Which firms specialise in the role we are hiring for?
Executive Search by Role: What The Shortlist Report Finds
5 firms lead, appearing in 76.4–85.5% of 55 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.
Korn Ferry47 of 55
Conducts CEO, C-suite, board, and leadership assessment searches for large global organizations.
Spencer Stuart47 of 55
Conducts CEO, board, and senior C-suite searches for large enterprises and succession planning.
Heidrick & Struggles45 of 55
Conducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large companies and PE-backed organizations.
Russell Reynolds Associates44 of 55
Conducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large public companies and financial services.
Egon Zehnder42 of 55
Executive search for CEO succession, board work, and leadership assessment across global enterprises.
Based on 55 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected August 11, 2026–August 19, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.
The ranking
| Firm | Responses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 5 firms, 76.4–85.5% | |||
| Korn Ferrykornferry.comConducts CEO, C-suite, board, and leadership assessment searches for large global organizations. | 47 of 55 | 85.5% | |
| Spencer Stuartspencerstuart.comConducts CEO, board, and senior C-suite searches for large enterprises and succession planning. | 47 of 55 | 85.5% | |
| Heidrick & StrugglesConducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large companies and PE-backed organizations. | 45 of 55 | 81.8% | |
| Russell Reynolds Associatesrussellreynolds.coConducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large public companies and financial services. | 44 of 55 | 80.0% | |
| Egon Zehnderegonzehnder.comExecutive search for CEO succession, board work, and leadership assessment across global enterprises. | 42 of 55 | 76.4% | |
| Tier 2 2 firms, 43.6–43.6% | |||
| Christian & Timberschristianandtimbers.comSpecializes in CTO, product, and technology leadership searches, having placed 800+ product and technology leaders. | 24 of 55 | 43.6% | |
| Cowen Partnerscowenpartners.comRetained executive search active in CFO, CRO, sales officer, and senior HR/C-suite placements including PE-backed companies. | 24 of 55 | 43.6% | |
| Tier 3 5 firms, 14.5–23.6% | |||
| TrueConducts executive search for technology, growth, and PE/VC-backed companies. | 13 of 55 | 23.6% | |
| Daversa Partnersdaversapartners.comServes venture-backed and growth-stage technology companies, particularly when building executive teams during rapid scaling. | 12 of 55 | 21.8% | |
| CFO Searchcfo-search.comConducts CFO recruitment searches on retained, contingency, and hybrid bases, reporting 500+ CFO placements since 2008. | 9 of 55 | 16.4% | |
| Odgers Berndtsonodgersberndtson.comConducts global C-suite, functional leadership, and CFO searches across listed companies, PE, and nonprofits. | 9 of 55 | 16.4% | |
| Bespoke Partnersbespokepartners.comConducts CTO and VP Engineering searches for private-equity-backed software and SaaS companies. | 8 of 55 | 14.5% | |
Key findings
- No firm answers “Which firms specialise in the role we are hiring for?” reliably in ChatGPT. The most-named, Korn Ferry, appeared in 47 of 55 responses (85.5%) collected August 11, 2026–August 19, 2026, and 4 other firms scored close enough that the sample cannot put any of them in order.
- Korn Ferry, Spencer Stuart and Heidrick & Struggles were named most often, in 45–47 of 55 responses. All 5 firms in the leading group are listed with their counts in the table below.
- 12 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “Which firms specialise in the role we are hiring for?” in ChatGPT as of August 19, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- Spencer Stuart appears in 7 of the 7 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 Korn Ferry, Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates and Egon Zehnder, named in 42 to 47 of the 55 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 Christian & Timbers and Cowen Partners, named in 24 to 24 of 55 responses (43.6–43.6%). 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 3 holds True, Daversa Partners, CFO Search, Odgers Berndtson and Bespoke Partners, named in 8 to 13 of 55 responses (14.5–23.6%). 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 55 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: Korn Ferry, Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds Associates and Egon Zehnder. They appear in 76.4–85.5% of the 55 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.
86 firms were named at least once across the sample. 12 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–August 19, 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). Executive Search by Role: What The Shortlist Report Finds. The Shortlist Report. https://www.shortlistreport.com/article/executive-search-by-role
Underlying counts: CSV · JSON. Every answer they were counted from: plain text · JSON. All reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.