Built inside a global firm. Built independently to do it right.
I spent four years inside a global executive search firm, building out the aerospace and defense practice from the ground up. I ran searches across PE-backed defense manufacturers, publicly traded A&D operators, privately held suppliers, and government contractors. Across that work, I built the muscle of moving leaders between those four worlds.
By the time I left, I had a clear picture of what this market needed and what it was not getting. Clients were losing searches because the recruiter did not understand clearance requirements, could not benchmark comp in regulated markets, and did not have relationships to reach passive candidates. Basic stuff. Expensive mistakes.
I founded EXO to fix that. Every search runs through me personally. You are not getting handed off three weeks in. The cleared network, the comp data, the candidate calls, and the offer negotiation are all on me.