Placement in a Global Technology Services Organisation – Securing a Data & AI Leader to Accelerate Enterprise Growth
The Challenge
A global technology services organization was looking to strengthen its leadership team in the San Francisco Bay Area with a senior Data & AI executive. This wasn’t a traditional CTO appointment. The business needed someone with exceptional technical depth who could engage confidently with client CTOs and engineering teams, while also operating as a trusted advisor capable of shaping transformation programs and winning new business. The combination was exceptionally rare. Many candidates possessed deep technical expertise but lacked the commercial and consultative skills to influence executive stakeholders. Others were accomplished client partners but no longer had the technical credibility to lead complex Data and AI conversations or architect enterprise scale solutions. The client also wanted to increase diversity within its leadership team without compromising on technical excellence or commercial capability.
Our Approach
Leveraging our network across technology consulting, advisory and professional services, we identified a highly targeted shortlist of leaders who combined deep Data and AI expertise with strong solution architecture experience and a proven track record of generating significant client revenue. Our assessment extended well beyond technical capability. We evaluated executive presence, consulting mindset, commercial impact, leadership style and the ability to bridge business strategy with technology execution.The result was a diverse shortlist of exceptional leaders who met the brief across every dimension.
The Outcome
The successful candidate brought exactly the blend the client had struggled to find: deep technical authority, exceptional advisory capability and a proven ability to build trusted executive relationships while driving significant revenue growth. The appointment strengthened the organization’s Data & AI leadership on the West Coast, enhancing its ability to lead complex transformation programs, engage at board level and position itself as a strategic technology partner to enterprise clients.
Beyond the Placement
We recognized that the biggest challenge wasn’t securing the hire. It was ensuring their long term success. The successful executive was transitioning from a consulting environment into a broader technology services organization. While they brought outstanding technical expertise and commercial credibility, succeeding in a larger capability led business required a different approach to stakeholder management, internal influence and organizational navigation. As part of our Search & Succeed™ methodology, we partnered the executive with one of our experienced leadership coaches throughout the critical first few months. Together, they focused on stakeholder mapping, internal relationship building, navigating organizational dynamics and accelerating integration into the wider leadership team. This structured support enabled the executive to establish credibility quickly, build strong internal partnerships and maximize their impact far earlier than would typically be expected. For us, success isn’t measured by an accepted offer. It’s measured by ensuring exceptional leaders thrive, create lasting commercial value and become long term assets to the organizations they join.
Delivered by David Cohen, Partner
