Executive Search, Recruitment & Selection

Hiring a senior municipal leader is one of the most important decisions a Council or organization will make, and one of the hardest to get right.

A great match isn't just about qualifications on paper. It's about culture, chemistry and shared values. A strong working relationship between a senior leader and an organization depends on genuine fit, not just credentials, and genuine fit is rarely found by matching a résumé to a job description. Our approach to Executive Search is built around finding that fit.

We Don't Post and Wait: We Go Find the Right Person

Traditional recruitment often starts and ends with a job posting. We take a different approach.

Rather than waiting for candidates to come to us, we go find them, drawing on decades of relationships built across local governments across BC. Many of the strongest candidates for a senior municipal role aren't actively job hunting; they're excellent leaders who need to be identified, approached and thoughtfully matched to the right opportunity.

Our extensive network across Metro Vancouver municipalities, senior local government professionals and related sectors means we're often able to identify strong candidates that a conventional posting would never reach.

Understanding Your Organization First

Before we look for candidates, we take the time to understand your organization: its culture, its challenges, its Council dynamics, its history and where it's headed. Effective matching starts with genuinely understanding the environment a candidate will be stepping into, not just the job description.

We then go into our network with a clear picture of who will actually succeed in your organization, not just who meets the minimum qualifications.

Using AI to Strengthen the Match: Not Replace the Judgment

Ferrero Forward Consulting uses AI as a professional tool to support the search and matching process, not to replace human judgment. Our approach combines decades of municipal hiring experience with AI-assisted analysis to evaluate compatibility between candidates and organizations across factors like leadership style, organizational culture, career trajectory and past performance in similar environments.

This includes an optional candidate-fit dashboard, giving clients a clear, evidence-based view of how well each candidate is likely to align with your organization, supporting, not substituting for, the final decision that always rests with you.

Few consulting firms in local government are applying AI this way. We believe it's one of the clearest ways clients benefit from the same principle behind all of our pricing: technology should make the work faster and sharper, without ever compromising the quality of the outcome.

Our Process

• Understand your organization's culture, priorities and Council/leadership dynamics
• Develop a candidate profile grounded in genuine fit, not just qualifications
• Search our network, not job boards, to identify strong, often passive candidates
• Screen and evaluate candidates using both professional judgment and AI-assisted fit analysis
• Present a shortlist with a clear picture of each candidate's likely fit and success factors
• Support the interview and selection process, with the final decision always resting with the client

Why Ferrero Forward?

We've hired senior municipal leaders ourselves, and we've been the candidate on the other side of that process. We know that the best hire isn't always the most impressive résumé. It's the person who will thrive in your organization's specific culture and challenges.

With deep roots and an extensive network across Metro Vancouver local government, combined with a thoughtful, AI-supported approach to matching, we help you find not just a qualified candidate, but the right fit.