Top Executive Search & Leadership Consulting FirmThe right leader for every company.The right move for every leader.
Retained C-Suite & Board Search
PermanentInterimAdvisory roles
Choose your platform above
- 500+
- C-suite placements
- 12-month
- Candidate guarantee
- 53,000+
- Platform members
- 35+
- International markets
Where do you want to start?
Hiring a leader or becoming one, choose the situation closest to yours. Each leads to the part of the firm built for it, backed by one network that serves both sides of the table.
Hire with us
- Our CEO — or a key CXO — is leaving. We need the right successor.Executive Search
- We need independent directors our board can stand behind.India ID Exchange · for boards
- Who leads at our competitors — and what are they paid?Talent Research & Analytics
- Our leadership team isn’t ready for what comes next.Leadership Strategy & Advisory
A shortlist drawn from leaders we already know — assessed, reachable, and approached in confidence.
Grow with us
- I’m ready for a bigger role — and my employer mustn’t know.India Board Terminal
- I want my first board seat — or my next one.India ID Exchange
- Boards and search firms should find the right story about me.The Leadership Narrative
- I want someone to carry my career for me.The Apex 100
Known to the boards and CEOs who hire through us — and in the room, discreetly, when the right mandate opens.
Not quite any of these?
Message us on WhatsAppThe right leader, in the seat.
Research-led Retained Search for CEO, C-Suite and Board Mandates — owned end to end, from brief to onboarding. Every mandate is led by a partner, and we do not close a search file until the right leader has actually joined.
- 01
45–60 days to an accepted offer
Scoping, market mapping, assessment, shortlist and offer — with a weekly pipeline update throughout. CEO and board mandates run 60–75 days.
- 02
India's longest guarantee
If a leader we place leaves within 12 months of joining, we run the full replacement search at no additional professional fee.
- 03
Practitioners, not recruiters
Former industry practitioners across 20 industries and every C-suite function, backed by a 50,000+ executive network built since 2010.
- 04
A flat 15% Search Fee
Affordable for companies of every size. One flat 15% Search Fee on every mandate. Nothing less. Nothing more.
Every C-suite role, every industry, India's leadership markets.
Where board-ready independent directors and the boards hiring them meet on merit.
India's independent directors marketplace — a curated layer above the statutory databank, with every director objectively assessed on Function, Industry and Board Readiness. Two sides, one verified pool.
- 390+
- Independent-director seats opening in the next 90 days
- 7,500+
- Assessed independent directors boards can appoint from — hosted by the India ID Exchange platform
- 3,800+
- Listed companies tracked from their filings
Openings and listed companies live from board filings · updated hourly
Find your board seat. Know what it's worth.
Every upcoming independent-director opening across listed companies in India, each board's governance quality and sitting fees, and visibility to the boards appointing now.
A Top 1000 Financial Services board
Independent Director · Financial Services · Term-expiry window
- Upcoming board seats matched to your profile.
- Judge a board's governance before you accept.
- Apply for the seats directly from the exchange.
- Be visible to the boards appointing now.
- Let the concierge work on your behalf and give wings to your portfolio career.
Free to register and get assessed.
Find your board seatAppoint on merit, from an assessed pool of 7,500+ Independent Directors.
Start from a verified shortlist, not an unscreened long-list. Every director is assessed before they ever appear, and every profile shows the evidence.
Former Group CFO · Listed manufacturing
Audit Committee ready · Mumbai
- Function86
- Industry79
- Board Readiness83
- Post your independent-director openings.
- Search the assessed pool by function, sector and city.
- Shortlist and contact directors directly.
Free for boards. No membership, no fees, no success fee.
Post a board seat, free Search the assessed poolAlready a member? Sign in·How the exchange works
We position your future.
India's C-suite career management platform. With 53,000+ members, the Terminal designs where your career should go next — and discreetly moves you there.
- 01
Your progression, designed.
Upload your profile and receive a career map: the next role, the role after that, and the board seat it unlocks — a sequence, with the gaps named.
- 02
Whisper watches. Around the clock.
Our confidential intelligence engine tracks every seat at your level and every seat that is your next move — and proposes only what advances your map.
- 03
Every pursuit gets its own portfolio.
No generic CV. A bespoke executive portfolio for that board, that mandate, that moment — read by a curator before it leaves.
- 04
Nothing moves without you.
You review and approve. Your name is released only when a shortlist is real and you agree to that specific approach.
Already a Terminal member? Sign in·Browse live mandates
Shaping leadership stories into a visible, trusted brand.
Boards, chairs and search firms look you up before the first conversation. We build the leadership website, LinkedIn and positioning that make sure they find the right story, told the way you would tell it.
Executive website
A distinguished site in your name, from 300 designs or built to order.
LinkedIn review
Headline, About and experience rewritten to one clear positioning.
Positioning
The leadership thesis that ties your story together.
Re-positioning
For the next chapter: board, sector or role transition.
Speaking
Topics, abstracts and, with Royale, active pitching to the right stages.
Three packages: Advantage, Signature and Royale. For CEOs, CFOs and every C-suite role, and for independent directors.
Private career counsel for the Indian C-suite
A career managed the way a fortune is.
A family office does not manage a transaction. It manages capital across a horizon, and reviews it whether or not anything is being bought. Your career is the same asset, and it has never been managed that way.
The India Board Terminal is the engine beneath every member's career. The Apex 100 sits above it: a named Principal who carries one leader's trajectory for the year, and pursues by hand.
Five Circles. One hundred seats each.
- CEOThe CEO CircleA chief executive cannot apply for anything. So the work is done without you applying.100 seats · Admitting
- CFOThe CFO CircleThe only C-suite seat with two futures. Most people plan for one of them.100 seats · Admitting
- CTOThe CIO & CTO CircleEnterprise resilience and engineering ambition. One Circle for the leaders who carry both.100 seats · Admitting
- CHROThe CHRO CircleThe leader behind the leadership. A career that deserves the same deliberate succession planning.100 seats · Admitting
- CMOThe CMO CircleThe shortest tenure in the C-suite. Which makes the standing work matter most here.100 seats · Admitting
- IA referral, or a direct approach
- IIThe application
- IIIThe admission interview
- IVThe Charter
- VThe seat
Every seat begins with a conversation, not a checkout.
The People Behind Every Mandate
Every mandate — finding the one leader who truly fits, placing a director on the right board, steering a CEO through a defining call — is conducted like an orchestra: every discipline, industry and leadership archetype playing in perfect harmony. Executive search is our founding instrument and still leads the score, with interim leadership, advisory, strategy and primary research around it. Our team is our core strength: a bench of 120 CXOs drawn from 20 different industries — and it is what makes Gladwin International India's top C-Suite search and leadership advisory firm.
Widely regarded as India's top CEO search consultant, Anandh leads every Chief Executive and board mandate — and serves as Principal Partner for the firm's CTO, CIO and CHRO practices.
Education: MBA, HR & International Business — Amity University, University of London & New York University
Coverage: Industry agnostic — India / Global searches
India's leading CFO search consultant, Manogna directs the firm's Chief Financial Officer mandates, serves as Principal Partner for the COO practice, and leads Gladwin International's Global CFO Practice.
Education: BE, Computer Science · MBA, Finance
Specialty: CFO hiring for IPO, M&A & JV scenarios
What Our Clients Say
Gladwin International understood our business and culture deeply before presenting candidates. The CEO they placed has driven a 40% revenue growth in 18 months.
Their CFO practice is genuinely best-in-class. They placed our CFO within 6 weeks — an exceptionally well-networked professional who hit the ground running.
The depth of their industry knowledge and the quality of their candidate network is unmatched. They've been our exclusive search partner for 8 years.
I was a strong operator stepping into my first CEO seat. Their advisory helped me see the role through the board's eyes — and land the step-up.
Choosing and preparing my successor was the hardest decision of my career. Gladwin gave the board a clear, unemotional path through it.
When our growth stalled, the instinct was to blame the market. Their read of the real leadership issue changed the entire conversation.
Moving from founder-led to institutional felt like losing control. Their board and leadership advisory made it feel like gaining it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Across Executive Search, our four member platforms, and Leadership Strategy & Advisory.
A typical retained C-suite search runs 45–60 days from briefing to accepted offer: discovery and role scoping (Week 1–2), market mapping and candidate-universe identification (Week 2–3), outreach, qualification and assessment (Week 3–5), shortlist and interviews (Week 5–7), and offer management to acceptance (Week 7–8). CEO and board-level mandates may take 60–75 days. You receive structured weekly pipeline updates throughout, and we do not close a search file until the right leader has actually joined.
It is the most comprehensive placement guarantee in the Indian executive search market. If a leader we place departs voluntarily or is asked to leave within 12 months of joining — for reasons of role fit, cultural alignment, or misrepresentation during the search — we conduct a full replacement search at no additional professional fee. The commitment is written into every engagement letter and applies across search, interim leadership and GCC placements.
Three commitments set us apart: (1) Domain depth — our consultants are former industry practitioners, not career recruiters, with genuine expertise across 20 industries and 16 C-suite functions. (2) The 12-Month Candidate Guarantee — India's longest. (3) Guaranteed Placement — we do not declare a mandate closed until the leader has joined. These are backed by a 50,000+ executive network built since 2010 and over 500 completed C-suite placements.
It is India's independent directors marketplace, a curated layer above the statutory databank. Directors are assessed across function, industry and board readiness, then see upcoming Independent-Director openings across 3,790+ listed companies, each board's governance quality and its sitting fees. Boards search the pre-assessed pool by function, sector and city, see per-axis scores on every profile, and contact directors directly.
The ID Exchange is built around independent-director seats. The Terminal manages a whole C-suite career: a career map designed from your record, Whisper tracking every mandate at your level around the clock, and a bespoke executive portfolio written for each pursuit. Nothing moves without your approval, and your name is released only when a shortlist is real and you agree to that specific approach.
A leadership website in your name, from 300 designs or built to order, together with a LinkedIn review, your positioning, re-positioning for the next chapter, and speaking support. It comes in three packages — Advantage, Signature and Royale — for CEOs, CFOs and every C-suite role, and for independent directors.
The Apex 100 has five Circles — CEO, CFO, CIO & CTO, CHRO and CMO — of one hundred seats each. Admission is by referral and interview, and a named Principal carries one member's trajectory for the year. When a Circle is full, the next application waits for a seat to be vacated; it is never resolved by adding a member.
It is board- and CEO-level advisory for the leadership situations that don't fit an org chart — the stalls, step-ups, pivots and successions where the right call changes everything. Boards and CEOs engage us on company-level situations; individual leaders use our readiness diagnostics and situation library to prepare for and navigate their own C-suite moves. It draws on Gladwin's library of hundreds of real leadership situations.
They are complementary. Business Strategy handles the transaction, the operating model and the structure; Leadership Strategy & Advisory handles the people and governance that have to carry them — the leadership situations, readiness and board decisions. Many engagements draw on both, so the strategy and the leadership to deliver it are set together rather than in isolation.
Yes. The situation library and the board and CEO/CXO readiness diagnostics are open to explore on your own. When a specific call needs an outside partner — a succession, a step-up, a board transition or a leader who has stalled — we move into a confidential, partner-led advisory.