HFC Executive Search – Executive Search Agency – Bridging The Gap Between And Candidates

Bridging The Gap Between Clients And Candidates

About HFC Executive Search

Celebrating its 30th Anniversary, HFC Executive Search was founded in 1991 by Edward R. Howe Jr. The firm conducts a wide range of top level national and international searches for both Fortune 500 and private equity backed companies.

Today’s Managing Partners each have more than 20 years of executive search experience, but what makes HFC unique is they also each have more than 15 years of prior industry experience. They understand the issues their clients face and seek candidates that will help them solve them.

•We build sustainable, value-added consultative relationships with our clients

WHY CLIENTS RETAIN HFC EXECUTIVE SEARCH

•We are highly responsive to the client’s hiring needs

•We strive to close 100% of our search assignments

Search Objectives

Demonstrating a thorough understanding of the hiring position, the client’s business and its corporate culture, and providing a well defined search plan.

Committed to providing superior execution on search engagements. Doing things right the first time. Delivering something better than the client expects.

Delivering excellent relationship management where a lead partner serves as the client’s single point of contact. Provide objective insight and advice.

Providing a sense of urgency. Completing the search process with speed and accuracy. Finding the most qualified candidate who matches the client’s needs.

Achieving client satisfaction by consistently placing successful candidates. Understanding the client’s needs and fulfilling those needs in a timely manner. Striving to achieve a client’s repeat search business.

Practices

While the firm is considered a generalist retained search firm, it has conducted senior level national and international searches in several industries:

Board Searches

Boards serve as a proxy for the shareholders of the company. Board members should bring relevant experience and knowledge to their roles, serving as auditors and mentors to the company and its executive team. As auditors, they must ask the probing questions that properly vet a company’s activities and demonstrate independent thinking in the process. As mentors, they must serve as a sounding board, providing honest feedback and encouragement as appropriate. In today’s business environment, company boards have engaged search firms like HFC to handle the board search for three key reasons:

Better pool of candidates
To act as an independent counsel to the Board
To provide a defendable, objective approach to the shareholders if questioned

At HFC Executive Search, we treat Board Searches differently than other assignments.

Board Audit

This is done through an informal questionnaire or discussion to determine who the current members of the Board are. The audit not only gets at their areas of expertise, and the roles they serve on the Board, but at their personality types as well. Using the guidelines of the National Association of Corporate Directors, we identify the gaps on an existing Board.

Define a Profile

Using the results of the Board audit, HFC writes a profile of the desired candidates for the opening or addition to the Board. This profile includes industry knowledge, functional expertise, and track record of accomplishments. It might also identify key areas of knowledge related to challenges the company is facing like streamlining new products development or eliminating material weaknesses or refinancing debt or M&A activity.

Conduct Research to Target Appropriate Candidates

Board searches are a more selective process; it is not a casting call. The objective is to know who to target before reaching out. It is HFC’s job to develop detailed knowledge about the targeted Board candidate and why this position is a good fit for the individual.

Approach Candidates Discreetly

The Board search process should be done with some level of confidentiality so company operations don’t become distracted by the process. HFC approaches each candidate “under a confidentiality cloak” to determine level of interest and to begin acquiring more information on the candidate. For each candidate, HFC will spend 1-3 hours either on a phone interview or in person to gather as much information as possible. In addition, independent research is conducted for each candidate seeking articles published, articles about the individual, and any other relevant material.

Narrowing Down the List

HFC will present a preliminary list of 12-15 candidates to the Nominating Committee with background information on each candidate. The purpose of this step is to engage in a healthy discussion of the candidates that will best serve the Board’s needs.

Presenting the Candidates and Scheduling Interviews

HFC prepares an in-depth review of the 3-5 candidates that it is recommending to the Nominating Committee. In addition, HFC provides the Board with the original profile and list of suggested questions to be used as an interviewing aid. After the interviews, HFC gathers the feedback from each of the interviewers and assembles a report that includes HFC’s recommendation for the candidate to be nominated.

Follow-up

HFC always follows up on a regular basis with both the new Board member and the Chair of the Nominating Committee to ensure successful onboarding.

Management

I.H. "Chip" Clothier

John R. Fell III

Read About Chip And Download His V-Card

I.H.``Chip`` Clothier

Managing Partner

Chip Clothier is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of HFC Executive Search where he has concentrated on filling senior level positions for privately-held and Fortune 1000 companies for 15 years.

Prior to joining HFC Executive Search Chip spent 20 years in a variety of sales and marketing positions in the consumer and B2B industries. He spent a number of years with Nabisco Inc. As part of the executive management team in Nabisco’s Specialty Biscuit Group, Chip was a key player in the successful turnaround of STELLA D’ORO© Cookies and Breadsticks after four years of 10+% annual declines. In the Nabisco Biscuit Sales Group, he established their first venture into B2B and customer marketing. In the Biscuit Marketing Group, Chip was a key player in the development of several new products including the introduction of TEDDY GRAHAMS© Graham Snacks. TEDDY GRAHAMS© spawned a new category of hand-to-mouth bite-size snacks and was Nabisco’s most successful new product introduction to date. Throughout his time at Nabisco, Chip was an active recruiter at America’s top business schools.

Chip also served as Vice President of Marketing and Supplier Development for ShareMax, a B2B supplier of information and consulting services supporting strategic sourcing for global 1000 companies. Chip was responsible for the creation of the company’s marketing plan and the development of ShareMax’s extensive global supplier database.

Prior to attending business school, Chip spent five years in merchandising management for Filene’s in Boston, MA and Strawbridge’s in Philadelphia, PA.

Chip has received numerous awards including the American Marketing Association’s prestigious EDISON Award, Advertising’s EFFIE Award, and Point-of-Purchase Advertising International’s Gold Award. He also has been quoted in publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Ad Age, Brandweek and CFO Magazine; and been interviewed on MTV.

Chip earned a MBA degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where he majored in marketing, organizational behavior, and management strategies. He earned a BA degree in Liberal Arts from Connecticut College in New London, CT.

Previously, Chip served as a member and Chair of the Board of Trustees for The Agnes Irwin School for several years. He also has mentored students at the Fox Business School at Temple University for several years.

Chip and his wife have two adult children and live in Newtown Square, PA.

Download Chip’s V Card

Read About John And Download His V-Card

Search Process

At HFC Executive Search, only partners with many years’ experience conduct the search process from beginning to end. Although each search is unique and requires a flexible, tailored approach we proceed generally as follows:

Phone

If your firm is interested in retaining HFC to conduct a search assignment, click here to initiate an inquiry. If you feel you need attention sooner, please feel free to call the number below. One of our senior partners will get back to you shortly.

610-527-3100
Extension 222

Address

919 Conestoga Road
Building 3, Suite 214
Rosemont, PA 19010

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