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A Premier Boutique Professional Services Firm
R. Todd Bennett Retained Executive Search is a premier boutique style professional services firm offering a wide array of talent centric offerings. We serve privately held equity and venture backed enterprises, across all industries and functional disciplines.
Evidence of Client Success
President – LogisticsPublicly Traded Company
Retained Executive Search – President – Logistics
The Client
The client was a North American based, publicly traded trucking and logistics provider with nearly $500 million in revenue. Their asset-based business had 2000 power units that generated 75% of their revenue but only 10% of their EBITDA. Their truck brokerage business, a top 25 in North American player, was the inverse in revenue and EBITA and tasked with doubling in size over the next 5 years. The salient issue faced to achieving their objectives was the current president of their brokerage business had reached his peak and was not suited to take the division to the next level. While he had done yeoman’s work building it from scratch, the time had come to upgrade their leadership to meet their new objectives.
The Challenges
The largest barrier to a successful search was the prevalence of substantial, defensible noncompetes among the other large North American truck brokerages in addition to the client being located in an undesirable market. Also, the prevailing market strategy with a wide variety of competitors was to grow brokerage, thus competition for limited accessible talent was beyond description. In addition, the CEO had recently taken seriously ill, the interim CEO was tenuously engaged, and a new CEO search was in process. Lastly, an involved, activist board chairman wanted an industry outsider, a notion that would have been an economic disaster. To say this search was into a strong headwind was an understatement.
The Strategy and Search Results:
Having assessed the barriers to the search including significant internal client issues, we mapped out our strategy to target the number 2 and 3 professionals in the North American Top 20 truck brokerages. Given we had zero client off-limits, we knew we would have more looks at top talent than other firms searching for similar leadership. Also, recruiting for a President’s role in a Top 25 Brokerage would be highly appealing to our target audience and may alleviate competitive issues. We started with a long list of 60 potential candidates, quickly working the pool down to 10 available players, only 3 of which had no encumbrances to an immediate start. The top candidate was the lead commercial professional for a billion-dollar player and lead almost single-handedly growth from $300 million to its position at the time of the search. He was tailor-made for the role, there were no deviations from the ideal candidate on paper and his experience. In a stroke of pure luck, he also had no non-compete. The activist board chairman, the interim CEO, and the CFO participated in an all-day interview session with the CEO and CFO coming away wanting to make an offer to the lead candidate The activist board chairman maintained his stance on going outside the industry, claiming the lead candidate was ‘too salesy’. The CFO and CEO were extremely concerned that going outside the industry would not only fail in terms of hitting their growth plan, but may very well destroy the business itself. We were tasked with selling the candidate to the board. It fell upon us to broker an emergency board meeting and after several instructional sessions with the board and the incoming CEO, the lead candidate was hired. His efforts lead to a 50% growth in revenue in his first 3 years.
Senior Vice President Sales
Private Equity Backed Company
Retained Executive Search – Senior Vice President Sales
The Client
The client was a premium global provider of specialized, expedited transportation, and logistics services their customers include multinational leaders in the bio-pharmaceutical, life sciences, medical device, aviation, technology, and entertainment industries. The two leading providers were recently combined into my client by a large, prestigious Boston-based private equity firm. The firm recognized the need to build a succession plan for the highly accomplished senior management team, a team that would likely not be in place after the next liquidity event. Having recognized R Todd Bennett’s expertise in the space, both as a recruiter and operator, we were engaged to source this mission newly created critical role.
The Challenges
The engagement began on December 6, with the goal to have the new person in place before the annual sales meetings planned for the 3rd week of February. Potential issues to arise in this search were the holiday season and candidate availability, the potential to buy out a candidate’s annual bonus, noncompetes and candidate’s reluctance to start at square one with their customer base. Another nuance to the role: the incoming VP would be taking over a high-performing 9-person sales team. We believed that the single largest challenge, aside from the calendar, would be the size of our client, $300M vs. the size of most competitors in this space, generally billion-dollar global providers. The client, to their credit, was highly flexible and showed a strong willingness to bend to the right candidate’s needs.
The Strategy and Search Results:
Our strategy encompassed both direct industry competitors and relevant high-velocity asset-light logistics providers. We felt that the ideal candidate must have resounding on-paper gravitas to ensure it was immediately clear why they were hired into the role. Along with gravitas, we diligently sought a leader with no ego, a demonstrable Global 1000 client presence, and a coach-like mentality. While the existing team was performing above expectations, senior leadership felt that they could continue to grow beyond their expectations. Having a leader who could take a high-performing team to new heights was a tall ask. We likened it the analogy of famed Alabama Football Coach Nick Sabin becoming Athletic Director, hiring his replacement and expecting improved performance. Our team worked rapidly to locate a candidate pool of 36 highly accomplished and experienced players. All had relevant domain expertise and strong sales leadership qualifications. Working tirelessly during the month of December, including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we made a strong pitch for this role and had great success garnering interest with the majority of candidates. We interviewed 7 and passed the top 3 to the client. In early January, the CMO and CEO held all-day interviews. Our intended results is a client has a hard time picking the final candidate from the finalists. We were pleased to take a call from the CMO late the day of the interviews to take strong praise from him and CEO. After some deliberation, a finalist was picked. The only substantive issue during negotiations was ensuring that the first-year bonus would be guaranteed. The incentive to leave the existing role for less money was not appealing. The client stepped up to make a deal that made near term compensation above the candidate’s current including restricted stock lost and the long term potential was significantly more.
"The placement came from one of the top consulting firms, where he led the Global Customer Experience service line, and built the Service Operations practice. Though he was not looking to make a transition, we encouraged him to meet the client’s C-level staff, after which he was persuaded to accept the position.
We successfully closed this search in only 66 days. Though the placement was originally hired to report to the COO, he is now reporting directly to the CEO. In addition, the client was so pleased with the caliber of candidates we presented, that they chose to hire an additional candidate as Senior Vice President, Business Operations and Strategy. Though Morgan Samuels had previously executed 15 engagements for the company, this was our first time working with the new leadership. Since completing this hire, we’ve since executed nine additional searches for this client, and continue to serve as the single source for their human capital needs.
Chief Financial OfficerPrivate Equity Backed Company
Retained Executive Search – Chief Financial Officer
The Client
The Client, owned by a premier midwestern-based private equity fund, was a middle-market business to business service provider. Despite 24% EBITDA margins and no debt, they had absolutely no finance function or infrastructure in place. With an exit on the horizon, the board felt handicapped without the kind of Financial Planning and Analysis reporting required to sell the company. They sought a seasoned private equity experienced CFO with not only the ability to interface with the private equity sponsor, but also a history of building a finance organization from scratch. With years of experience, they knew that without complete visibility into the business they could not present the company’s true performance and potential to buyers and expect a premium upon exit. Also, they needed the right CFO to serve as an essential strategic partner to the CEO so the private equity firm could spend less time involved in the company’s day to day affairs. Lastly, the company was less than $100M in revenue and they were concerned that the CFO skill set they sought would be a budget breaker. They engaged R. Todd Bennett Retained Executive Search to fill this mission-critical role.
The Challenges
Not wanting to fund the time and expense of relocation, we were tasked with recruiting from only the local market. The company had a long-term controller and 15-person accounting staff with an average tenure of more than 10 years each. The culture had always been family-like and somewhat subdued. They viewed this as a strength and had no desire or need to substantially make waves. The client’s concern was a new CFO could potentially create fissures with existing staff or harm the culture. Lastly, because of this culture, their expectations of the CFO would also be deep in the trenches, roll up the sleeve’s kind of player, from fixing a vending machine to driving to change a flat tire, they wanted it all. The requirements of the role also included being an existing CFO, significant prior PE-backed company experience, at least one build from scratch FP&A function and an exit.
The Strategy and Search Results:
From the outset and having the experience of running similar-sized organizations, we were very clear on the type of talent we were looking for. We knew that isolating the existing CFOs in the market would be easy, finding the ones who had significant PE experience and had built an FP&A function from scratch would require a widely expanded potential candidate pool. Turning over as many stones as possible was as critical a strategy as the individual talent assessment of each candidate. We pursued multiple avenues, including reaching out to every CFO in the market who worked in a similar vertical and similar sized organization. We emphasized the opportunity to truly make an impact by shaping the financial platform of the company and enjoy the rewards of an exit in the not too distant future. We built a long list of over 200 potential candidates, interviewed 7, and passed on to our client the top 4. The new CFO was identified and placed in only 60 days, far exceeding client expectations. The successful candidate had not only worked for two premier private equity-backed companies in the past (Littlejohn & Co and Platinum Equity) but had recently been through and exit and had extensive expertise in building a finance organization from scratch. And added benefit: the culture fit between candidate, company, and PE sponsor was near perfect.
Director of Recruiting
Private Equity Backed Company
Professional Search – Director of Recruiting
The Client
The client was a North Eastern-based specialty asset-based transportation provider with over 1100 power units operating under 10 different brands. Founded in 1979, this Private Equity backed company has $250 million in total revenue and is a Top 75 Carrier in North America. Their business is highly correlated to the overall economy and in particular the construction market. Their ability to grow is tethered to their ability to recruit qualified truck drivers. Prior to engaging R. Todd Bennett Retained Executive Search, their total driver pool was shrinking, and not only were they unable to take advantage of the growing economy, they were also struggling to serve their existing shippers.
The Challenges
In addition to nearly every competitor having the same need to add qualified drivers, the truck driver pool continues to shrink with retirements and defections to other industries significantly outpacing new entrants. Depending on which source used, the driver shortage is as much as 25,000 to 100,000 drivers. Ironically, the largest vertical competitor to truck drivers is construction jobs—the very reason our client was experiencing a growth spurt. Moreover, driver pay increases have not solved the dilemma and the increase in driver compensation has been more than revenue rate increases. Lastly, the head recruiting position is a thankless, burnout-laden role with success coming in small doses if at all. The ability to recruit someone who is a true player would be a very difficult endeavor for anyone.
The Strategy and Search Results:
With a client and sponsor desire to recruit from the industry, we quickly built a research plan to identify the universe of peers who had similar recruiting needs, using that we built a candidate pool that exceeded 50 likely candidates, either the number 1 or number 2 recruiting manager at the peer companies. Within 30 days, we had contacted, interviewed, and brought to the client 3 very successful candidates. However, during the interview process, it became clear that the ability to recruit, retain, and relocate top candidates would be met with an aggressive attempt to retain by the current employer. In fact, an offer extended included a 25% increase in compensation, it was met with a 10% increase over our client’s offer and no relocation.
Taking a step back we counseled the client to strongly consider going outside the industry. We noted that the skill set needed most was the ability to manage the 20-person department like a staffing production shop with extreme focus on KPI’s, e.g. leads, outbound calls, inbound calls, closings, days to orientation, etc. We determined that the risk of overpaying for industry expertise was high; and in this case, industry expertise was subordinate to process management skills. We agreed to move in a different direction. Our speed in culling the industry players allowed us to move quickly and confidently in this new direction. Within 30 days, we had brought in 3 additional candidates who were successful leaders in national and global staffing companies. Ultimately, our client hired a top-performing branch manager from a global staffing firm. The entire engagement was complete in less than 90 days.
Senior Vice President Human ResourcesPrivate Equity Backed Company
Retained Executive Search – SVP Human Resources
The Client
A large midwestern-based specialty logistics provider was experiencing rapid geographic growth and needed to ensure that their leadership development, human resource management, recruiting, training and compliance functions were robust enough to maintain strong human and organizational performance throughout their explosive growth. The company recognized the need for a more strategic and broadly skilled human resources professional to create and execute a human resource strategy to meet the current and future demands. Having successfully performed more than a dozen extraordinarily successful engagements, they opted to secure R. Todd Bennett to source the confidential role.
The Challenges
The CEO indicated early in the search that the company was in diligence to be acquired by a large well-known American billionaire’s private equity fund. This new fact, along with the confidentiality of the role, added a new urgency and required perfect execution. R. Todd Bennett and the CEO’s leadership would be in the spotlight as this was the first significant hire overseen by the new private equity owners. Our team knew that the opportunity to jump into this role after the prior VP of Human Resources and during such expansive growth would require a uniquely seasoned individual with considerable strategic experience who had achieved results on a similar scale.
The Strategy and Search Results:
Our team targeted potential candidates from companies with similar geographic and headcount profiles of where our client expected to be in 36 months. We plowed through the marketplace thoroughly for about several weeks, reaching out to dozens of HR professionals, whether they were targets or sources. Our efforts yielded a significant number of contact points which ultimately lead us to an impressive final candidate pool. Working tightly with the client, we moved at a very deliberate pace, culminating with final interviews about 60 days into the process. We landed with a perfect placement in just over 80 days. Had the role not been confidential, we could have shaved 15 days off the timeline; however, we were able to ensure the client got the talent they needed just as they began to plan for the next year. The placement was a local candidate who enjoyed a strong reputation in the local and national markets that she had worked in.
Director of Financial Planning & Analysis
Private Equity Backed Company
Professional Search – Director of Financial Planning & Analysis
The Client
The client was a New Mexico based aerospace and defense manufacturer. Owned by a $5 Billion New York-Based Private Equity firm, the client had $175 million a year in revenue and specialized in microsatellites and solar panel manufacturing. Prior success includes playing a major part in the Mars Insight landing in 2018. Their high-profile client list includes SpaceX, Boeing, Raytheon, and host of other well-known aerospace and defense leaders. They were created as a spinout from a large Southern California-based company.
The Challenges
Operating in a highly leveraged environment, 99% of the client’s revenue was generated from a finite set of unique programs where costs were paid as incurred while revenue was billed upon hitting contractually specified milestones, often the timing between required disbursements and milestone billing exceeded ninety days. When the spinout occurred, the corporate finance resources assigned to work alongside of the program managers stayed with the parent company. Forecasting revenue and its corresponding cash collections was put in the hands of a group of mechanical and electrical engineers, or better said, sub-optimally. Having a financial professional to provide accurate visibility into program status was imperative. Among the many challenges we faced was the fact that 70% of roles in New Mexico are either government, not for profit, or education. The ability to secure a competent Director level FP&A resource was difficult at best.
The Strategy and Search Results:
Within 10 days, we had mapped out the entire market of for-profit companies, including global aerospace and defense players who had facilities in the state. We isolated approximately 30 potential candidates with broad skill sets that suggested potential success in an FP&A role. We also identified 4 candidates with FP&A expertise including one in a very similar role at the time of the search. We set our sights on that one candidate as our primary target while continuing to search for other strong candidates.
The client had a tenuous reputation in the market; we knew that a full recruiting effort was required. After pitching the opportunity and completing two rounds of interviews with our firm, we partnered with the CFO to continue the recruiting effort while subtly doing their diligence. There was some fear by the candidate of our client’s financial stability and longevity. He had a young family and while not risk-averse, showed genuine interest in the key factors influencing out client. Along with the CFO, we were able to disclose financial data, involve the spouse, and overcome all issues and the target candidate was hired and subsequently promoted to Vice President.
Why Choose Us
Not only do we have significant experience sourcing talent, we also have significant experience running companies. We know every client feels comfortable doing business in a certain manner. That is why we tailor each engagement to, well, the client. Long on service and keen on quality, we are flexible in everyway and deliver results that exceed expectations. Because we are a small firm, we have virtually no ‘off-limits’, we can customize terms and recruit from just about any target.
Gratitude and Pride
We have immense gratitude and great pride for the faith our clients put in us. Each engagement is more than a transaction, it is either the start of a long term relationship or the nurturing of a continuing relationship. We show up each day to achieve our clients’ goals and take them as a personal challenge and duty.