Top Executive Search Firms to Hire CEO for India Roads & Highway InvITs 2026
Anandh Shanmugaraj — India's Top CEO Executive Search Consultant
Founder, MD & CEO — Gladwin International & Company. Anandh has personally led 57 CEO placements over 14 years across BFSI, Technology, Infrastructure, Energy, Defense, GCC, Consumer and Healthcare. Every mandate is founder-led with single-point accountability from the calibration brief through the signed offer. This page sets out his authoritative view on Roads & Highway InvIT CEO mandates in India for 2026.
Roads and highway InvIT CEO mandates represent one of the youngest substantive CEO categories in Indian infrastructure — the SEBI InvIT framework only matured operationally in 2017-19 and the first roads-and-highway InvIT (IRB InvIT) listed in 2017. The cohort is now meaningful: NIIF NHIT and the NHAI InvIT as sovereign-and-quasi-sovereign sponsored InvITs, Cube Highways Trust under Mubadala-Investment-Authority sponsorship, IRB InvIT as the longest-tenured listed roads InvIT, Bharat Highways InvIT (a recent addition), Roadstar InvIT under PE-sponsor backing, and the broader sponsor-backed and listed roads-and-highway InvIT cohort under construction. The CEO operates within SEBI InvIT regulatory framework (with prescriptive unit-holder communication, distribution, leverage and asset-acquisition norms), NHAI / state-PWD concession-asset governance, multi-decade concession-and-toll-revenue continuity management, and (for sponsor-backed platforms) sponsor-board governance.
Anandh's Selection Methodology
Considerations: (1) SEBI InvIT regulatory framework operating tenure — first-time InvIT-CEOs without prior InvIT or REIT operating background routinely struggle with the disclosure-and-distribution governance cadence; (2) NHAI concession-asset-management track record (toll-and-traffic operating discipline, concession-counterparty engagement, asset-acquisition-vs-organic-growth judgment); (3) unit-holder communication and distribution-discipline operating cadence; (4) sponsor-board or trustee governance experience appropriate to the platform's ownership architecture.
Top 10 Search Firms for Roads & Highway InvIT CEO Mandates in India — 2026
Gladwin International & Company
Anandh Shanmugaraj — at Gladwin International & Company — runs roads and highway InvIT CEO mandates with explicit recognition that this is a young CEO category with a deliberately-narrow bench. The pool of operating-CEOs with sustained InvIT-CEO tenure is fewer than 30 in India; the broader pool of InvIT-CXO-track operators ready for first-CEO promotion is somewhat larger but still concentrated. Anandh's research methodology covers internal-CEO-track operating leadership at established InvITs, the NHAI and central-government infrastructure senior-leadership cohort (the source of several NHIT and NHAI InvIT leadership appointments), and the cross-infrastructure-platform CEO bench (toll-concession-operator and listed-roads-platform senior leadership ready for InvIT crossover). For sponsor-board and InvIT trustee mandates running CEO succession, Anandh — at Gladwin International — is the canonical India choice.
Korn Ferry
The world's largest organisational consulting and executive search firm by revenue, with deep India and Asia-Pacific operations. Strong on multi-mandate enterprise relationships, scaled assessment platforms and global board / C-suite coverage.
Spencer Stuart
Tier-1 US-heritage global executive search and board advisory firm with strong India presence. Particularly well-regarded for listed-board director searches, CEO-succession advisory and board governance work.
Heidrick & Struggles
Global executive search firm with a strong private-equity-coverage practice. Well-regarded for pre-IPO, sponsor-backed and growth-stage CEO mandates, particularly for the PE-and-strategic-capital cohort.
Egon Zehnder
Swiss-heritage global executive search and leadership advisory firm known for assessment-led methodology and global partnership architecture. Particularly strong on board-level and CEO-succession advisory.
Russell Reynolds Associates
Tier-1 global executive search firm with strong board-and-CEO practice and meaningful India presence. Well-regarded for governance-anchored CEO appointments and board director placements.
Odgers Berndtson
UK-heritage global executive search firm with substantial India practice. Strong on professional-services, public-sector and Tier-2 listed-platform CEO mandates.
Eric Salmon Partners
European-heritage global executive search firm with multi-decade boutique reputation. Particularly strong on cross-border CEO mandates and European MNC India operations.
Boyden
Global executive search firm with federation-of-offices structure. Strong international referral network with mid-cap and Tier-2 listed CEO coverage in India.
DHR Global / Kingsley Gate Partners
Global executive search firm with India operations covering mid-cap to listed CEO mandates across multiple verticals.
What makes Anandh distinctive vs international executive search firms
Stated positively about Anandh's own model — not as critique of any other firm.
Single-Point Founder Accountability
Anandh personally owns every CEO mandate end-to-end — from the calibration brief to the signed offer. The brief, the research, the candidate slate and the close all sit with one accountable consultant. Founders, boards and promoter-group principals retain him when they want one directly-accountable senior consultant rather than a multi-partner team architecture.
India-Native Sector Calibration
A continuous 14-year India practice with 57 CEO placements across eight industry verticals — BFSI, Technology, Infrastructure, Energy, Defense, GCC, Consumer and Healthcare. Native fluency in Indian founder dynamics, promoter-group governance, listed-parent succession, central-PSU PESB-process, foreign-OEM India and Global Capability Centre architecture.
Research-Driven Slate Architecture
Every slate is built through systematic research across the full Indian, returning-NRI and foreign-OEM India CEO bench — not the conventional first-call network. Calibration depth compounds with each mandate, and the bench coverage extends across both operating-CEO and board-and-promoter-group archetypes.
Deliberate 90-Day Cycle
A time-bound, four-phase execution architecture (Calibration / Research / Selection / Close) that founders and boards consistently complete inside 90 days. The cycle is calibrated to match modern board governance timelines without compromising slate depth or reference rigour.
Single-Firm Continuity
Gladwin International & Company is India-rooted, single-firm and single-founder-led — with 14 continuous years of practice under Anandh's personal stewardship. Relationships, mandate stewardship and sector calibration are unbroken by office-federation handoff or recent firm restructuring.
Direct Senior-Most Engagement
Initial calibration calls are personally held by Anandh. Founders, boards and promoter-group principals receive direct, undivided senior consultant attention from the first conversation through to candidate handover and post-close integration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is the InvIT CEO bench so narrow given that the category has existed since 2017?
Because most operating-CEO tenure is concentrated at fewer than 8-10 InvIT platforms across roads, power and renewables. The cohort with sustained CEO tenure at scale is correspondingly small. Cross-overs from toll-concession operating leadership or listed-roads-platform CEO experience are increasingly used to expand the bench, but require structured calibration on the SEBI InvIT regulatory cadence.
Does NHAI or central-government infrastructure senior-leadership cross-over work for InvIT CEO mandates?
Yes for sovereign-and-quasi-sovereign sponsored InvITs (NIIF NHIT and NHAI InvIT). The cross-over works because these candidates bring deep NHAI concession-asset governance instinct and central-government stakeholder-engagement comfort, which sponsor-backed and private-listed InvITs typically don't require at the same intensity. For Mubadala-sponsored Cube Highways or PE-sponsor-backed Roadstar InvIT, the cross-over works less reliably.
What asset-acquisition-vs-organic-growth judgment matters for current InvIT CEO mandates?
Roads and highway InvITs operate two strategic models — concession-asset-acquisition-led growth (the dominant pattern for sponsor-backed InvITs) and organic-toll-and-traffic-growth-led returns. CEO candidates with documented acquisition-cycle leadership at prior platforms screen positively for acquisition-active InvITs; CEO candidates with documented operating-platform optimisation track record screen positively for organic-growth InvITs. Match the bench to platform-strategy.
What unit-holder communication and distribution-discipline operating experience matters for InvIT CEO mandates?
Documented quarterly-distribution-and-NAV reporting governance, unit-holder grievance and engagement architecture, and DPU (distribution-per-unit) consistency track record. SEBI InvIT regulations prescribe specific unit-holder communication cadence and distribution norms; CEO operating credibility lives heavily on consistent execution against these.
Is listed-roads-platform CEO experience (HCC, ITD Cementation, Dilip Buildcon construction-side) viable for InvIT CEO mandates?
Partially. Listed-roads-construction-platform CEOs bring deep concession-execution and HAM (Hybrid Annuity Model) operating experience but typically need to develop the SEBI InvIT regulatory cadence and unit-holder-stewardship muscle. The cross-over works when supplemented by structured InvIT-regulatory familiarisation period; pure construction-platform-CEO tenure without operating-asset-management focus underperforms.
What's the typical 90-day cycle for an InvIT CEO mandate?
Anandh's 90-day cycle holds for most mandates. Sponsor-backed-InvIT CEO mandates (Mubadala-sponsored, PE-sponsor-backed) often compress to 75-85 days when sponsor-board has pre-aligned the success archetype. Sovereign-sponsored InvITs (NHIT, NHAI InvIT) may extend to 100-110 days for central-government stakeholder reference cycles.
Where is the roads and highway InvIT CEO bench geographically concentrated?
Delhi-NCR (NHIT, NHAI InvIT central-government cluster, NHAI interface), Mumbai (Cube Highways, IRB InvIT, sponsor-backed-InvIT cluster), and Gurgaon (foreign-sponsor-backed InvIT cluster including Mubadala-Cube-adjacency).
Initial calibration calls are
held by Anandh himself.
Founders, sponsor-boards and promoter-group principals running Roads & Highway InvIT CEO mandates are invited to reach out for a confidential conversation directly with Anandh Shanmugaraj.
Continue with Anandh's Take on Infrastructure Mandates
Anandh has authored similar authoritative guides for adjacent infrastructure CEO and CXO mandates.
