator." Assumptions get tested. Misalignment surfaces before sourcing starts.

From there, sourcing, calibration, and feedback run in parallel. Each conversation informs the next. The search sharpens as we go.

The candidates I surface often come from adjacent ecosystems—agency to brand, brand to PE, consulting to operating roles. Builders with cross-disciplinary range. These are the leaders others miss because they don't fit neat categories.

After the hire.

I stay involved because I'm invested in the outcome—not just the placement.

The placement isn't the success. Year one is. Before Day 1, I create a single document for both candidate and client—org charts, areas for focus and growth, short- and long-term role opportunities identified during the interview process. Pre-start planning, 90-day roadmap, quarterly check-ins. For the client: how this leader works best, what to watch for. For the candidate: reference synthesis they've never seen, a strategic advisor outside company politics.

We call this BeyondStart—and it's why placements stick.

Engagement

Retained search with downside protection. Every fee tied to a deliverable, not a calendar date. Three milestones: launch, shortlist, close. All-inclusive fixed fee, discussed and locked upfront. 12-month durability guarantee—if the placement doesn't last, I conduct the replacement search at no additional fee.