Job Placement · Executive & Director+ · Chief Executive Officer
BEG runs a milestone-fee, direct-hire search for chief executive officers, almost always triggered by planned or unplanned succession and owned by the board from the first conversation, not a hiring manager. Fees are billed on search progress, not a single contingency payout, and BEG is not a staffing agency. Average fill time is 23 to 35 days with an 86 percent fill rate.
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TL;DR
Every CEO search starts as a succession event, not a job opening, so BEG's first task is establishing with the board why the seat is actually open, planned succession, an unplanned exit, or a turnaround, before a single name is discussed outside that room. The Tier VI search that follows is confidential and milestone-billed, and it moves at the pace of board meetings and a compensation committee rather than the pace of the market.
The Hiring Problem
The candidates worth having are sitting CEOs or proven number twos who will not respond to a public posting or a cold, unbranded email under any circumstances, so the only door that opens is a confidential, board-sponsored one. That means the pace of the search is set by the board's own calendar and its compensation committee, not by how many resumes come in.
How the Search Runs
BEG runs four stages for a CEO search, and the board’s role in each one is the reason this search cannot be compressed by working faster alone.
| Step | What it requires | Where it stalls |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm the succession mandate | Establish with the board why this search exists, planned succession, an unplanned departure, or a turnaround, before any candidate is approached. | Skip the mandate conversation and the search gets re-scoped halfway through, once individual board members turn out to have different, unspoken theories about why the last CEO left. |
| Build a confidential board-sponsored slate | Assemble a slate of sitting CEOs and proven number twos from larger companies, approached through a confidential, board-sponsored process. | A sitting CEO does not reply to a job posting or a recruiter email from a firm they do not recognize representing a company that is not even named, so building the slate that way produces silence. |
| Vet against strategy and capital allocation | Test each finalist’s fit against the enterprise’s actual strategy and capital allocation decisions, not a general leadership competency list. | General leadership polish gets a finalist through most of the process, and then the board asks a specific capital allocation question this company actually faces, and the answer either holds up or it does not. |
| Close on a board-approved package | Sequence a multi-year compensation package through board approval before the offer is extended, not after a candidate has verbally accepted. | A compensation package floated before the board has formally approved it invites a renegotiation, or a withdrawal, the moment the full board actually sees the number, and the strongest finalist rarely waits around for round two. |
Every one of these four stages runs through the board, the succession mandate, the confidential slate, and finally the compensation package, which is why a CEO search is scheduled around board meetings from the outset rather than fit in around them later.
Milestone Billing Against Contingency
A contingency recruiter is paid to produce a start date, one commission, 20 to 25 percent of first year cash compensation, collected the moment someone begins, regardless of whether the board’s own process was ready. BEG’s Tier VI fee is staged against the search instead, so getting the succession mandate confirmed and the compensation package through the board are paid milestones, not steps a fee structure quietly discourages.
What This Search Costs Against Contingency
Chief executives inside management of companies and enterprises, the industry code this seat itself sits in, earned a $358,310 median in May 2025 source. Twenty percent of that is $71,662, and BEG’s Tier VI fee, $33,440 to $40,128, covers 47 to 56 percent of it, the widest margin BEG prices at this tier. Against the broader $213,990 median for all chief executives, the fee runs 78 to 94 percent instead. Either comparison favors BEG, and the industry-specific one is the more honest read of where this seat actually sits.
Three Ways to Fill the Seat
None of these three options change who ultimately decides, the board does, but they change how the fee is paid and whether the process protects confidentiality from the start. That distinction matters more here than in any other search BEG runs.
| Model | Who employs | How you pay | Right when |
|---|---|---|---|
| BEG direct-hire | The company hires directly, with the new CEO reporting to the board from the first day | The Tier VI fee paid out in stages as the confidential process and the board approvals each clear | The board has a succession event, planned or not, and needs the process to stay confidential until a name is ready |
| Contingency search firm | Also a direct hire reporting to the board, only the invoice timing sets it apart from BEG | One commission, 20 to 25 percent of first year cash pay, collected in full once the new CEO starts | The board has already confirmed the mandate and the compensation range itself and just wants more names |
| Staffing or temp agency | The staffing firm, never the company itself, employs whoever fills the seat temporarily | An hourly rate for as long as the interim arrangement runs | The chair needs to be filled today while the confidential, permanent search is still being built |
None of the three rows above changes the board’s role in the final decision, only how the search is billed and how confidential it stays getting there. The other two seats in this tier are chief financial officer and chief operating officer, or see the full executive and director+ hub.
FAQ
BEG’s CEO searches close in 23 to 35 days on average, with an 86 percent fill rate across active searches. Board approval steps for the final candidate and the compensation package can extend that window regardless of how quickly a confidential slate is built, since the board sets the pace, not BEG.
BEG builds a CEO search around a board-confirmed succession mandate and a confidential, board-sponsored slate, which is where most CEO mis-hires actually start. Ask the board about current guarantee and replacement terms on the intro call, since they are set per search rather than published here.
Because the decision belongs to the board or an owner, not a hiring manager, and the strongest candidates are sitting CEOs or proven number twos who will only engage through a confidential process. The search then waits on the board’s calendar, a search committee and a compensation adviser more than the market.
BEG asks why the search exists, planned succession, an unplanned departure or a turnaround, and who holds final approval, the full board, a search committee or a compensation adviser. Without that clarity, a confidential slate cannot be built against criteria the board will actually sign off on.
Paid only once someone starts, a contingency recruiter is rewarded for speed over the confidential, board-paced process a CEO search actually needs. BEG’s fee is staged against progress instead, so sequencing board approval is part of the job, not a step a fee structure discourages.
A CEO owns the whole enterprise, its strategy, capital allocation and the board relationship, and no other seat holds that relationship. A COO is also a chief executive, but manages the operating model specifically, reporting to the CEO rather than directly to the board.
Not generally. BLS says some employers may require their chief executive officer specifically to be a certified public accountant, and that top executives of large corporations may have an MBA, but neither is a fixed requirement the way extensive managerial experience in the organization’s specialty is.
Chief executives held 291,600 jobs in 2025, projected to reach 300,900 by 2035, a 3 percent increase, with 27 percent of chief executives self-employed. That is a small, slow-growing pool relative to lower executive tiers, part of why a CEO search runs on a confidential slate rather than open applications.
The CFO and COO seats sharing this tier are built the same confidential way: see chief financial officer and chief operating officer, or the full executive and director+ hub.
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