EXECUTIVE SEARCH · BRISBANE

Executive Search in
Brisbane

Senior leadership for Queensland's mining-services and agribusiness capital — ASX-listed resources HQs, the Brisbane-anchored critical-minerals and energy-transition cluster, and the post-AI-ECTA Queensland-India infrastructure pipeline.

Brief Us On A Mandate See Our Process

120+

CXO Mandates Closed

Last 24 months, global

94%

On-Shortlist Retention

After first slate

95–120 Days

Time-to-Placement

Typical retained mandate

12 Months

Candidate Guarantee

Replacement included

Cost Structure

ASX-grade rigour. India-based cost structure.

Our research desk and senior partners operate from India, so our retainer carries a different overhead curve to a Brisbane CBD or Newstead boutique. The output you see — the calibration memo, the slate, the assessment dossiers, the partner who runs the search — is the same as you would receive from a global retained firm. The economics are not.

Proof

Senior partner on every search

The named partner runs the longlist, the approach and the offer construction — the work is never quietly delegated to a coordinator.

Proof

12-month replacement

If the placed candidate departs in the first twelve months, we re-run the search at no additional retainer.

Proof

No outsourced research

The talent map is built in-house by our research desk; we do not buy lists or rent offshore sourcing pods.

Typically 30–45% lower retainer than equivalent Brisbane CBD or Newstead boutiques

Two Tracks

How a Brisbane-anchored mandate runs

Two operating tracks for two distinct mandate types — chosen at the calibration stage, not after.

India → Brisbane leadership hiring

For Indian-headquartered groups establishing or scaling a Brisbane presence — a critical-minerals joint venture, an agribusiness platform, an infrastructure-construction subsidiary, or an ASX-listed Queensland-industrial holding entity — leadership has to read INR-AUD economics and the APRA-ASIC-DMIRS perimeter from week one. We hire executives who already operate between Mumbai, Bengaluru and Brisbane, and who understand APRA, ASIC, ASX continuous-disclosure obligations and Queensland's state-level mining and agribusiness regulators.

Cross-border governance — ASX continuous-disclosure, APRA supervision and SEBI dual-track readiness
Returning-diaspora benches — senior India-origin operators currently inside Brisbane mining-services, agribusiness and infrastructure platforms
Time-zone discipline — Queensland does not observe daylight saving, so AEST stays 4.5 hours ahead of IST year-round (unlike Sydney/Melbourne which shift to 5.5 hours during DST); cadence is the most predictable in eastern Australia
Currency and treasury fluency — INR-AUD corridor pricing, hedging programmes and transfer-pricing posture

Discuss a cross-border mandate

Brisbane local leadership hiring

For a Brisbane-domiciled business — an ASX-listed mining-services group, a Queensland agribusiness platform, an infrastructure-construction holding entity, or a Brisbane-CBD-anchored corporate — we run a city-anchored search. Compensation benchmarks, regulator history and the hyperlocal reputational graph are calibrated against the Brisbane market itself, not a broad ANZ average.

Hyperlocal calibration — comp benchmarks built off ASX-listed and Brisbane-domiciled peer comparators
Regulator-aware shortlists — clean APRA, ASIC, ASX and Queensland state-level histories validated, not assumed
Greater-Brisbane talent flow — bench across the Brisbane CBD, Fortitude Valley, Newstead, South Brisbane, and the Bowen Basin commercial hinterland
Sector specialism — mining services, agribusiness, infrastructure, energy, healthcare, logistics, tourism, education

Discuss a Brisbane mandate

What We Search

C-suite roles we search in Brisbane

CEO / Managing Director

CFO

CHRO

CTO / CIO

CMO

COO

CRO (Revenue)

Chief Strategy / Legal Officer

Chief Product Officer

Board & Non-Executive Director

Sectors we serve from Brisbane

Mining-Services HQ
Brisbane is the head-office capital of Australian mining-services — the city hosts the corporate centres of the country's largest engineering, drilling and integrated-services groups serving the Bowen Basin and the wider Queensland resources economy.
Agribusiness
Agribusiness, food-processing and integrated-agriculture leadership — Queensland is Australia's most diversified agribusiness state by export composition and a critical Asia-Pacific food-supply node.
Tourism HQ
Tourism-group, integrated-resort and hospitality-platform leadership — Queensland's tourism economy is one of Australia's two largest by direct GVA contribution.
Resources & Energy
Coal, gas and integrated-resources leadership — Queensland is one of Australia's two primary export-commodity states and the operating centre for several global LNG export complexes.
Construction & Infrastructure
Construction-group, integrated-infrastructure and EPC-platform leadership — Queensland's infrastructure pipeline includes the largest single state-level infrastructure programme in Australia ahead of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.
Healthcare
Hospital-operator, integrated-healthcare and aged-care leadership — anchored by Queensland's consolidating private-healthcare provider cohort.
Logistics
Ports, freight-forwarding and integrated-logistics leadership — anchored by the Port of Brisbane and the Queensland north-coast supply-chain corridor.
Education
Higher-education, K-12 and integrated-education leadership — Brisbane's international-student-anchored education economy is a state-significant export sector.

Market Context

Why leadership hiring in Brisbane is different

Brisbane is the head-office capital of Australian mining-services and one of the country's two largest agribusiness export economies. Senior appointments inside ASX-listed mining-services groups, infrastructure-construction holding entities and agribusiness platforms read against ASX continuous-disclosure obligations and Queensland's state-level mining and agribusiness regulators. We treat that distinction as a search input from the calibration memo onwards. The brief reflects whether the role sits inside the ASX-listed perimeter, the privately-held Queensland-industrial economy, or the state-level infrastructure-delivery pipeline ahead of 2032.

The talent flow into and out of the city is increasingly bidirectional with Mumbai, Bengaluru and Singapore — particularly post-AI-ECTA, where Queensland critical-minerals and agribusiness exporters are scaling their India-corridor commercial functions. The senior India-origin operator pool inside Brisbane mining-services and agribusiness platforms is concentrated in CFO, Group COO and commercial-leadership roles. For Indian-headquartered groups, that returning-diaspora bench is often the fastest route to a credible Brisbane leader.

Compensation in Brisbane is structured around cash plus LTI equity vesting under AASB-compliant governance — and senior infrastructure-delivery roles often layer programme-completion bonuses tied to the 2032 Olympics build-out into the offer. Post-employment restrictive covenants under Australian employment law sit inside the offer calibration, not after it.

TIME ZONE

AEST (UTC+10, no DST)

PRIMARY REGULATORS

APRA, ASIC, ASX, Queensland state-level

ANCHOR SECTORS

Mining-Services HQ, Agribusiness, Infrastructure, Resources

TALENT FLOW

Bidirectional with Mumbai, Bengaluru, Singapore (post AI-ECTA)

COMP CURRENCY

AUD — cash + AASB-compliant LTI; completion bonuses on infrastructure roles

The Process

Six steps. One discipline.

Our process is calibrated for Brisbane's mining-services-HQ, agribusiness and infrastructure-delivery economy — including ASX continuous-disclosure obligations, Queensland state-level mining-and-agribusiness governance, and the multi-stakeholder reality of the 2032 Olympics infrastructure pipeline.

Mandate Calibration

We read the operating cadence between your headquarters and the markets the leader will serve, then convert the brief into a written calibration memo with the success measures the slate will be judged against.

Week 1

Talent-Map Build

Our research desk constructs a city-anchored talent map covering incumbents at the role plus high-potential next-rung candidates. The map is shared before approach begins, so you see which lanes we hunt and which we skip.

Weeks 1–2

Targeted Approach

A senior partner approaches the longlist personally, off-platform, with the same discretion the role itself will demand of its eventual holder. We never publish the search.

Weeks 2–4

Assessment & Calibration

Each candidate is evaluated against the calibration memo. Structured references and a written assessment dossier are shared with your selection committee — no candidate enters the slate without one.

Weeks 4–7

Slate & Selection

We present a five-name shortlist with a slate ranking, an attempt-to-hire view, and the trade-offs we would accept or reject ourselves. The committee meets the slate; we do not.

Weeks 6–9

Offer & Onboarding Bridge

We carry the offer construction, manage the resignation runway, and stay engaged through the first hundred days. The 12-month replacement guarantee runs from the candidate's start date.

Weeks 8–12+

From The Boardroom

What clients say about Brisbane mandates

Archetype attributions — never real names, never real companies.

“We needed a Group CFO who could hold a Mumbai operating committee and a Brisbane mining-services audit committee in the same week, in the same register. The slate carried four operators we should already have known and one we did. The hire is from the four; nine months in, the cadence between the two boards is finally working.”

Group CFO archetype · ASX-listed mining-services group · Brisbane

A cross-border CFO mandate covering an Indian-listed parent and its ASX-listed Brisbane-domiciled subsidiary.

“What earned the engagement was the calibration memo. The partner had written down the things our nominations committee was carrying privately about the role's accountability scope — the boundary between ASX-listed parent governance and the Queensland state-level operating reality — in language none of us had quite used. By the time we briefed candidates, the conversation in the boardroom and the conversation with the candidate were the same conversation.”

CEO archetype · Queensland agribusiness group · Brisbane

A first-time-professional CEO appointment at a Brisbane-headquartered agribusiness platform.

“The economics drew us in; the work is the reason we are running the next mandate with them. The senior partner ran the offer construction personally — the AUD package, the LTI roll-forward, and the infrastructure-delivery completion-bonus structure tied to a 2032-pipeline programme — and the candidate accepted first time.”

COO archetype · Infrastructure-construction group · Brisbane

A Group COO appointment for a Brisbane-headquartered infrastructure-construction holding entity.

FAQs

Frequently asked — executive search in Brisbane

Answers to the questions boards most often ask before retaining a search partner for a Brisbane-anchored mandate.

Most retained CXO mandates close in 95–120 days from calibration to signed offer. We have closed urgent CFO searches in eight to ten weeks where the brief was tight and the nominations committee moved on slate-day; complex CEO and infrastructure-delivery searches can run sixteen weeks where ASX continuous-disclosure timelines, Queensland state-level approvals or LTI-vesting analysis extend the offer cycle.

We charge a flat retainer billed in three tranches across the search. The structure mirrors what a global retained firm would quote, but the absolute number is typically 30–45% lower than equivalent Brisbane CBD or Newstead boutiques — a function of our India-based research desk, not a discount on quality. We share the fee schedule before any work begins.

We invoice in AUD, INR or USD at the client's election. Australia-domiciled entities typically invoice in AUD against the local entity; Indian parents often prefer INR billing against the holding company. The retainer structure is identical across currencies.

Yes — that is one of the two operating tracks the practice is built around. The calibration memo names the talent lanes we will hunt in both geographies, and a single senior partner runs both streams so the slate arrives as one shortlist, not two.

Yes. We treat the ASX RegCo perimeter and Queensland state-level mining and agribusiness regulators as search inputs from the first conversation. Each candidate's regulatory history is validated through structured references and public-record review before they enter the slate, and the offer is structured to anticipate registration timelines rather than collide with them.

If the placed candidate leaves the role within twelve months of start date for any reason other than a board-led restructuring, we re-run the search at no additional retainer. The guarantee runs from start date, not signed offer, so the onboarding window is genuinely covered.

No. Gladwin International is an independent retained search firm with its own research desk, partner bench and intellectual property. We are not a sub-contractor to any global retained firm and do not share candidate data with one.

Yes — that is one of our highest-priority mandate categories in Brisbane. The brief and the slate are calibrated for the multi-stakeholder delivery reality, with attention to programme-completion accountability, state-and-federal governance posture, and the senior India-origin operator bench inside global infrastructure-EPC platforms.

Engage

Brief us on a Brisbane-anchored mandate

Conversations are confidential, partner-led, and carry no obligation to retain. A senior practice partner reviews every enquiry personally and responds within four business hours.