Article
The Leadership Launchpad: ensuring a successful leadership start in multicultural teams
What it takes for a new leader to land in a team whose norms, expectations and working styles differ from their own.
Riemer Ike Fokkema
Executive search Leadership integration
Senior appointments,made once.And landed properly.
We partner with boards, CEOs and investors in appointing senior leaders and scarce experts across technology-driven industries, and can support their integration once they arrive.
Contact a partnerOur approach ↓Searches across the Netherlands, Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.
500+successful appointments
5 daysto initial market map
Partner-ledfrom mandate to impact
The Lumen partner-led approach
You can replace a leader. You cannot replace the time.
In technology-driven businesses, a mis-hire costs far more than the search fee. It can lead to delayed milestones, missed customer commitments, setbacks in industrialisation and a gradual loss of investor confidence. By the time the impact becomes visible, the organisation may already have lost the one asset a board can never recover: time.
The Lumen partner-led approach is built to get the match right the first time. Where time to impact matters, the Leadership Launchpad accelerates a new leader’s landing.
Why and which search partner
Two questions worth asking before you appoint us.
Why not do it internally?
For most hiring, a strong internal team is the better choice. A senior role in a scarce market is different. The leaders who matter are not looking, and in an ecosystem where suppliers, customers and competitors all know each other, they cannot be seen talking to another company. A job advertisement does not overcome this either. It attracts hundreds of applications, many written with AI to mirror the profile. But not the ones you are looking for.
We work the other way round. We start from the market, assess the track record of every relevant leader, including at your competitors, and approach them personally and in confidence, sometimes before the role formally exists. Senior leaders speak more openly to an independent partner than to the company that wants to hire them. You meet only the few who pass a partner’s evaluation. In the offer we hold the neutral seat, with compensation insight across many companies rather than one. Your team stays in the lead; we reach the part of the market it cannot.
Why not one of the global firms?
Global firms offer a strong brand and an office in every region. Their model also depends on scale. The partner who wins the mandate often hands the candidate calls to a regional partner and a research desk. And the more clients a firm serves, the more companies it cannot recruit from. In technology markets where the best candidates sit at a handful of companies, that shrinks the pool before the search begins.
We run fewer mandates at a time, so the same partner carries the whole assignment. Our client base is focused, so few companies are closed to your search, and we tell you at the start which ones are. Reach is not the trade-off: our searches run across all regions.
The Lumen partner-led approach
High touch. Low friction.
The partner who takes on your mandate personally leads and executes the entire search, from the first stakeholder conversation through to the successful appointment. That same partner conducts every stakeholder discussion, engages directly with candidates and leads each evaluation. These interactions are never delegated to a consultant, a research team, or an AI agent.
Technology enables us to combine speed with senior attention. Mapping and market intelligence that once required a full team can now be completed in days, allowing us to focus our time where it adds the most value: informed judgement, direct candidate engagement and meaningful conversations.
Candidates are evaluated on merit and capabilities against the assignment rather than an abstract ideal. Our matching is regardless of gender, age, race, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or any other protected characteristic.
Select a stage for detail. A typical search runs 8 to 12 weeks from kick-off to acceptance.
Beyond a single appointment
Sectors & roles
Five sectors. One kind of scarcity.
Technology runs through all five; in the fifth it meets capital and risk. The roles are rarely only technical. General management, R&D, commercial, operations, finance and IT leadership, as well as regulation and risk, all sit on the same path. What they share is that the outcome rests with a small number of people who are credible in their field and sound in judgement about the business and its people. From senior management and expert roles to C-suite and board.
01Hightech semiconductors & complex systems
Where precision engineering has to scale without losing control of the supply chain.
Roles we fill
- Managing director, CEO
- Sales and marketing, business development, CCO
- Operations, supply chain, procurement, COO
- Research, development and engineering, CTO
- Product life cycle, program and product management, CPO
- Finance, IT, CFO, CIO
02Digitech software, AI, digital infrastructure & security
Where the product is code, revenue has to recur, and trust in data is the licence to grow.
Roles we fill
- Managing director, CEO
- Sales, partnerships, customer success, chief revenue officer, CCO
- Product management and product marketing, CPO
- Software engineering, architecture, AI and data, CTO, CDO
- Information security, privacy and compliance, CISO
- Delivery, cloud operations and infrastructure, COO
- Finance, IT, CFO, CIO
03Medtech life sciences & diagnostics
Where scientific credibility and commercial discipline have to coexist under regulatory scrutiny.
Roles we fill
- Managing director, CEO
- Sales and marketing, market access, business development, CCO
- Operations, manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, COO
- Research and development, clinical and medical affairs, CTO, CSO, CMO
- Product life cycle, program and product management, CPO
- Regulatory affairs, quality assurance, compliance
- Finance, IT, CFO, CIO
04Cleantech energy, sustainability & the transition
Where the energy system is rebuilt while it keeps running, and leadership has to carry both.
Roles we fill
- Managing director, CEO
- Sales and marketing, business development, origination, CCO
- Operations, industrialisation, supply chain, procurement, COO
- Research, development and engineering, CTO
- Project development, program and asset management
- Regulatory and public affairs, permitting
- Finance, IT, CFO, CIO
05Fintech & Capital banking, credit & private markets
Where capital meets risk, and judgement about both is the product.
Roles we fill
- Managing director, head of business, CEO
- Coverage, origination, sales and distribution, CCO
- Debt markets, capital structuring, corporate finance, M&A
- Credit, risk management, compliance, CRO
- Technology, product and data, CTO, CPO, CDO
- Operations and transformation, COO
- Portfolio company leadership, operating partners, value creation
- Finance, IT, CFO, CIO
Insights
What we see, written from live work.
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Stop guessing. Start building leadership teams beyond intuition.
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Partners
Four partners. One way of working.
Every senior appointment starts with one question: what leadership or expertise is needed now, and what will make it succeed? Our partners bring search, matching, integration and coaching together in one coherent way of working, with close stakeholder alignment, direct candidate engagement and senior judgement from briefing to landing. For clients and candidates alike, that means high-touch execution, a low-friction process and greater confidence in both the appointment and the outcome.
Paul van Splunder
Paul has experience across a wide range of sectors, with a focus on high-tech manufacturing, semiconductors, and technology-driven organisations, working for multinationals, research institutes, universities and scale-ups. His focus has broadened from finance and IT into engineering, commercial, product, and operations leadership and experts.
Riemer Ike Fokkema
Riemer brings global HR leadership from the chemical, automotive and semiconductor sectors into executive search. He builds technical and industrial teams where capability, culture and execution must work as one.
Roël Hintzen
Roël has experience across a wide range of sectors, with a focus on high-tech manufacturing, semiconductors, and IT-driven organisations, working for multinationals, research institutes, universities and scale-ups. His background in technical business administration and his expertise in executive coaching add depth to his assessment of leadership qualities, motivations, and how well professionals align with an organisation’s ambition and culture.
Frank Nederveen
Frank places leaders in banking, credit, private equity and energy, drawing on more than twenty years in executive search. He started in investment banking in the global energy sector and works where technology, capital and execution meet.
Start a confidential conversation
Which leadership dependency could delay your next critical milestone?
Contact a partner directly or write to info@lumen-search.com.