EXECUTIVE SEARCH · ATLANTA

Executive Search in
Atlanta

Senior leadership for the United States' payments, logistics and consumer-brand capital. Retained CEO, COO and CFO mandates across fintech, media, aviation, CPG and the broader Southeast operating economy.

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

Atlanta-grade rigor. India-based cost structure.

Atlanta retainers are quoted at a discount to coastal benchmarks, but the absolute number for a payments or aviation CEO search is still substantial — particularly where the brief calls for cross-border read-across. Our retainer is meaningfully lower because our research desk and senior partners operate from India. The output discipline is the standard a Southeast board would apply to any retained firm.

Proof

Senior partner on every search

The named partner runs the longlist, the approach and the offer; nothing is delegated to a coordinator after the brief.

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 — we do not buy lists or rent third-party sourcing pods.

Typically 30–45% lower retainer than equivalent Buckhead or Midtown boutiques

Two Tracks

How a Atlanta-anchored mandate runs

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

India → Atlanta payments leadership

For Indian-origin payments, IT-services and consumer-products groups operating from Atlanta, and for Atlanta-headquartered platforms running Indian product or delivery centres, leadership has to read both an Indian operating cadence and the South-East corporate culture. Our practice has built a deep cross-border bench for that lane.

Payments-and-fintech literacy — leaders credentialed at scheme, processor and merchant-acquiring scale
GCC-aware mandates — Atlanta HQs running Indian product, delivery and shared-services centres
Returning-diaspora pool — senior India-origin operators inside US payments, IT-services and CPG
Cross-border governance — listed-parent disclosure plus US subsidiary board cadence

Discuss a cross-border mandate

Atlanta local leadership hiring

For an Atlanta-headquartered payments, logistics, media, aviation or CPG business, the search is anchored in the genuine Atlanta peer set. Compensation comparators are calibrated against South-East listed and headquartered peers, and the talent map names the institutions people actually move between rather than a coastal average.

South-East peer-set calibration — comparators built off Atlanta-headquartered listed and family-owned platforms
Payments and processor leadership — chief executive, chief revenue and chief technology mandates
Logistics-and-3PL depth — chief operating, chief commercial and chief technology roles
CPG and beverage leadership — Southeast-anchored consumer leadership across the spirits, snacks and household-goods clusters

Discuss a local Atlanta mandate

What We Search

C-suite roles we search in Atlanta

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 Atlanta

Payments & Fintech
Scheme, processor and merchant-acquiring leadership — Atlanta is the United States' anchor metro for the payments industry.
Logistics & Supply Chain
Parcel, freight, third-party-logistics and last-mile leadership — Atlanta is a primary US logistics-headquarters cluster.
Media & Telecom
Cable, broadcast, news and converged-network leadership — Atlanta hosts the headquarters of multiple national media and telecom operators.
Aviation & Air Transport
Carrier, airport and air-services leadership — Atlanta's aviation footprint includes the world's busiest commercial-aviation hub.
Beverage, Snacks & Consumer-Brand HQ
Headquarters-side leadership for global consumer-brand groups whose corporate centres sit in Atlanta and the broader Southeast.
Healthcare Services & Health-IT
Hospital-network, post-acute and health-IT leadership — chief operating, chief medical and chief financial mandates across the Atlanta cluster.
Real Estate & REITs
REIT, real-estate private-equity and operating-platform leadership headquartered in or anchored by Atlanta.
Industrial & Building Products
Building-products, industrial-distribution and engineered-products leadership across the Southeast manufacturing belt.

Market Context

Why leadership hiring in Atlanta is different

Atlanta is the operating capital of US payments. The scheme, processor and merchant-acquiring industries cluster here at a density no other US metro matches, and we maintain a separate talent map for that ecosystem because the comparator set, the regulator perimeter and the talent flow are unlike the rest of the city's leadership economy.

The logistics, aviation and consumer-brand sectors form the second anchor. Atlanta's airport-anchored logistics cluster, its concentration of Southeast-headquartered consumer-brand groups, and its national broadcast and cable presence produce a distinctive multi-sector leadership market that we calibrate sector by sector, not as a single regional pool.

For Indian-headquartered groups, Atlanta is the most important US gateway for payments, IT-services and BPO leadership. The senior India-origin operator pool here is unusually deep across product, delivery and operations, and we have spent years tracking who is genuinely cross-border versus who is simply Atlanta-resident.

TIME ZONE

ET (UTC−5 / −4 DST)

PRIMARY REGULATORS

GA DOI, FAA, FCC, SEC

ANCHOR SECTORS

Payments, Logistics, Media, Aviation, CPG

TALENT FLOW

Bidirectional with Indian payments, IT-services and BPO

COMP CURRENCY

USD — cash-and-bonus weighted, modest equity component

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 Atlanta mandates

Archetype attributions — never real names, never real companies.

“We needed a head-of-product for the merchant-acquiring side who could sit inside an Indian listed-parent governance cycle and a US scheme-rules conversation in the same week. The slate had three operators we knew, two we should have known, and one outside Atlanta who was the eventual hire.”

Group CTO archetype · India-listed payments group · Atlanta US subsidiary

A US-subsidiary head-of-product appointment for an India-listed payments parent.

“Our previous firm built slates around recognisable names. This team built the slate around the operating problem we had described. The placed CFO has been the difference between an audit committee that asks for re-runs and one that signs off the same evening.”

Lead Independent Director archetype · Atlanta-listed logistics platform · Southeast

A divisional CFO appointment inside a multi-modal logistics platform.

“The retainer was honestly the entry point but the cross-border read kept us in the conversation. We are now on a third mandate with the same senior partner.”

Group CHRO archetype · Listed CPG group · Atlanta HQ with India delivery centres

A senior commercial-leadership appointment inside an Atlanta-headquartered CPG group.

FAQs

Frequently asked — executive search in Atlanta

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

Most retained mandates close in 95–120 days. Payments and aviation CEO and COO searches sit at the longer end of that range; CFO and divisional searches typically close inside ten to twelve weeks.

Yes. Payments leadership — scheme, processor, merchant-acquiring and B2B-payments — is the practice's largest single segment in Atlanta, with a separately maintained talent map and dedicated senior-partner coverage.

Yes. For Atlanta-headquartered payments, IT-services or BPO platforms running Indian product, delivery or shared-services centres, we routinely run a single search whose slate spans both geographies, with one senior partner accountable for the whole map.

Our retainer is typically 30–45% lower than equivalent Buckhead or Midtown boutiques. The structure is identical — a flat fee billed in three tranches across the search — and we share the schedule before any work begins.

Either, at the client's election. India-headquartered groups usually invoice INR against the parent entity; US-domiciled Atlanta clients invoice USD against the local entity.

Yes. Aviation leadership — carrier, airport and air-services CXO mandates — is a distinct segment with its own talent map. The same senior partner can run aviation or payments mandates, with separate research-desk specialism on each.

No. Gladwin International is an independent retained search firm with its own research desk and partner bench. We do not act as a sub-contractor and do not share candidate data with any global retained firm.

If the placed candidate departs the role within twelve months of start date for reasons other than a board-led restructuring, we re-run the search at no additional retainer. The guarantee runs from start date.

Engage

Brief us on a Atlanta-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.