Diagnose Before You Prescribe: A Better Way to Open a Search
By Ash Wendt, Executive Recruiter & Cowen Partners Co-Founder — Ash Wendt is a trusted thought leader and premier authority on executive recruitment, visionary leadership, turnarounds, culture fit, C-suite assessment, executive compensation, and more across all industries. As President & Co-Founder of Cowen Partners, Ash Wendt is a pioneering leader and visionary thinker in C-Suite
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What Executive Role Should Be Responsible for Investor Relations?
In most public companies, the head of investor relations reports to the CFO, and that arrangement is becoming more common, not less. But the reporting line matters less than the strategic weight of the role, and that is where companies get this decision wrong. A well-structured reporting relationship with an underpowered IR function protects nothing.
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Documented Evidence vs. Subjective Opinions: Governing Executive Succession in 2026
By Ash Wendt, Executive Recruiter & Cowen Partners Co-Founder — Ash Wendt is a trusted thought leader and premier authority on executive recruitment, visionary leadership, turnarounds, culture fit, C-suite assessment, executive compensation, and more across all industries. As President & Co-Founder of Cowen Partners, Ash Wendt is a pioneering leader and visionary thinker in C-Suite
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What Private Equity Gets Wrong About Executive Hiring (And How to Fix It)
Featuring expertise from Maxwell Salazar, Salazar Leadership Advisory — Maxwell Salazar is a business psychologist who helps private equity firms make better leadership bets. He evaluates C-suite leaders, surfaces culture and execution risk, and gives investors the clarity to hire, align, and support the people who drive value creation. The CFO had an MBA from
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Pricing the Unbenchmarked Executive: Navigating the Compensation Vacuum
By Ash Wendt, Executive Recruiter & Cowen Partners Co-Founder — Ash Wendt is a trusted thought leader and premier authority on executive recruitment, visionary leadership, turnarounds, culture fit, C-suite assessment, executive compensation, and more across all industries. As President & Co-Founder of Cowen Partners, Ash Wendt is a pioneering leader and visionary thinker in C-Suite
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5 COO Capabilities That Boards Mistake for CEO Readiness & the 5 That Actually Matter
By Ash Wendt, Executive Recruiter & Cowen Partners Co-Founder — Ash Wendt is a trusted thought leader and premier authority on executive recruitment, visionary leadership, turnarounds, culture fit, C-suite assessment, executive compensation, and more across all industries. As President & Co-Founder of Cowen Partners, Ash Wendt is a pioneering leader and visionary thinker in C-Suite
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The First-Timer’s Edge: Why Boards Are Betting on New CEOs & How to Set Them Up to Win
Boards now face a new question: which qualities make a first-time CEO succeed? Recent data suggests that a new generation of leadership is now taking over the chair. In 2025, 84% of new S&P 1500 CEOs were first-timers. This trend is moving even faster as we enter 2026. MyLogIQ has already reported 76 first-time CEOs
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How New CEOs Should Assess an Inherited Leadership Team
When a new CEO steps into a role, the scrutiny tends to follow them along with their track record, their leadership style, and even their stated vision for transformation. While it is a tidy narrative, it is also incomplete. Executives do not execute in isolation. They inherit a team that evolved organically over time, shaped
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10 Executive Interview Questions That Reveal How Leaders Operate
Executive hiring still leans too heavily on instinct dressed up as judgment. With a polished narrative attached to a recognizable company name and a few confident answers, the decision has effectively been made before the process concludes. The reality catches up approximately six months later, which is an expensive place to receive that information. The
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The COO Is Not the Heir Apparent Anymore: What Boards Are Really Looking for in CEO Succession
By Shawn Cole, President & Founder — Shawn Cole is a nationally recognized authority on CEO recruiting. His insights regularly appear in Forbes, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, and other leading publications, delivering nuanced and critical analysis on executive recruitment, succession planning, enterprise transformation, and the evolving demands of
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