SPECIALIZING IN FINDING THE BEST HIGH-TECH & MIS EXECUTIVES, AND BRINGING THEM TO YOUR TABLE.®
A January 2008 study found that "28 percent of executives plan to retire between ages 61 and 65" and another "12 percent plan to retire before age 60." In 2008, the average executive is 59, and top executives (CEOs, GMs, CxOs, VPs, Operations Managers) "held about 2.1 million jobs in 2006." As many as 840,000 top executives—40% of 2.1 million—are at their planned retirement age now or will be retiring within 2 – 6 years.1 For Aerospace/Defense scientists and engineering leaders, about 50%—as many as 241,000 across three leading firms alone—are eligible to retire in the next five to 10 years.2
"When hiring key personnel, executive search firms are most effective...Remember those 'A' candidates you were hoping to attract? They are going over to those 'A' clients who are paying the full fee." ~ NEHRA column, Jan. '06
"The single biggest operational issue we [a world-renowned executive search firm] have is the off-limits issue, because it prevents us from going after a lot of the best and the brightest. The more business we get, the more talent is blocked for us." ~ quote in 7/05 Fortune Magazine
Even in our tenth year, Faircastle Technology Group still solves these problems for our clients.
With a combined 59 years dedicated to high tech executive search, Faircastle delivers where others disappoint.
"We compared Faircastle's retained executive search services to [an incumbent, top-ten, multinational search firm with over $250 million in billings and 60+ offices worldwide] based on three categories of importance: 1) industry experience and connections, specifically within finance, our top vertical market; 2) agency specialization; and 3) service. We chose Faircastle. President & founder Ann Rice Banno is extremely proactive and we enjoy working with her knowing that she will always be driving a project. She also takes the time to get to know the position and the people she's working with on the placement. Faircastle Technology Group can guarantee us very rapid responses."
"Faircastle conducts new research for each position they take on. They are not using a static database that gets updated periodically as the same people move in and out of companies and industries like the databases kept by many large search firms. This enables Faircastle to bring clients the new players and up-and-comers in addition to the people who have been in the game for a great length of time."
"Faircastle is a small firm with a specialization in conducting all kinds of searches within the fields of technology and consulting. Ann has personally placed many people with the GartnerGroup in a wide variety of positions."
"In terms of service, there really is no comparison. Faircastle has offered our company a level of service that we have not seen from any other group."
ANN RICE BANNO, Faircastle's President and founder, personally has recruited numerous technology career executives, including 17 GartnerGroup Research Directors, eight of whom are still there a decade later. They now are: two VP/Gartner Fellows, two VP Distinguished Analysts, three Managing VPs and one Research VP, in 7 different locations nationwide.
Gartner chose all seventeen industry technologists—out of vendor companies—for full interviews after being qualified completely via phone interviews, without ever having met Ms. Banno face-to-face. This and other techniques enable Faircastle to collapse the interview timeline, eliciting a much higher return on the time our clients spend interviewing, while maintaining superior results.
Many technologies in the list below were at one time new areas for Faircastle, now in its tenth year. We succeed in every search we accept, especially where other firms have failed or declined to do the search. The executives we place have spent their careers with leading high technology companies in areas such as:
Management, scientific, and technical consulting services
1. Sources of Data, Quotes: Gray Hair Management 2007 Executive Retirement Survey; National Bureau of Economic Research; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
"When Faircastle accepts a search, it first learns the client business to an extraordinary degree, including business model, competitors, financials, and company culture. Faircastle thus becomes a very effective advocate in a competitive search. The vetting process is thorough, well documented, and the results excellent. Ann herself is intelligent, frank, funny, professional, and hard working. After being a ‘searchee,’ it was doubly entertaining to see her in action later recruiting others for us."
"Ann placed me at Gartner Group in 1994. A conscientious & hardworking recruiter, she took me from initial contact to moving cross-country to starting work in under 6 weeks."
"Ann did an outstanding job in recruiting me from Microsoft to Gartner Group. I felt very confident that I had the right information going through the hiring process, and that I had a very capable supporter in Ann. It was equally clear that she had effectively presented me to Gartner. Her knowledge and expertise, professionalism and proactive style made her a pleasure to work with."
"Faircastle helped place me with Digital Island (became Cable & Wireless). They did an outstanding job, providing excellent advice while I worked through two competing offers. I definitely recommend them and would work with them again."
"Ann did a wonderful job on my behalf promoting and introducing me to the hiring Vice President at the Gartner Group. I subsequently received a generous offer of employment."
FAIRCASTLE ® TECHNOLOGY GROUP's associates have a proven track record in retained, executive recruiting. C-level and VP-level positions for niche-technology vendors, Fortune 500s and start-up firms include the following:
CTO, CIO, CISO
CMO, COO, CFO
GM, EVP, SVP, SALES/MARKETING/B.D.
EVP, SVP, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT, ENGINEERING
EVP, SVP, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & MANAGEMENT
EVP, SVP, CUSTOMER CARE
I.T. & BUSINESS STRATEGY CONSULTING PARTNERS
We become extensions of your company. By quickly understanding your history, goals, current business practices and people, we pinpoint exacting descriptions of your search requirements, and then stick to them. We ascertain all the hard and soft issues: roles, expectations, education, professional experience, career objectives, compensation, personality, culture fit, and -- what you don't want.
We succeed where contingency or larger retained search firms have disappointed or failed. We do not limit our efforts to "the usual suspects," the people we know or those in our database (though our knowledge base is quite strong), only those "not off-limits" or primarily those "already looking," the way most search firms do.
Faircastle Technology adheres to the highest ethical standards originally established by the Association of Executive Search Consultants: We will not recruit or cause to be recruited any individual from within any subsidiary, division, department, etc. of a client for a period of two (2) full years. We resist the current industry recommendations which allow for eliminating "off-limits" terms altogether.
Our Associates have a combined 59 years exclusively in High Technology executive recruiting. 85% of our associates' prior track record has been in placing C-level and VP-level executives in high technology firms; the other 15% has been for F500 IS/CTO executives. Over 60% of that work has been repeat business.
Faircastle's President and founder, Ann Rice Banno, is hands-on throughout all your search efforts. Most firms, even small boutique firms, establish client relationships via a high-level partner, then hand off the majority of the work to lesser-experienced associates.
With virtually no off-limits roadblocks and no public stakeholders' cost- and service-cutting demands to address, we deliver what contingency and other larger retained firms cannot.
WHY FAIRCASTLE and not contingency firms?
Faircastle Technology does:
quickly research and contact a large number of potential candidates, rather than a small pool of "usual suspects." We are nimble enough to speak with hundreds of candidates per search in several weeks' time.
have the time and technology industry expertise to combine speed with higher quality, delivering solidly closer-fit candidates, saving clients unnecessary prescreening time and preventing wasted interview time.
seek out those busy executives who are not soliciting new opportunities, who are higher-caliber matches precisely because they are superior contributors where they are now.
submit candidate resumes to multiple clients simultaneously.
limit your search primarily or solely to those already looking for a new position.
interview candidates only after our clients screen their resumes. (We help our clients by screening candidates in formal interviews designed specifically for each client and search.)
require our clients to do reference checking or salary negotiations in isolation. (We provide additional objective assessment and thoughtful input for both clients and candidates throughout the entire search process.)
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Faircastle ® Technology Group, LLC. FAIRCASTLE ®, PERSONAL RADAR ®, and "Specializing in finding the best High-Tech & MIS Executives, and bringing them to your table"® are registered trademarks of Faircastle Technology Group, LLC; Copyright ® 1999-2009. All Rights Reserved. See full copyright notice under Personal Radar.
