Executive Search Intelligence™

Executive search was built for companies. We built it for the executive.

For decades, companies have hired search firms to research the market, map the talent, build the relationships, and recruit the executive they want. The executive sits on the other side of that work — and waits to be found. Elevated Exec puts the full capability of executive search on your side of the market.

See How It Works Calibrate What's Next
Confidential · By engagement · Founded by a 20-year search operator

Every search professional works for the company.

Traditional Executive Search
Companydefines the seat
↓
Executive Search Firmretained by the company
↓
Marketresearched and mapped
↓
Executivesfound, evaluated, recruited
Executive Search Intelligence™
Executivedefines what's next
↓
Elevated Execretained by the executive
↓
Marketresearched and mapped
↓
Right Opportunitiesidentified, approached, created

What if the search firm worked for you?

You insure your life.

You insure your home.

You insure your car.

You manage your investments.

What about the asset that pays for all of them?

Your career is likely the largest economic asset you will ever own.

It creates the earning power behind your home, investments, lifestyle, retirement and financial security. Yet most executives spend decades deliberately building their careers — and leave what happens next largely to chance.

The strategic enemy isn't recruiters, employers, or search firms. It's chance.

You worked too hard
to leave what's next
to chance.

The Career Asset

Your career may be worth millions.

$500,000Annual compensation
×
10Remaining executive years
=
$5,000,000Illustrative remaining gross career earning power

Illustrative only. Does not account for raises, bonuses, equity, periods of unemployment or changes in compensation and is not a forecast or guarantee of future earnings.

Yet the decisions surrounding that asset are often made reactively — after a recruiter calls, after leadership changes, after dissatisfaction sets in, or after a job is lost.

Your career can lose more economic value in one month of waiting than it costs to proactively build your market.

The Payoff

The best career insurance isn't another résumé.

It's options.

The goal isn't to predict every leadership change, market shift or unexpected event. It's to make sure no single employer, recruiter or circumstance controls what happens next.

Know your market.
Create your options.
Control what's next.

Career Risk Management

You wouldn't wait until after an accident to think about insurance. The same principle applies to your career.

Career Risk Management means understanding your market, strengthening your position and creating relationships and options before you suddenly need them.

Not because something bad is about to happen. Because something this valuable shouldn't be left entirely to chance.

Career Risk Management is the philosophy. Executive Search Intelligence™ is the methodology.

Companies don't wait for the right executive to appear.

When a company needs an executive
  • Defines the seat
  • Researches the market
  • Maps the talent
  • Identifies the right people
  • Builds relationships
  • Creates a shortlist
  • Acts proactively
When an executive considers what's next
  • Updates LinkedIn
  • Calls recruiters
  • Applies
  • Networks

…and waits.

You shouldn't manage your career with less intelligence than companies use to manage a search.

Built on three commitments.

Confidentiality

Your market can be worked without unnecessarily exposing that you're exploring it. Your identity is released to a specific person only with explicit approval.

Transparency

You see the actual work. Companies. People. Approaches. Replies. Silence. Coverage. Not a polished summary created afterward. The working record.

Reverse‑Engineering

Start with the seats you should hold and work backward.

Seat → Companies → Decision‑makers → Talent Acquisition → Search Professionals → Relationships → Paths → Opportunities

These are not marketing values. They are operating commitments.

Executive Market Index™

Before deciding what's next, understand where you stand.

The Executive Market Index™ is a complimentary read on your current position in the market — the same kind of assessment a search firm forms about an executive before a shortlist is ever built.

Executive Market Index™Sample · Illustrative
742 Market position
Visibility
Opportunity
Positioning
Relationships
Execution
Take the Executive Market Index™
Complimentary · Confidential
The Calibration Call

Intelligence tells us where you stand. Judgment determines what you should do.

Forty minutes with John Comeau. Your position, your market, and a headhunter's read on what your highest-leverage next move actually is — whether or not it involves us.

DiscoverDiagnoseDemonstrateContrastPrescribe
Request a Calibration
Complimentary · 40 minutes · The Executive Market Index™ is useful preparation, not a prerequisite
The Method

See your market through a headhunter's eyes.

A hypothetical executiveChief Revenue Officer · $850K Total Compensation
01 · The Seat

Define the right next opportunity.

Not any open CRO role. The specific shape of seat — scale, model, mandate, ownership structure — where this executive's track record commands the market.

02 · The Market

Identify and prioritize 25 target companies.

Researched, ranked, and approved — the companies where that seat exists today or should exist within a cycle.

03 · The Hiring Ecosystem

Map the people around each seat.

An executive hire is never one person's decision. For each company, we identify the ecosystem that influences or drives it:

Potential Boss / Executive Decision‑Maker Head of Talent Acquisition / Senior Talent Leader Relevant Executive Search Partner Internal Champion / Relationship Path
04 · The Relationships

Determine the path to each person.

WarmSecond DegreeCold
05 · The Opportunity

Determine where conversations can realistically be created.

Coverage, paths, and timing converge into a deliberate approach plan — not a volume campaign.

That's Executive Search Intelligence™.

Executive Representation™ · Days 1–15

Your career becomes the search assignment.

In the first fifteen days, the same research discipline a retained search firm brings to a mandate is assembled around one executive: you.

A·01

Career Thesis

Where you're going, and why the market should agree.

A·02

Executive Narrative

Your case, told the way a search partner would present it.

A·03

Proof · Executive Case Studies

Evidence assembled behind every claim.

A·04

Target Criteria

The definition of a right opportunity — agreed before outreach.

B·01

Priority 25 Companies

Researched, ranked, and approved by you.

B·02

~75 Named Decision‑Makers

The people who can influence or drive the hire.

B·03

Talent Acquisition Leaders

Heads of TA and senior talent leaders, mapped by company.

B·04

Named Search Professionals

The executive search partners relevant to your market.

B·05

Relationship Paths

Warm, second-degree, and cold — mapped person by person.

C·01

Market Intelligence

What's moving in your market, and what it means for timing.

C·02

Confidentiality Architecture

Never-contact list, approval rules, identity controls.

C·03

Market Matrix™

All of it, assembled into one working map.

This is not coaching homework. It's a search assignment — and the assignment is you.

The Market Matrix™

See the market we're building around you.

Not a list of companies. A working map of the people, relationships, and paths surrounding your next move.
Market Matrix™ · Engagement E‑042 · CRO Mandate Market Activated · Market Activation™ Anonymized Demonstration
CompanyTarget SeatPotential BossTalent AcquisitionSearch PartnerInternal ChampionPathStatus
Company ACRO Sarah MitchellChief Executive Officer Michael TorresChief People Officer Jennifer LeeSearch Partner David ChenBoard Member Warm Conversation
Company BPresident Robert HayesChief Executive Officer Amanda WrightVP Talent Acquisition Marcus ReedSearch Partner — 2nd Degree Introduction
Company CCRO Elena MartinezPresident James CollinsHead of Executive Talent Rachel StoneSearch Partner Susan ParkFormer Colleague Warm Replied
Company DGM Thomas ReedGroup CEO Michelle GrantSVP Talent Daniel BrooksSearch Partner — Cold Silence
Company ECRO Katherine DoyleChief Executive Officer Priya RamanCHRO Colin HayesSearch Partner Mark SullivanFormer CFO 2nd Degree Approached
+ 20 additional priority companies
Company ACRO
Potential BossSarah MitchellChief Executive Officer
Talent AcquisitionMichael TorresChief People Officer
Search PartnerJennifer Lee
ChampionDavid ChenBoard Member
WarmConversation
Company BPresident
Potential BossRobert HayesChief Executive Officer
Talent AcquisitionAmanda WrightVP Talent Acquisition
Search PartnerMarcus Reed
2nd DegreeIntroduction
Company CCRO
Potential BossElena MartinezPresident
Talent AcquisitionJames CollinsHead of Executive Talent
Search PartnerRachel Stone
ChampionSusan ParkFormer Colleague
WarmReplied
Company DGM
Potential BossThomas ReedGroup CEO
Talent AcquisitionMichelle GrantSVP Talent
Search PartnerDaniel Brooks
ColdSilence
Company ECRO
Potential BossKatherine DoyleChief Executive Officer
Talent AcquisitionPriya RamanCHRO
Search PartnerColin Hayes
ChampionMark SullivanFormer CFO
2nd DegreeApproached
+ 20 additional priority companies · fictional demonstration data
Path trace · Executive → Former Colleague → Search Partner All names and companies shown are fictional demonstration data
25 / 25Priority Companies
✓Decision‑Makers Mapped
✓Talent Leaders Mapped
✓Search Professionals Mapped
✓Warm Paths Identified
34Approached
11Replies
16Silence
6Introductions
4Conversations
Market Activation™ is a readiness state, not a date Illustrative activity for demonstration · not a representation of results

You see your market being built and worked.

Every company. Every person. Every approach. Every reply. Every silence.

That's what Transparency means here.

Your market. Worked confidentially.

Never Contact

Your current employer — and anyone you designate — is excluded from all research-driven outreach before any work begins.

Blocked.
Approved Approach

Channels, messaging, and boundaries are established with you before outreach. Nothing improvised, nothing off-script.

Controlled.
Your Identity

Your name is released to a specific person only with your express, per‑instance approval.

Every time.

No name without approval.

Approval is explicit and given each time. Silence is never permission.

Market Activation™

We don't activate your market until it's ready.

Market Activation is a readiness state, not a date. Nine conditions must be true before active market work begins — and you approve the ones that carry your name.

R·01

Narrative approved

R·02

Target criteria approved

R·03

Priority companies approved

R·04

Search professionals mapped

R·05

Decision‑makers mapped

R·06

Relationship paths mapped

R·07

Confidentiality rules confirmed

R·08

Outreach strategy approved

R·09

Client record live

9 of 9 conditions · then, and only then: activation

Only when the foundation is complete does active market work begin.

Days 16–90

From intelligence to market activity.

I · Build

Build

  • Thesis
  • Narrative
  • Targets
  • People
  • Paths
II · Activate

Activate

  • Search professionals
  • Network
  • Champions
  • Warm introductions
III · Work

Work the Market

  • Decision‑makers
  • Talent Acquisition
  • Companies
  • Market intelligence
  • Conversations
IV · Convert

Convert

  • Conversation preparation
  • Interview preparation
  • Opportunity evaluation
  • Offer support
V · Decide

Decide

  • Stay.
  • Move.
  • Keep building.

We guarantee the work we control, not the market. No firm can honestly guarantee an offer — and none should.

Prepare · Position · Represent

One methodology. Three levels of involvement.

Executive Search Intelligence™ is the methodology. The only question is how much of it we run for you.

Prepare

Market Ready

Learn the system.

$995 / 90 minutes live
Position

Executive One-on-One

Let’s build it together.

$5,000 / 30 days
Represent

Executive Representation

We work the market.

$25,000 / 90 days

Elevated Career Credit™ — start where you need us today. If you move into a higher level of Elevated support within 12 months, your eligible investment moves with you. Terms apply.

Don't wait until you need options.

Get Market Ready →
$995 · Understand your market before you need the market
The Engagement

Hire the search firm to work for you.

Executive Representation™

Your market, worked on your behalf.

90 DaysEngagement Term
$25,000Engagement

The engagement is $25,000. It's $10,000 to engage. The remaining $15,000 is due at Market Activation.

Request a Calibration The Full Engagement →
The Guarantee
“If after 15 days you don't believe the intelligence, market coverage, and strategy we've built materially improves what you had before we started, I'll refund your initial $10,000.”
— John Comeau, Founder

Representation isn't for everyone.

We take a limited number of engagements, and we decline more than we accept. Representation fits an executive who is:

The Founder Test

“Would I introduce this executive to a relationship I value?”

That is the final qualification standard. For both of us.

John W. Comeau, Founder of Elevated Exec
John Comeau · Founder, Elevated Exec
The Founder

I spent 20 years working for the other side.

For two decades, companies paid me to:

  • Understand markets
  • Find executives
  • Evaluate talent
  • Build relationships
  • Create shortlists
  • Recruit exceptional people who often weren't looking

Eventually I realized something. Every search professional works for the company. Nobody was doing this work for the executive.

So I flipped the model.

20+

years in executive search

200+

executive placements

40,000+

executive conversations

LinkedIn “Super Recruiter” Top 1% Staffing Professional Most Socially Engaged Search Firm
What Representation Produces

We don't sell placement. We build what produces it.

Intelligence

A researched, working view of your market — the kind companies pay search firms to build.

Clarity

A defined seat, a defensible thesis, and criteria for what a right move actually is.

Positioning

Your case, structured the way it will be judged — by boards, bosses, and search partners.

Access

Named people, mapped paths, and approaches that don't start cold when warmth exists.

Market Coverage

Twenty-five companies worked deliberately — not whichever roles happen to be posted.

Options

More of the right conversations, so a decision is a choice — not an acceptance.

Decision Quality

Evaluation and offer support from someone who has sat on the other side of hundreds of these decisions.

Transparency

The working record, visible throughout. You see coverage, replies, and silence — as they happen.

Client accounts are shared privately, with permission, during Calibration — consistent with the same confidentiality we extend to every executive we represent.

You don't need another job search. You need to understand your market.

Want to know where you stand?
Take the Executive Market Index™
Complimentary
Considering what's next?
Request a Calibration
40 minutes with John

Neither requires the other.