Practice areas
Every search runs the same way: a direct brief, confidential outreach to the people actually worth pursuing, and a shortlist you can act on. Choose the practice closest to the seat you are trying to fill.
Executive Search Firms
Exclusive contingent executive search for VP-and-above leadership, board-level mandates, and founder or CEO transitions.
View practice →Retained Executive Search
Retained executive search for board-critical and multi-role mandates — and a plain guide to when retained is the right model, from a firm whose default is contingent-first.
View practice →CFO Recruiters
Confidential, contingent-first CFO search for companies hiring a finance leader who fits the stage — first CFO, sponsor-backed, pre-IPO, turnaround, or succession.
View practice →Private Equity Search Firm
Contingent-first executive search for private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies — CEO, CFO, COO, and the functional leaders a value-creation plan depends on.
View practice →Tech Executive Search Firm
Confidential, contingent-first executive search for technology leadership — CTO, CIO, VP Engineering, CPO, CISO — and for the executives technology companies need in every function.
View practice →Startup Recruiters
Contingent-first executive search for founders hiring the leaders who define a function — first VP Sales, first VP Engineering, first CFO, first Head of Marketing, COO.
View practice →Executive Headhunters
Confidential executive headhunting for board-sensitive, passive-candidate, and competitor-sensitive leadership searches.
View practice →Sales Recruiters
Contingent sales recruiting for quota-carrying talent and sales leadership, from SDR and AE hires through VP Sales and CRO mandates.
View practice →Marketing Recruiters
Marketing recruiting from content and demand generation specialists to VP Marketing and CMO leadership, with ROI accountability at the center of the brief.
View practice →IT Staffing
Contract, contract-to-hire, and direct-hire IT staffing for technical teams that need candidates beyond a generalist agency pipeline.
View practice →Accounting Staffing
Accounting and finance staffing from AP and AR through Controller-level roles for organizations scaling finance operations or covering an urgent gap.
View practice →Healthcare Staffing
Healthcare staffing across nursing, allied health, and healthcare operations leadership for hospitals, clinics, and systems managing coverage gaps.
View practice →Construction Staffing
Construction labor and skilled-trades staffing, plus construction leadership search, for contractors and developers facing labor shortages.
View practice →About Gaea Arnold
Gaea Arnold is the Executive Search Leader and Founder of Arnold Executive Search. She personally runs every search on this site — the intake brief, the market map, the direct outreach, the shortlist, and the close — with no hand-off to a junior researcher after the first call.
How the engagement works
Heidrick & Struggles / Korn Ferry / Spencer Stuart — retained engagements and multi-month timelines. The right lane for a global CEO search. Not the right lane for a company that needs a contingent-first search moving in weeks.
No up-front retainer, no multi-month intake process, and a twelve-month replacement guarantee on every placement. The search is exclusive, the outreach is direct and confidential, and the person who takes your brief is the person who runs it.