TESTIMONIALS

Robin and I have worked together to fill several key leadership roles for the Bezos Earth Fund and Bezos Academy. She is the rare executive recruiter who is excellent at every stage of the process from research to candidate development and assessment and keeping the candidates well informed at every step in the process treating them with the respect and kindness they deserve. She consistently demonstrates her strong ability to identify candidates who most closely match the job profile, using original research and her extensive network. Robin is also a very astute interviewer who truly understands skills, experience, and cultural fit. She has a strong consultative approach, and she is a true partner in every sense of the word. What truly distinguishes her is that she is relentless. She never gives up and keeps trying new avenues for candidates until the search is finished. Her energy on a search never flags. She is one of the best I have ever worked with globally.

I have worked with Robin Schwartz to hire three key executives for RMI. She was instrumental in helping us to hire two Managing Directors to lead major climate change initiatives, as well as our Chief People Officer. I decided to work with Robin because of her previous experience helping a prominent climate change Foundation to hire their Founding CEO. Robin was able to introduce us to highly specialized and very qualified candidates in a short period of time. She also provided valuable insights and consultation throughout the process, enabling us to have very successful outcomes. As a result of the success of these projects, I have recommended Robin to several other NGOs and Foundations. It is critically important that these initiatives have very strong leadership, so that we have the most impact. I believe that Robin shares our values and goals, and that she understands how to identify and attract the best people.

Robin helped us to hire the CEO for Methane Hub. With the goal of catalyzing and coordinating a step-change in global methane mitigation, the Hub has been created to lead the climate and philanthropic communities on work toward dramatic international methane reductions. We partnered with Robin because of her executive search experience in both business and climate change NGOs. I was thrilled at the depth and breadth of the search, the speed at which we carried it out, and Robin’s experience in closing the contract with our candidate. Robin set the tone for our search, demonstrating her commitment, flexibility in working with others and setting the pace.

“Robin felt like a member of our team from day one. It was clear immediately that she had a time-tested methodology for sourcing and engaging with senior talent. When we worked with her to hire one of the early division leaders for Bezos Academy, Robin’s understanding of our mission, culture, and supportive leadership principles helped source a cohort of excellent candidates. As a result of the success of that search, we asked Robin to take on more, and her support helped us to build the strong senior team that we have today. “

I asked Robin to work with Energy Web to help us hire our first Chief Commercial Officer, a position we need to fill due to the growth and success of the company. She was quickly able to identify interesting and qualified candidates who were based in Europe. Energy Web is developing a new and innovative operating system for energy grids, and Robin was able to grasp what we are doing, optimizing her ability to target complementary companies and their executives. Robin has a very logical and common-sense approach to every step of the search project, which enabled her to understand our company, market, and executive position requirements. Throughout the search, she also provided meaningful, balanced feedback on each candidate and on the status of the project, in general. Robin has a very consultative approach, and she builds strong relationships with both clients and candidates. We continue to correspond about Energy Web, other relevant searches that she is working on, and the clean energy market, in general.

I have worked with a variety of Search firms both boutique and established ‘majors’ and Ogilvie is the only firm where I feel totally comfortable that I receive unbiased advice on the role, person specification and the candidates. Ogilvie’s professionalism is often commented on by candidates, including those that are not successful. The high degree of repeat business and recommendations is a tribute to the firm. In my capacity as an Executive in the Tech sector I partnered with them at very different organisations . The European businesses of US enterprise software firms both experiencing high growth and major rebuilds, and UK privately held and VC backed firms. In every case Ogilvie has invested heavily to ensure an in-depth understanding of the business, the company culture and the sector. In my capacity as Chairman and non-Executive Director I have introduced Ogilvie to a number of firms with great success.

I have partnered with Ogilvie for 25 years. I first used them to hire a CEO for the business I had formed and sold. Since then in my capacity as Chairman, investor and board member, I have introduced them to six companies. Ogilvie has successfully recruited key individuals and they have been instrumental in helping these firms to achieve their strategic objectives. In my experience, Ogilvie have an outstanding understanding of their client’s business, the context in which they operate, the organisational challenges and the corporate culture. They are a world class Executive Search firm.

Over the past five years, we have engaged Ogilvie to work on several executive search projects across the globe. They have helped us to hire executives in every area of our business. They drive a process that helps clarify candidate requirements and then work hard to understand our culture and the work environment to make sure they find the best possible fit. They research candidates carefully and provide a fair and accurate assessment before we meet any candidates which makes the process easy and expedient. They listen carefully, speak honestly and always provide thoughtful advice. They are committed to a successful outcome for us and for the candidate which leads to the best possible outcome for all. As a result, we have been able to build an exceptionally strong leadership team across the company that works well together and delivers results.

I have first partnered with Ogilvie 22 years ago and they have been my Search firm of choice since. In my role as CEO and Chairman I have repeatedly used them to hire key members of my management team. Ogilvie offer a unique combination of pragmatism, flair and experience. They are not afraid to challenge the brief and ask the difficult questions that helps clarify the business needs. Over the years they have partnered with me at a start-up venture backed Services firm, a UK listed FinTech software and Services firm, an MBO which was subsequently sold to a leading Indian Services firm where they worked with me to hire key individuals to launch new business streams, a Privately held Services firm where I had taken over as CEO from the founder and most recently at Guralp a PE backed provider of Seismic solutions. Throughout, Ogilvie has shown great flexibility and the ability to grasp the complexities of very different businesses.

Ogilvie has always provided me with an excellent Executive Search service for a number of companies but in particular at Actix where in my capacity as Chief Executive we partnered on a major change programme which included a major upgrade of the management team in Europe, US and Asia-Pac. They understand the evolving needs of growing organisations with its newly created roles and strong cultural requirements. They added huge value in defining the roles and person specifications. I consider Ogilvie as an integral part of my team. I also used Peter Segal as a mentor when I took on the CEO role from the founder having previously been COO. Peter’s wise words have stayed with me and I am grateful for his key part in my development. Since forming a venture firm I have had no hesitation in recommending Ogilvie to firms.

Ogilvie is the one Search firm that consistently delivers high quality and personalized executive recruiting services for our team and company. They understand our business, they understand the level of excellence and expertise we expect and they know how to identify and attract candidates that are ideally suited for the role in consideration. Every candidate is not only highly qualified but also well informed of the opportunity and prepared for discussions. Their partnership with the Executive Recruiter, Hiring Manager/Executive and Candidate throughout the recruiting process, from initial discussion to signed offer letter, is one of deep engagement and professional respect. Their Executive Recruiting expertise has resulted in several key Executive Leadership and Technical Leadership hires for Microsoft.

I have known Ogilvie since 2005 when I was at Microsoft and they helped me find high-caliber talent that was also willing to relocate to Redmond. After joining Amazon, I needed to hire a very senior, highly specialized manager to join our technology team. This role was very difficult to fill and we were at risk of slipping product schedules if we couldn’t get this done so naturally, I engaged Ogilvie. They targeted, and tuned, and iterated on a worldwide search to identify candidates with exactly the right background. Within two months, they had presented us five qualified candidates! We hired and still retain our top candidate.

When it was time to hire our C-level, executive talent, Ogilvie helped us to understand the ideal candidate background for our company for each role. We originally asked Ogilvie to help us hire our VP of Engineering. In less than a month, Ogilvie presented four qualified candidates and we were able to hire our selected candidate. Since that time, we engaged Ogilvie to hire our CMO. We hired the first candidate they presented. Ogilvie has enabled us to attract world-class executives from highly successful companies, who have both startup and large company experience. They have not only identified and attracted qualified candidates, they have also worked with us and with the candidates, to ensure that our selected candidates join Apcera every time. This partnership is a lasting one – we will not hesitate to reach out to Ogilvie for our next critical executive hires.

While working at Microsoft as an Executive Recruiter and Manager of Strategic Recruiting, I relied on Robin as a business partner, to fill unique roles. We worked on at least five projects. We hired very senior Architects and Researchers in multiple areas- Tools, File Systems, Device, MSN Labs etc. These roles were not easy to fill and Robin brought the right engagement, relationship building and assessment skills to enable each hire. I work with very select outside firms and Robin (Ogilvie) is one of two I can always count on. She is a such a trusted advisor, that she was given direct access to the hiring managers. She kept me informed regarding the need to pin point quality talent, and when she presented candidates, her assessment skills were impeccable. I never had to re-screen her candidates, which I frequently do for others. Robin is far and away set apart from her peers in the industry. She knows her business and when we have new (to Microsoft) functions/technologies, she does what she needs to do to ramp up quickly and appropriately. She understands and can influence technologists at any point in the recruiting cycle. I would recommend Robin to any of my clients, knowing she is a superior representation, for clients, candidates and the industry as a whole.

Working with Ogilvie was a pleasure and an education from start to finish. Peter Segal started our engagement by really making sure that he understood our business and what our needs were, and in turn that we understood what he thought the market could offer and where we might find the best match. Throughout the process, he was agile and responsive to our needs, evolving the search as our requirements developed and we all learned more from the process. Peter worked diligently and exhaustively, going down every possible avenue to ensure we found the best candidate for our needs. His wisdom on what worked and what to watch out for, his experience of seeing patterns that had played out before, and his incisive questioning to get to the core of any issue were all integral to ensuring that we took the right decisions at the right time – and for the right reasons. The Ogilvie search process was deeply human and engaging from start to finish, with the result that we made an exceptional hire who is already helping us drive our business forward.