EXECUTIVE SEARCH · DUBLIN

Executive Search in
Dublin

Senior leadership for the EMEA-headquarters capital of US tech and pharma — the regulatory pivot point for Central Bank of Ireland-supervised asset management, the world's largest aviation-leasing cluster, and the principal English-language Eurozone bench for Indian-headquartered tech and pharma groups.

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

IFSC-grade rigour. India-based cost structure.

Our research desk and senior partners operate from India, so our retainer carries a different overhead curve to an IFSC or Silicon Docks 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 IFSC or Silicon Docks boutiques

Two Tracks

How a Dublin-anchored mandate runs

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

India → Dublin leadership hiring

For Indian-headquartered groups establishing or scaling a Dublin presence — an EMEA tech-HQ, a Central Bank of Ireland-authorised UCITS or ETF platform, a pharma-manufacturing operations centre, an aviation-leasing platform or a fintech-licensed entity — leadership has to read INR-EUR economics and the Central Bank of Ireland perimeter from week one. English-as-business-language makes Dublin one of the most accessible Eurozone gateways for Indian-headquartered groups.

Cross-border governance — Irish DAC / PLC architectures, Central Bank of Ireland oversight and SEBI dual-track readiness
Returning-diaspora benches — India-origin executives over-represented at Dublin EMEA tech HQs and pharma-manufacturing platforms given the engineering pipeline
Time-zone discipline — Dublin shares London's working day; an Indian board cycle and a Dublin operating cycle run in parallel without time-zone friction
Currency and treasury fluency — INR-EUR corridor pricing, hedging programmes and Irish transfer-pricing posture (12.5% corporate tax architecture)

Discuss a cross-border mandate

Dublin local leadership hiring

For a Dublin-domiciled business — an Iseq-listed corporate, a Central Bank of Ireland-authorised asset manager, a Silicon-Docks EMEA tech-HQ, a pharma-manufacturing operations centre or an IFSC-anchored fintech — we run a city-anchored search. Compensation benchmarks, regulator history and the hyperlocal reputational graph are calibrated against the Dublin market itself, not a broad EU average.

Hyperlocal calibration — comp benchmarks built off Iseq-listed and greater-Dublin-domiciled peer comparators
Regulator-aware shortlists — clean Central Bank of Ireland, FCAOI and Euronext Dublin histories validated, not assumed
Greater-Dublin talent flow — bench across the IFSC, Silicon Docks, Sandyford and Cherrywood
Sector specialism — EMEA tech HQ, pharma manufacturing, asset management & ETF servicing, aviation leasing, fintech, insurance

Discuss a Dublin mandate

What We Search

C-suite roles we search in Dublin

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 Dublin

EMEA Tech HQ
EMEA-headquarters-side leadership for global US-origin technology platforms — Dublin is the largest concentration of EMEA tech-HQ leadership in the Eurozone.
Pharma & MedTech Manufacturing
Pharma-manufacturing, biologics and MedTech operations leadership — Ireland is the largest concentration of pharma manufacturing density per capita in Europe.
Asset Management & ETF Servicing
UCITS, ETF, alternative-fund and fund-servicing leadership — Dublin is the largest cross-border UCITS and ETF servicing cluster globally.
Aviation Leasing
Aircraft-leasing and aviation-finance leadership — Dublin hosts the largest concentration of aircraft-leasing platforms in the world.
FinTech & Payments
Central Bank of Ireland-licensed fintech and payments-platform leadership — anchored by the IFSC fintech cluster and Silicon Docks.
Insurance — Cross-border EU Passporting
EU-passported insurance, reinsurance and bancassurance leadership — Dublin is a principal Eurozone domicile for cross-border insurance underwriting.
Banking & Capital Markets
Central Bank of Ireland-supervised wholesale-banking and capital-markets leadership — anchored by IFSC-domiciled and Dublin-licensed institutions.
Media & Telecommunications HQ
Media-group, telecommunications and broadcasting leadership — anchored by Dublin-listed and Dublin-domiciled platforms.

Market Context

Why leadership hiring in Dublin is different

Dublin is one of a small number of cities where leadership hiring is a regulator-aware exercise from the first conversation. Every senior appointment in Central Bank of Ireland-supervised banking, asset management or insurance is read against the CBI's fitness-and-probity regime and the CSDR perimeter for fund servicing — and Iseq-listed corporates carry continuous-disclosure obligations on senior appointments. We treat both as search inputs from the calibration memo onwards.

The talent flow into and out of the city is bidirectional with London, Mumbai and Bengaluru. India-origin executives are over-represented at Dublin EMEA tech HQs and pharma-manufacturing platforms given the deep engineering and life-sciences pipelines flowing through Indian universities. For Indian-headquartered groups, that returning-diaspora bench is often the fastest route to a credible Dublin leader, particularly for tech-HQ, pharma-operations and fintech mandates.

Compensation in Dublin is structured around fixed cash plus RSU equity, with the 12.5% corporate tax architecture and Ireland's status as an EU passporting hub shaping the broader expat-leadership economy. Irish employment-law restrictive covenants and the Central Bank of Ireland fitness-and-probity cycle sit inside the offer calibration, not after it.

TIME ZONE

GMT / IST (UTC+0 / +1 DST)

PRIMARY REGULATORS

Central Bank of Ireland, FCAOI, Euronext Dublin

ANCHOR SECTORS

EMEA Tech HQ, Pharma Mfg, Asset Mgmt, Aviation Leasing

TALENT FLOW

Bidirectional with London, Mumbai, Bengaluru

COMP CURRENCY

EUR — fixed cash + RSU equity (12.5% corporate tax)

The Process

Six steps. One discipline.

Our six-step retained search process is the same across every location — what changes is the talent map and the cultural lens. We start by understanding the operating cadence between your headquarters and the markets the leader must serve.

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 Dublin mandates

Archetype attributions — never real names, never real companies.

“We needed an EMEA Operations VP who could read a Mumbai operating committee and a Silicon-Docks staff-meeting in the same week, in the same register. The slate carried four operators we should already have known about and one we did. The hire was from the four; nine months in, the cadence between the Indian engineering organisation and the Dublin EMEA HQ is finally aligned.”

Group COO archetype · India-origin SaaS group · Mumbai → Dublin mandate

A cross-border EMEA Operations VP mandate covering an Indian-origin SaaS parent and its Dublin EMEA HQ.

“What earned the engagement was the calibration memo. The partner had written down the disagreement the board was carrying privately about the role's Central Bank of Ireland fitness-and-probity scope, in language none of us had used yet. By the time we briefed candidates, the regulator conversation was the same conversation as the candidate conversation.”

Board Chair archetype · Iseq-listed asset manager · Dublin HQ

A Group CEO appointment at a Dublin-headquartered Iseq-listed asset-management 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 EUR package, the RSU roll-forward and the Central Bank of Ireland fitness-and-probity timeline — and it landed first time.”

Group CHRO archetype · Pharma-manufacturing operations platform · Dublin

A Site GM appointment at a Dublin-anchored pharma-manufacturing operations platform with India linkages.

FAQs

Frequently asked — executive search in Dublin

Answers to the questions boards most often ask before retaining a search partner for a Dublin-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 board moved on slate-day; complex CEO and board-level searches can run sixteen weeks where Central Bank of Ireland fitness-and-probity approval timelines or RSU 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 IFSC or Silicon Docks 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 EUR, INR or USD at the client's election. Ireland-domiciled entities typically invoice in EUR; 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 Central Bank of Ireland fitness-and-probity (PCF / CF1) perimeter as a search input 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 — Dublin EMEA tech-HQ leadership and pharma-manufacturing site-GM mandates are two of our densest categories in Ireland. The brief and the slate are calibrated for the cross-border parent-subsidiary reality — for tech HQs, the Indian-engineering ↔ Dublin-EMEA balance; for pharma, the Site-GM ↔ Mumbai-India-operations balance.

Engage

Brief us on a Dublin-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.