What are the best executive search firms?
The Best Executive Search Firms: What The Shortlist Report Finds
5 firms lead, appearing in 99.1–99.1% of 235 AI responses. The sample cannot separate them, so we do not pretend it can.
No clear leader
No single firm dominates this question. Five come up regularly and they specialise in different things, so the firm worth calling is the one that fits your situation rather than whoever sits highest.
Egon Zehnder233 of 235
Executive search for CEO succession, board work, and leadership assessment across global enterprises.
Heidrick & Struggles233 of 235
Conducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large companies and PE-backed organizations.
Korn Ferry233 of 235
Conducts CEO, C-suite, board, and leadership assessment searches for large global organizations.
Russell Reynolds Associates233 of 235
Conducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large public companies and financial services.
Spencer Stuart233 of 235
Conducts CEO, board, and senior C-suite searches for large enterprises and succession planning.
Based on 235 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected August 11, 2026–October 1, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.
Which firm for which industry
9 of the 15 firms named an industry in the way ChatGPT described them, and they are grouped below in those words. A firm that named several industries appears under each of them, so the groups add up to more than 9. This is a reading of the descriptions rather than a second measurement — the counts, and every firm, are in the table.
Healthcare & life sciences
- DHR Global
Conducts board and C-suite searches with broad financial-services coverage across banking, capital markets, PE/VC, and insurance.
- WittKieffer
Specializes in executive search for healthcare, higher education, and mission-driven organizations.
- Odgers
Conducts executive searches for nonprofits, associations, social-impact organizations, and healthcare/life-sciences providers, pharma, biotech, and healthtech.
- Diversified Search Group
Conducts nonprofit, education, healthcare and mission-driven organization leadership searches.
- JM Search
Conducts CEO, CFO, COO searches for private-equity-backed and middle-market companies.
- Caldwell
Executive search with HR/CHRO expertise and diversity metrics tracking across sectors.
Nonprofits
- WittKieffer
Specializes in executive search for healthcare, higher education, and mission-driven organizations.
- Odgers
Conducts executive searches for nonprofits, associations, social-impact organizations, and healthcare/life-sciences providers, pharma, biotech, and healthtech.
- Diversified Search Group
Conducts nonprofit, education, healthcare and mission-driven organization leadership searches.
- JM Search
Conducts CEO, CFO, COO searches for private-equity-backed and middle-market companies.
Education
- WittKieffer
Specializes in executive search for healthcare, higher education, and mission-driven organizations.
- Diversified Search Group
Conducts nonprofit, education, healthcare and mission-driven organization leadership searches.
- JM Search
Conducts CEO, CFO, COO searches for private-equity-backed and middle-market companies.
Financial services
- Russell Reynolds Associates
Conducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large public companies and financial services.
- DHR Global
Conducts board and C-suite searches with broad financial-services coverage across banking, capital markets, PE/VC, and insurance.
SaaS & technology
- True
Conducts executive search for technology, growth, and PE/VC-backed companies.
- Daversa Partners
Serves venture-backed and growth-stage technology companies, particularly when building executive teams during rapid scaling.
The ranking
| Firm | Responses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 5 firms, 99.1–99.1% | |||
| Egon Zehnderegonzehnder.comExecutive search for CEO succession, board work, and leadership assessment across global enterprises. | 233 of 235 | 99.1% | |
| Heidrick & StrugglesConducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large companies and PE-backed organizations. | 233 of 235 | 99.1% | |
| Korn Ferrykornferry.comConducts CEO, C-suite, board, and leadership assessment searches for large global organizations. | 233 of 235 | 99.1% | |
| Russell Reynolds Associatesrussellreynolds.coConducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large public companies and financial services. | 233 of 235 | 99.1% | |
| Spencer Stuartspencerstuart.comConducts CEO, board, and senior C-suite searches for large enterprises and succession planning. | 233 of 235 | 99.1% | |
| Tier 2 stands alone | |||
| TrueConducts executive search for technology, growth, and PE/VC-backed companies. | 197 of 235 | 83.8% | |
| Tier 3 3 firms, 62.1–68.5% | |||
| ZRG PartnersConducts C-suite and functional executive search for mid/large and PE-backed companies. | 161 of 235 | 68.5% | |
| DHR GlobalConducts board and C-suite searches with broad financial-services coverage across banking, capital markets, PE/VC, and insurance. | 155 of 235 | 66.0% | |
| WittKiefferwittkieffer.comSpecializes in executive search for healthcare, higher education, and mission-driven organizations. | 146 of 235 | 62.1% | |
| Tier 4 2 firms, 46.0–51.9% | |||
| Odgersodgers.comConducts executive searches for nonprofits, associations, social-impact organizations, and healthcare/life-sciences providers, pharma, biotech, and healthtech. | 122 of 235 | 51.9% | |
| Boydenboyden.comConducts confidential senior executive searches, especially mid-market and international. | 108 of 235 | 46.0% | |
| Tier 5 2 firms, 28.5–31.9% | |||
| Diversified Search Groupdiversifiedsearchgroup.comConducts nonprofit, education, healthcare and mission-driven organization leadership searches. | 75 of 235 | 31.9% | |
| JM Searchjmsearch.comConducts CEO, CFO, COO searches for private-equity-backed and middle-market companies. | 67 of 235 | 28.5% | |
| Tier 6 2 firms, 12.3–12.8% | |||
| Caldwellcaldwell.comExecutive search with HR/CHRO expertise and diversity metrics tracking across sectors. | 30 of 235 | 12.8% | |
| Daversa Partnersdaversapartners.comServes venture-backed and growth-stage technology companies, particularly when building executive teams during rapid scaling. | 29 of 235 | 12.3% | |
Key findings
- No firm answers “What are the best executive search firms?” reliably in ChatGPT. The most-named, Egon Zehnder, appeared in 233 of 235 responses (99.1%) collected August 11, 2026–October 1, 2026, and 4 other firms scored close enough that the sample cannot put any of them in order.
- Egon Zehnder, Heidrick & Struggles and Korn Ferry were named most often, in 233–233 of 235 responses. All 5 firms in the leading group are listed with their counts in the table below.
- 15 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “What are the best executive search firms?” in ChatGPT as of October 1, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- Egon Zehnder appears in 7 of the 9 executive search firms reports published by The Shortlist Report, the widest coverage of any firm named on this page.
- No firm paid to appear in this ranking; placement cannot be bought, and the counts come from ChatGPT responses rather than from submissions.
Why the tiers fall where they do
Tier 1 holds Egon Zehnder, Heidrick & Struggles, Korn Ferry, Russell Reynolds Associates and Spencer Stuart, named in 233 to 233 of the 235 ChatGPT responses. They are grouped rather than ranked because the gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size — one extra mention would reorder them, so an order would be reporting noise as a finding.
Tier 2 holds True, named in 197 to 197 of 235 responses (83.8–83.8%). The sample does separate this firm from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts it in a tier of its own.
Tier 3 holds ZRG Partners, DHR Global and WittKieffer, named in 146 to 161 of 235 responses (62.1–68.5%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 4 holds Odgers and Boyden, named in 108 to 122 of 235 responses (46.0–51.9%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 5 holds Diversified Search Group and JM Search, named in 67 to 75 of 235 responses (28.5–31.9%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 6 holds Caldwell and Daversa Partners, named in 29 to 30 of 235 responses (12.3–12.8%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 235 responses for every firm. The full reasoning, and what happened when we ranked one-to-N instead.
What the sample shows
5 firms lead this question: Egon Zehnder, Heidrick & Struggles, Korn Ferry, Russell Reynolds Associates and Spencer Stuart. They appear in 99.1–99.1% of the 235 responses. The gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size, so they are listed together rather than ranked against each other.
41 firms were named at least once across the sample. 15 of them cleared the threshold of 2 responses and appear above; the rest were named once and are inside the noise.
How to read this
Firms are grouped into tiers, not ranked one to fifteen. A tier holds every firm whose 95% confidence interval overlaps the leader's, which is a long way of saying the sample cannot tell them apart. Order within a tier is arbitrary — read the counts, not the position.
Share is the percentage of responses that named the firm — not a quality score. A firm scoring low here may be excellent and simply under-written about online, which is a finding about its visibility rather than its work.
The same question was asked repeatedly because AI assistants do not answer identically twice. A single response would tell you almost nothing.
What this measurement does not tell you
- It is not a quality ranking. Share reflects how much has been written about a firm online, which is what an AI assistant reads. A capable firm nobody writes about scores low here.
- It is a reading from a date range, not a permanent standing. This sample was collected August 11, 2026–October 1, 2026; models change and so do their answers.
- It covers ChatGPT only. Other assistants answer differently, and we do not extrapolate across engines we have not measured.
- Order within a tier is arbitrary. Read the counts, not the position. Why we use tiers.
Cite this report
The Shortlist Report. (2026). The Best Executive Search Firms: What The Shortlist Report Finds. The Shortlist Report. https://www.shortlistreport.com/article/best-executive-search-firms
Underlying counts: CSV · JSON. Every answer they were counted from: plain text · JSON. All reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.