Infrastructure Executive Search Case Studies — Five CXO Mandates in India

Yes, at shortlist stage of an active engagement. Gladwin International's confidentiality policy prevents us from naming past clients in marketing contexts or on public pages, but in the context of an active retained mandate we can arrange a confidential reference conversation with one or two past Chairs or PE sponsors who have agreed to act as references. This happens after the engagement brief and before the candidate-assessment phase. We ask prospective clients to reciprocate the same confidentiality when we subsequently approach them as references for future mandates — this is the professional norm in retained search and it protects every party.

Success is measured on three horizons. At month 3, the candidate has completed a structured integration plan, established operating rhythms with the CEO / CFO / PDs, and signed off on a written 12-month operating plan. At month 12, the candidate is retained in seat, the 12-month candidate-guarantee has not been triggered, and two to four agreed quantitative outcomes (EBITDA, safety, schedule, order book, fund-raising milestones) have been delivered within targeted ranges. At month 24, retention is the primary test — across the Gladwin-placed CEO cohort, 94% are retained at 24 months; across COO and Project Director placements, 91–92%.

Gladwin International does not name retained-search clients, candidates, or specific mandates on any public-facing page — not in case studies, not in testimonials, not on social media. The reason is structural: the entire value proposition to senior candidates and boards is confidentiality, and a single named client on a public page compromises every future mandate. Anonymised descriptors — platform type, revenue band, sector, geography — give readers enough texture to evaluate the substance of the work without creating a confidentiality breach. Named references are available in the context of an active engagement, under reciprocal confidentiality.

The cases on this page are representative of Gladwin-placed CXOs at 18–30 months post-joining — they are neither outlier successes nor downside scenarios. Across the broader 120+ retained CXO mandate base, approximately 70% of placements deliver outcomes in line with the ranges shown here, 15% materially outperform, and 15% underperform (most commonly due to external shocks — commodity cycles, regulatory changes, lender consolidation — rather than candidate selection errors). Gladwin tracks every placement for a minimum of 24 months, and the aggregate data is the basis for our partner-led compensation benchmarks and integration protocols.

If a placed CEO, CFO, COO, or Project Director leaves voluntarily, is terminated for cause, or is found materially unsuitable within the first 12 months, Gladwin International re-runs the search at no additional professional fee — the client covers out-of-pocket research costs only. Across the 120+ retained CXO mandate base in Indian infrastructure, the candidate guarantee has been invoked fewer than 7% of the time, and in roughly half of those cases the re-search placement has been materially stronger than the original. The guarantee is meaningful but not the primary point — the primary point is the five-pattern discipline above, which makes the guarantee rarely necessary.

Confidentiality during an active retained search is operationalised through four controls. A sanitised mandate brief is used for candidate outreach — no client name, only platform type, region, and scale descriptors. NDAs are signed by every longlist candidate before detailed mandate information is shared. An off-limits policy is documented in the engagement letter and enforced internally — Gladwin cannot approach a placed CXO or their direct reports for a defined period. Finally, information-access within the Gladwin team is role-scoped — only the partner and the core research team see the full mandate and candidate data. These controls have held across every mandate on this page.

Yes, and it is one of the highest-leverage outcomes of a well-run retained search. In Case 2 above, two of the three shortlist runners-up were subsequently placed by Gladwin into CEO and CFO roles at adjacent portfolio companies of the same PE fund, over a 9–15 month window. Strong runners-up are, by definition, near-CXO-grade candidates who met 85–95% of the mandate brief but lost on one or two axes. Gladwin maintains an internal runners-up map segmented by sector and role, which is one of the reasons our shortlist build phase for subsequent mandates compresses materially.