Functions We Recruit For
Executive Leadership
The Challenge:
In your family business, “who’s in charge” isn’t always obvious. Founders stay involved. Family shareholders sit on the board. The next generation may be eager to lead—but their role isn’t always clear. Titles like CEO or President only go so far when authority depends on earning trust across the ownership, board, family, and employees. Without clarity, even the most talented leaders can struggle.
The Solution:
We help you define the real mandate of executive leadership in your business—clarifying who owns, who operates, and who decides. Through thoughtful advisory and targeted recruitment, we identify leaders with the strategic chops to chart a path forward—and the humility and relational intelligence to unite diverse stakeholders around that path.
Finance
The Challenge:
Your finance leader isn’t just watching the numbers—they’re managing risk, enabling strategy, and often serving as a key bridge between your business and your family. But legacy systems, family-controlled budgets, and multigenerational goals can make that balancing act difficult. You need someone who understands the business today—and the family’s vision for tomorrow.
The Solution:
We help you recruit financial executives who bring both technical expertise and personal discretion. Through a combination of advisory insight and tailored search, we find candidates who can manage complexity with confidence—serving as trusted stewards of both enterprise value and family trust.
Human Resources
The Challenge:
Your company puts people first—and it shows. Long-tenured employees, deep community ties, and a sense of loyalty define your culture. But as your business evolves, so must your talent strategy. The challenge is how to modernize HR systems without losing what makes your business special.
The Solution:
We help you identify HR leaders who understand the unique DNA of a family business. Our process focuses on finding professionals who can build structure without creating bureaucracy—and who lead with empathy through succession, growth, and change.
Operations
The Challenge:
You’ve built your business on doing things the right way. But as markets shift and customer demands evolve, yesterday’s strengths can become tomorrow’s bottlenecks. Operational leadership in a family business must honor legacy while preparing for what’s next.
The Solution:
We help you recruit operations leaders who modernize without tearing down. Builders—not bulldozers—who bring the credibility to lead on the floor and the fluency to influence in the boardroom. We combine hands-on guidance with disciplined search to ensure your next operations executive is ready to carry your business forward.
Information Technology
The Challenge:
Your company faces the same cybersecurity threats, digital disruption, and platform decisions as any large corporation—but with added complexity. Legacy systems, lean teams, and understandable caution can slow progress. And in a family business, change can’t just be smart—it has to be trusted.
The Solution:
We help you find IT leaders who can earn that trust. Professionals who respect your history, but know how to future-proof it. With an advisory lens and a curated search approach, we bring forward candidates who can manage risk, communicate clearly, and drive transformation—at a pace that fits your business.
Legal and Governance
The Challenge:
Legal leadership in your business isn’t just about compliance—it’s about family dynamics, ownership transitions, and governance structures that endure. The decisions your legal counsel makes can have real emotional weight, especially when family and business overlap.
The Solution:
We help you clarify what legal leadership means in your context—whether you need in-house general counsel, an external advisor, or a governance specialist. Then we recruit individuals who combine legal rigor with personal integrity—people who can navigate complexity with clarity and keep your family, your values, and your business aligned.
Stranberg’s Approach
Getting executive search and selection right requires thoughtful planning and a more sophisticated approach than many traditional executive search firms can offer. If the role, values and expectations are poorly defined, no number of resumes will deliver the desired result—regardless of how qualified the candidates are.
Stranberg can help your family business find and place its ideal Executives by considering the whats before searching for the who.
Before embarking on an executive search, we’ll learn about your values and philosophy and work with you to craft a position description that aligns with your needs and long-term goals. Once you have clarity on what’s needed from the role, we will help you find an internal or external candidate who meets your specific needs. After placement, we will collaborate with your team to integrate your new Executive into the business through a structured process that fosters trust and alignment.
Here’s how we work:
01
Define what your organization needs from its financial executive
02
Find who is most qualified to fill the role, whether internal or external
03
Ensure alignment through structured processes and continued support
OUR TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESS
Case Studies
The Client: Automotive Supplier
The Problem: A multigenerational family-owned business needed a new CFO with a CPA and experience in public accounting. The CFO would need to have the character traits necessary to “speak truth to power” and thrive in the organization’s culture. Further, any selected candidate would need to commit to the family organization for the rest of their career without any long-term incentive or transparency in variable compensation.
The Solution: Stranberg helped the organization define the role and their expectations, then leveraged their expertise to sell the opportunity to qualified candidates. The search was successfully completed in early 2023.
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The Client: Manufacturing Company
The Problem: A fourth-generation family company needed succession planning support for their long-tenured CFO, who had built deep credibility within the family, and with employees, customers, and business partners. The project ran under confidentiality while the incumbent prepared to announce his retirement and required management of an internal candidate vying for the position.
The Solution: Stranberg built out a robust candidate pool and worked with the family, incumbent CFO, and board to map out a process that aligned with their timeline and high standards. The search was successfully completed in late 2018.
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Testimonials
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“From the start of the process to the result of finding an exemplary candidate, working with Stranberg has been a first-class experience. From executing the agreement for the search, outlining critical success factors for the position, and interviewing candidates, we could not have been more pleased with the communication, quality and result of this executive search. The candidate hired is now our chief financial officer and we expect he will be a part of the AriensCo executive team for many years to come. Working with Jim and Bill Stranberg has been a pleasure, as they are both personable, professional and experts in the field of executive searches.”
Dan Ariens
CEO, AriensCo
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“I had the privilege of working with Bill and his team on our recent search for a chief financial officer. Their deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities presented by family-owned businesses made them invaluable partners. Bill’s rigorous talent assessment cut through the noise, helping us identify a CFO who not only meets our requirements but also complements our company culture. I highly recommend their services for any company serious about securing top-tier talent.”
Mike Clover
President, Lacks Enterprises
How to Get Started
When it comes to Executive search and selection, the stakes are high. Our holistic succession planning process was designed to help family businesses find executives who have both the competency fill the role, and the temperament and values needed to ensure cultural alignment.
Contact a Stranberg succession planning expert to learn how our approach can help ensure you’re ready to attract your new Executive and retain them over the long term.
Are You Ready to Attract and Retain Top Talent?
Find out if you’re ready to hire a family or non-family executive to fill your open leadership role by completing our free, online succession planning assessment.
Completing the assessment will help you clarify the requirements, goals and success factors before you embark on an executive search and hiring process.
