executive search firm
EXECUTIVE SEARCH
UK • EMEA • US • est 2009

The Executive Headhunter

What Differentiates Us: Headhunting For High Impact Leaders

I’m Richard Crossman, the Executive Headhunter and Founder of Aruba Exec, who are a leading executive search firm of technology headhunters.

My team and I assist the founders, CEOs, and leaders of tech firms across the UK, EMEA and the US by connecting them with transformative C-Suite, VP and Director-level professionals.

Great vision without great people is irrelevant. At Aruba Exec, our executive headhunters recognise that the biggest impetus towards business results is people.

Your company's ability to consistently hire top-performing leadership talent and propagate this success throughout your teams and across all business functions is crucial for the success of your business.

Your skill in accessing top C-suite executives, VPs and Directors is essential for your long-term success, as your business outcomes have a direct correlation to how effective you are at hiring.

In essence, every business functions as a recruitment agency, and your primary responsibility is to attract talented individuals while fostering a culture that enables them to excel.

“
"I still remember when I was deciding about whether to use one of the big firms or to give Aruba Exec, a firm I had not heard of before, a shot. I could not be happier with my decision to go with Aruba. The founder, Richard, has a great network, and truly cares about finding the perfect fit for both sides. He’s personal, fair, not afraid of a challenge, and listens! Qualities that are sometimes hard to find with one of the big firms. I will continue to use Richard for career advice and executive search for the companies I work with."
FOUNDER - FORBES 30 UNDER 30

Why Partner With Aruba Exec?

The Why

Aruba Exec was founded in 2009 by Richard Crossman, with the primary objective of establishing an executive search practice that provides a personalised boutique approach for clients worldwide - an approach that remains fundamental to our operations today.

Since our inception, our executive headhunters have consistently outperformed the market by achieving an industry-leading success rate of over 99% in the delivery of C-Suite, VP, and Director level roles.

This has effectively safeguarded the investment of our esteemed technology clients who engage in our executive search services.

Our extensive domain expertise enables successful collaboration with customers to address crucial hiring requirements, and our seasoned executive search team has established strong relationships across various technology sectors and business functions.

What We Do

A boutique approach to executive search - a service that is personal and partner-led.
Single point of contact with an Aruba Director throughout the search.
A personal reply to every enquiry and CV submission from Richard, our CEO & Founder.
A diverse approach to building leadership teams.
Break barriers through innovation.
Look outside the box.
Know & deliver top talent.
Empower & propel clients' careers.
Long-term business partnering.
Honesty & transparency.
Elite service.

What We Don't Do

Old school executive search.
Work with slow processes.
The same as everyone else.
Confine ourselves to limits.
Attitude & egos.

What Differentiates Us?

Our service is high-touch and driven by personal relationships, which has led many of our candidates to become recruiting clients.

We’re routinely told that our personal service & results far exceeds the large, big brand executive headhunters, who are quite often limited by many ‘hands-off’ restrictions on where they can search.

Clients come to us because of our executive search process, our methodology & our ETAR System giving clients access to candidates they wouldn’t have had access to via traditional executive search.

Our executive headhunters use our executive talent acquisition & retention (ETAR™) system which utilises a specific set of inbound and outbound strategies to attract, recruit & retain top talent, by standing out, building trust and engaging many 1000s of top c-suite candidates.

We’ve spent years building our executive hiring solution to deliver game-changing executive stars and associated results.

Interested in Working With Us?

We treat our hiring customers & candidates with uncompromising respect. From our very first contact & throughout the recruitment journey, we take our role very seriously and are fully aware that this is a people process whose outcome impacts lives and careers.

We are passionate about hiring, tech & innovative executive search. If you share in our mission of connecting game-changing c-suite stars with opportunities in tech firms, then let’s talk – it’s all about human relationships!

Success in business is all about people. Whatever industry an organisation is in, it’s employees are its biggest competitive advantage.

If you are looking to recruit for a position and need executive headhunters to find you suitable candidates, or wish to discuss the types of searches you are looking to fill and need an executive headhunter with decades of experience to help, then reach out to Richard.

How to recruit top leaders

How To Recruit Top Leaders For Your Organisation

To be truly effective business leaders and to perform at your optimum level, it is essential that you develop and enhance your ability to consistently identify and hire top-performing talent. The importance of talent cannot be overstated; it serves as the primary scaling mechanism for any business, playing a crucial role in determining the overall success and growth of the organization. Therefore, talent acquisition and management should be at the very core of your business strategy and operations, guiding your decisions and shaping your company's future. It is through a strong focus on attracting and retaining exceptional individuals that you will lay a solid foundation for sustainable growth and prosperity in your enterprise.

The two major components that lie at the very foundation of all great companies are as follows: 

1. Establishing an uncompromising hiring model and process that is meticulously designed to attract and deliver extraordinary talent to your organization, ensuring that you not only find the best candidates but also align them with your company's vision and values. This process should be thorough and strategic, focusing on identifying individuals who possess not only the necessary skills but also the right mindset to contribute positively to your team. 

2. Inspiring, mentoring, and nurturing that talent once you have successfully brought them on board is equally crucial. This involves creating an environment that promotes continuous learning and growth, providing guidance and support to help employees reach their full potential, and fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation. By investing in your people, you build a strong foundation for long-term success and resilience within your organization.

Finding Hidden Executive Talent

You may find yourself in a situation where it seems nearly impossible to locate the right senior and executive stars who would be the perfect fit for your organisation. Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge that top executive talent is not actively seeking out new opportunities; instead, the majority of these high-caliber professionals are already content in their current roles, happily employed, and often approached by other companies for potential opportunities. Consequently, if you truly wish to attract these individuals to your organisation, you must take proactive steps to seek them out. This involves understanding their intrinsic motivators, engaging with them effectively, recruiting them thoughtfully, and retaining them once they join your team.

This comprehensive approach is precisely what our executive search firm specializes in, utilizing our innovative executive search services facilitated through our unique ETAR System. We have established a reputation for excellence in this field. CEOs, founders, and other high-level executives frequently reach out to us when they come to the realization that their ongoing achievements and overall success are being impeded by their struggles to identify, attract, and recruit potential candidates as well as top executive leaders in a timely manner in the competitive market landscape.

Finding Hidden Executive Talent

About Executive Headhunters

Headhunting the top performing executives in today's competitive market is an incredibly labour-intensive and complex process. It requires a rare and extensive set of skills and expertise from executive headhunters who understand the nuances of the industry. Standard and inefficient executive search methods often fall short, failing to provide you with access to the vast majority of the senior and executive candidate marketplace that is essential for finding the right talent.

As experienced executive headhunters, our primary focus, or sweet spot, is leading c-suite searches to deliver rigorous and meaningful results that truly meet the needs of our clients. We pride ourselves on not only achieving successful placements but also on building long-term and trusted relationships with both our clients and the candidates we work with. This multifaceted approach ensures that we can deliver exceptional value and insights throughout the entire recruitment process.

How Have We Achieved Our Solution

Building upon over 26 years of experience in recruitment—spanning agency, in-house, executive search firms, and RPO—as well as delivering multi-million-pound hiring projects for blue-chip clients, we have spent years operating within various talent acquisition models. We focus on nurturing and engaging top performers to ensure we can reach them when our recruiting clients have hiring needs. This strategy provides us with a strong inbound pull of top talent, rather than relying solely on the outbound reach typical of other executive search firms.

Would you like to settle for only the active candidate pool, which accounts for approximately 6% of the executive market, or would you prefer to tap into the remaining 94% of passive talent that meets your skill requirements?
Richard Crossman Executive Search
Contact Richard

Get In Touch

You can access my diary to schedule a call by clicking on the book a call button below, or email me direct at richard@arubaexec.com
A Personal Approach to Executive Search
Aruba Exec is an internationally acclaimed retained executive search firm, committed to resolving crucial executive recruitment challenges for clients across the UK, EMEA & US, through cutting-edge, data-driven headhunting, that secures high-performance executives.
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