CLIENT

$700M heavy civil highway contractor

Mid Atlantic United States

SEARCH ASSIGNMENT

+ Chief Financial Officer

REFERRED BY
We were introduced to the client by Cornerstone Advisors, a succession and human capital development firm that has trusted us for over seven years.

CHALLENGES
The second generation CEO needed to replace his retiring CFO who had been with him for more than 30 years. The previous CFO was the CEO’s trusted advisor and “right hand man” during a period of significant growth. Before engaging our firm, the company hired a replacement outside of the construction industry, believing this would allow him to bring a new level of financial sophistication to his growing company. The replacement came from a manufacturing background and was not able to understand the unique financial aspects of a construction company however.

We needed to produce proven CFO candidates from substantial construction companies, similar in size, and working in the same markets as our client. The candidates needed to be able to gain the immediate respect of a very seasoned senior leadership and operations staff. The CEO needed someone he could immediately trust, and ideally someone who would become his new trusted advisor and “right hand man.”

SEARCH PLAN + RESULTS
We spent considerable time meeting with the CEO, the SVP of Human Resources, and the leadership team. We wanted to understand their business, the challenges the new CFO would face and we needed to understand the culture and what kind of individual would work best with the CEO.

We knew we would need a large pool of senior level finance candidates from similar organizations. To accomplish this, our research team put together a national database of similar construction companies targeting their senior finance executives. These individuals were confidentially contacted via phone, email and through personal recommendations and referrals. We marketed the opportunity as exactly what it was – a true CFO/CEO partnership opportunity with a market-leading company on the brink of significant growth.

Over the course of three days the shortlisted candidates were brought to an offsite location for initial interviews with our firm and the CEO. This arrangement allowed us to strengthen our relationship with CEO and gain more insight into the company over the three days of interviews. We narrowed the choice to two candidates. The CEO liked both of them, but the results of our custom-designed Kolbe and Caliper assessment tools helped the him choose the right candidate with confidence.

The new CFO has been with our client since 1999. We continue to provide executive search services to them as well as other top construction companies that they have referred us to.

CLIENT

Publicly held hotel, resort + casino company

Las Vegas, Nevada

SEARCH ASSIGNMENTS

+ Chief Operating Officer
+ Director of Construction
+ Director of Architectural Design
+ Director of Contacts

CHALLENGES
Our client was ready to start construction of a $7B world-class megaresort. They planned to assign the leadership team from their in-house design and construction group to the project. This strategy created a void that needed to be filled immediately. The company needed to replace their President of Construction, Director of Construction, Director of Design and Director of Contracts. Although we had never taken on a similar search in this market the client was confident that we had the resources and search experience to meet their high standards and accelerated timetable.

SEARCH PLAN + RESULTS
We took a very strategic candidate sourcing approach to our search due to the high visibility of the client, their stringent requirements, and the project they were building. Rather than casting a wide net, we put together an exclusive list of our favorite and most successful executive contacts from our personal database. We did not want to take any chances with individuals with whom we had had no prior contact. This approach allowed us to complete all of the open search assignments in a very expedient manner.

CLIENT

Building Products Supply + Distribution Company

Pennsylvania

SEARCH ASSIGNMENT

+ Chief Executive Officer

REFERRED BY
We were introduced to the client by Cornerstone Advisors, a succession and human capital development firm that has trusted us for over seven years.

CHALLENGES
This client is a 100% ESOP company that started 50 years ago as a general contractor and grew into a building products distribution company.

As a result of an unexpected illness the CEO passed away. There was no succession plan in place. He was a family member who had spent his entire career with the company, hired a large number of the managers, was married to the Chairman’s daughter and was generally loved and respected by the entire company.

SEARCH PLAN + RESULTS
Adams Partners was engaged to work with the Board of Directors providing executive search to help hire a new CEO as well as transition consulting services. We spent considerable time talking with all senior leadership about the search process while gathering their input and listening to their concerns. We met regularly with the board sharing this information and making recommendations when necessary.

The unique issues of an ESOP company, the tightly knit family culture of the firm, the sudden and unexpected death of the CEO, in-house candidates as well as other factors made this assignment very challenging and very rewarding. Over the course of the assignment we became very close with the founding Chairman and felt as if were accepted as part of their organization.

A new CEO was chosen based on his familiarity with the company and its markets. The company was very pleased with our services inviting us to attend the company retreat where they announced the naming of the new CEO.