Board level executive search for construction sits at the top of the same retained process I run for every senior appointment: mapped and researched properly, approached directly and confidentially, handled personally from brief to placement. It covers Managing Director, Chief Executive, Chief Operating Officer and group board appointments, along with the director-level roles that feed a board over time. The field is small, the best people are rarely on the open market, and discretion is not optional.
Board Appointments
The appointments a board makes about itself.
The board appointments I handle
Managing Directors, Chief Executives and board-level appointments: the leaders who set strategic direction and drive business performance. Chief Operating Officer appointments, and group board appointments across contracting, development and infrastructure businesses.
Around them sit the director-level appointments that feed a board over time: Commercial Director, Project Director, Operations Director, Pre-Construction Director and Managing Quantity Surveyor.
The same retained process, run more quietly
The stages do not change: brief and market definition, market mapping, direct approach, assessment and shortlist, then offer, close and onboarding. What changes at board level is the scale of the field and the sensitivity of the conversation.
A board search is usually confidential on both sides. The business may be restructuring its leadership without wanting that read across the market, and the person worth appointing is almost certainly in post somewhere else. Nothing is advertised. No profile is sent out on spec. Every approach is made personally.
The shortlist is small by design, four to six, each with a written appraisal covering capability, motivation and risk, including the reservations as well as the strengths. At board level the reservations are the part that earns the fee.
Why sector credibility decides the shortlist
Method is only half of it. A consultant who has never priced a package, managed a final account or stood on a complex programme will struggle to judge whether a leader can deliver rather than simply interview well. That gap shows fastest at board level, where the differences between plausible people are subtle.
I am a qualified Quantity Surveyor who worked as a Commercial Manager at Sir Robert McAlpine before moving into search. Senior people take the call because the conversation is credible, and a board gets an assessment from someone who has done a version of the job rather than read a specification back.
Board succession, before the seat is empty
Board-level succession planning is a typical mandate, and it is usually the better place to start. Mapping who could hold a seat before one falls vacant gives a business real options, and it removes the pressure that produces rushed appointments.
That work sits under succession planning; the market and pay evidence behind it sits under talent advisory.
Common questions
Which board-level roles does Lechley recruit?
Managing Director, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Executive and group board appointments, alongside the director-level roles that report into them: Commercial Director, Project Director, Operations Director and Pre-Construction Director.
How is a board search kept confidential?
Every approach is made personally and confidentially, with nothing advertised and no details sent out on spec. That protects the business, which may be restructuring a board without wanting the market to know, and the leader, who is usually in post elsewhere.
What does a board-level search cost?
Retained search is typically charged as a percentage of the appointed leader's first-year total package, invoiced in stages across the assignment. My fee is 22.5%, agreed in full at the outset with no variation later.
Is board-level succession planning part of this?
Yes. Board-level succession planning is a typical mandate, and it is often the better starting point: mapping who could hold a board seat before one falls vacant gives a business options it does not have under time pressure.
Start a conversation
If your board is short of a capability rather than a headcount, that is worth an hour of conversation before it becomes a search. No hard sell, no obligation.