Fifty years creates a lot of stories.
As Kitchener Executive Consultants celebrates 50 years in business, we’ve been spending some time looking back. At the professionals we placed, the leaders we partnered with, and, perhaps most interestingly, what happened after the search was over.
But before looking outward, it seemed fitting to begin with KEC itself.
Where did those careers go?
What changed inside the organizations?
Which hires made a difference years beyond the original search?
And what can the people who were part of those decisions tell us about executive search today?
Those questions led us to Beyond the Placement, a series of conversations with leaders, candidates and clients who have been part of KEC’s work over the years.
We’re reconnecting with candidates, clients and business leaders to hear their side of those stories and to explore what happened long after the search itself was complete.
But before looking outward, it seemed only right to begin at home.
For our first conversation, we sat down with Ian Fairfax, President of Kitchener Executive Consultants (KEC), to talk about the business he joined eighteen years ago, what he learned working alongside his father, Jim Fairfax, how executive search has changed, and what fifty years of KEC’s history can tell us about the work ahead.
50 Years In: A Conversation with Ian Fairfax
Relationships, Search and What Comes Next
Jim Fairfax built KEC around a belief that executive search is rooted in relationships, trust and a genuine commitment to understanding both people and businesses.
Ian Fairfax joined KEC in 2008 and spent the following years working alongside Jim, learning the business and conducting executive searches while gradually taking on a larger role within the firm. In 2018, Jim pulled back from the day-to-day leadership of KEC, with Ian taking on responsibility for leading the business. Jim remained involved with the firm until his complete retirement in 2024, after 47 years in business.
Reflecting on that transition, Jim wrote:
“Stepping away from KEC this summer has not been a difficult transition knowing that it’s in great hands with Ian Fairfax’s ownership and his superb team of Search Consultants.”
Ian has now spent eighteen years with KEC.
So, as we begin Beyond the Placement, we sat down with him to reflect on the firm’s journey, the evolution of executive search and why, after five decades, the real impact of a search is measured not by the day an offer is accepted, but by everything that happens beyond the placement.
50 Years of Executive Search
KEC is celebrating fifty years this year. Looking back to when you first joined the business, what does this milestone mean to you personally?
It’s really a combination of pride and gratitude.
I’m proud to be part of something that has lasted five decades, and grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to that journey.
I’ve now spent eighteen years with KEC, so it’s become a significant part of my own career. Being able to build on what was started fifty years ago is something I don’t take for granted.
You had the unique opportunity to work alongside your father, Jim Fairfax, before continuing the business yourself. What principles from those early years still guide you today?
Jim always used to say that you get out of this business what you put into it.
Even with all the advances in technology, that hasn’t changed.
This business is still about showing up. It’s about effort. It’s about supporting people. It’s about doing what you say you’re going to do.
Those are principles that never go out of style.
He also believed strongly that your own reputation is one of your greatest assets. Every conversation, every interaction and every commitment contributes to that reputation. Ultimately, that’s what determines whether you’re successful or not.
Executive search has changed dramatically over the last fifty years. Looking back over your own eighteen years, what has changed the most – and what hasn’t changed at all?
Technology has changed almost everything about how people search for work and how recruiters reach the market. But in many ways, it’s also stripped away some of the personal touch from the recruitment process.
One thing I’m proud of is that KEC hasn’t tried to become a high-volume recruiting business that relies on sending hundreds of messages with the click of a button.
We’ve continued to approach searches the way we always have – with a human touch, a personal approach and a tailored service for every client and every candidate.
I believe our clients get better service because we haven’t lost sight of the relationship. Particularly when you’re recruiting leaders or specialized talent who aren’t actively looking for another opportunity, representation matters.
If you’re asking someone to consider a significant career move, they deserve to have a knowledgeable person representing both the opportunity and the hiring company – not simply an automated message.
That’s where the personal approach continues to make a difference.
We’ve called this initiative Beyond the Placement. Why does that title resonate with you?
Because while a successful placement remains our priority, our relationships don’t end with the placement.
We’re not dealing with numbers; we’re working with people and organizations.
Many of the professionals we’ve placed over the years have remained in touch with us throughout their careers. Often, they eventually become hiring leaders themselves, and years later we have the opportunity to partner with them again – but from the other side of the hiring table.
That only happens because of the relationships we’ve built through honesty, integrity, guidance and a genuinely consultative approach.
The same is true for both our client companies and the professionals we support throughout the search process.
We never think of a search project or a client as something we’re working on right now and simply need to fill the role. That’s not how we see the business. We’re not transactional.
We want to be a long-term partner that professionals trust when they’re making important decisions.
That relationship continues well beyond any individual placement. That’s really what Beyond the Placement means to me.
People often think executive search is simply another way of saying “recruitment”. Yet over the years you’ve often described it differently – as helping organizations build stronger teams and businesses. What’s your perspective?
For us, it has never been about filling jobs. It’s about helping organizations solve business challenges through people.
Every search starts with understanding the business itself. Before we ever talk about candidates, we want to understand why the role exists, what the organization is trying to accomplish and what success will look like once that person is in place.
If all we’re doing is matching a résumé to a job description, then we’re not adding much value. Our role is to understand the market, understand the client and identify people who can make a meaningful contribution to that business.
Ultimately, we’re helping clients build stronger organizations – not simply complete a hiring process.
When Hiring Becomes a Strategic Business Decision
At what point does hiring stop being a recruitment exercise and become a strategic business decision?
Usually, it’s when the cost of getting it wrong becomes significant.
That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a senior executive position. People often assume executive search is only for Presidents, CEOs or Vice Presidents, but that’s not really how we look at it.
Sometimes a Plant Quality Manager, a Design Engineer, a Program Manager or a Manufacturing Manager can have an enormous impact on a business. Those individuals influence quality, customer relationships, production, innovation and ultimately the organization’s ability to grow.
It’s the impact that role can have on the business.
We tend to be brought in when an organization is hiring for a position that will genuinely influence its future, whether that’s an executive, a plant leader, an engineering manager, or another key decision-maker. It’s the business impact that makes the search strategic, not the title alone.
Organizations sometimes assume they only need executive search for C-suite positions, while roles like Engineering Manager, Plant Manager, Logistics Manager or Project Manager can be handled internally. How do you look at that distinction?
Well, we never get the simple searches, I’ll tell you that.
There are certainly searches organizations can manage internally. Not every role requires the same level of market intelligence or carries the same consequences if it takes longer to fill. And many organizations have excellent HR and Talent Acquisition teams that do a tremendous job.
We’re not here to replace those teams. We’re here to add to their efforts and help them succeed. Most of the time, the challenge isn’t writing a job posting or reviewing applications. It’s understanding the market outside the organization.
It’s knowing where exceptional people are, understanding what might motivate them to move, being able to represent the opportunity properly, and having honest conversations that simply wouldn’t happen through a traditional recruitment process.
Some of the most impactful searches we’ve completed haven’t been the most senior positions in the organization.
They’ve been roles where finding exactly the right individual made a significant difference to the business over many years.
Today, many organizations already have experienced internal HR and Talent Acquisition teams. Why do so many still choose to partner with executive search firms?
Because we do different things. Internal teams know their organizations exceptionally well. They understand the culture, the people, the internal processes and the business from the inside.
Our role is different. We bring an external perspective. We spend every day, every month, talking to people across multiple industries. We see where talent is moving, what organizations are experiencing and how the market is changing.
Seeing those patterns across industries can be incredibly valuable when you’re trying to solve a difficult hiring challenge.
The strongest partnerships happen when both sides respect the expertise the other brings. It’s never about competition. When those two perspectives come together, the client benefits from both a deep understanding of their own organization and a broader understanding of the market they’re hiring in.
Some of KEC’s partnerships have lasted for decades, while others haven’t. What do you think distinguishes the partnerships that stand the test of time?
Well, it always comes down to trust.
Trust is earned over time by consistently doing what you say you’re going to do, communicating honestly and always acting in your client’s best interest. The strongest partnerships are built on transparency from both sides. The more open clients are about their business, their challenges, constraints and what they’re truly trying to accomplish, the better positioned we are to help.
At the same time, they need us to be equally honest about what we’re seeing in the market – even when that means having difficult conversations.
Sometimes that’s challenging assumptions about the role itself. Sometimes it’s explaining that the expectations for a candidate are unrealistic, or that a combination of the skills and abilities does look like a unicorn. Well, and if I’m being honest sometimes different stakeholders involved in the hiring process are looking for different things and its or job to bring them to the same page then.
Those conversations aren’t always easy, but they’re necessary.
I believe, if we’re simply telling clients what they want to hear, we’re probably not serving them very well. The best partnerships aren’t built on agreement all the time. They’re built on mutual trust, honest dialogue and a shared commitment to finding the right long-term solution for the business.
Trust and market intelligence have come up repeatedly throughout our Beyond the Placement conversations. Does that resonate with your own experience?
Absolutely. One of the greatest values an executive search firm can provide is a broader view than one organization can build internally.
Because we’re constantly speaking with professionals across different industries, we develop a perspective that individual organizations simply don’t have the opportunity to build internally.
We know what candidates are looking for and understand where talent is moving. We see the challenges organizations are facing and recognize patterns across industries that individual businesses rarely have the opportunity to see from the inside.
That perspective means we can bring market intelligence into every search – not simply identify candidates.
Looking back over the years, have you seen leadership hires genuinely change the direction of a business?
One example has always stayed with me.
Early in my career, I met an engineering professional who wasn’t the right fit for the opportunity we were working on at the time. We stayed in touch over the years because I knew he had exceptional capability – I just hadn’t found the right opportunity for him yet.
Nearly seven years later, an aerospace client came to us looking for someone with a very specific combination of technical expertise, leadership and vision. He was the first person who came to mind.
He joined the organization, and over the years that followed, played a significant role in helping the business launch, grow and establish itself in the aerospace market.
That’s what executive search is really about. It’s not simply filling a vacancy. It’s knowing people well enough to recognize when their experience, strengths and leadership align with a business at exactly the right moment.
Sometimes people assume only Presidents or Vice Presidents make a strategic impact, but that’s simply not true. Titles don’t determine impact. People do.
That’s why we spend so much time understanding the role, the business and the person behind the résumé.
One thing that stood out to me throughout our conversations with clients is that executive search doesn’t seem to end when someone accepts an offer. Instead it only begins.
It certainly does.
One of the unique parts of this business is that we get to watch careers unfold over many years.
Candidates become managers.
Managers become executives.
Executives become clients.
Sometimes we first meet someone early in their career and reconnect years later in a completely different capacity.
That’s one of the most rewarding aspects of executive search – we’re not simply filling today’s vacancy., but building relationships that often continue for decades.
Those relationships help us better understand people as they grow, what motivates them, what environments they succeed in and where they can create the greatest impact.
That’s knowledge you can’t gain from a résumé.
Can you think of an example where staying connected over the long term made all the difference?
Interestingly, it’s the same person who immediately comes to mind – but for a different reason.
We first met more than seven years before he eventually joined one of our clients.
During those seven years, we weren’t simply waiting for the right vacancy to appear. We were investing in a relationship. That meant staying in touch, following his career, understanding how his experience was evolving, talking about opportunities, and sometimes deciding together that a particular role wasn’t the right move.
That took time, commitment and genuine curiosity about another person’s career – not because there was an immediate placement to make, but because we believed that, one day, the right opportunity would come along.
And it did.
When a client entering the aerospace sector needed someone to build their quality management system, I knew exactly who to call.
Seven years of conversations had given me confidence not only in his technical expertise, but also in his leadership, his judgment and the impact he could have on that business. I presented one candidate.
There wasn’t a shortlist. There wasn’t a stack of résumés for the client to sort through. I was confident we had already found the right person.
The client agreed almost immediately and hired him. He remained with the organization until retirement.
That’s the value of staying connected over time. When you truly know both your client and the professional, you’re not introducing possibilities – you’re making a recommendation you genuinely stand behind.
Throughout our conversation, Ian returned repeatedly to the importance of taking the long view – not only when building careers, but also when building businesses.
The same perspective applies to entire industries. Over the past fifty years, KEC has watched Canadian manufacturing evolve through recessions, globalization, reshoring, technological transformation and changing market demands.
Today, another chapter is unfolding.
Looking Ahead: Leadership, Industry and the Future of Search
KEC has worked alongside manufacturers through recessions, globalization, reshoring and now renewed investment in Canadian industry. What are you seeing today that excites you the most?
There’s a renewed sense of optimism.
Manufacturing has always evolved, but we’re seeing a period where organizations are investing again. Companies are expanding, modernizing their operations and thinking strategically about the future.
What’s particularly encouraging is that many business leaders aren’t thinking only about filling today’s vacancies anymore. They’re thinking about the capabilities they’ll need over the next five or ten years.
That creates different conversations.
We’re spending more time discussing succession planning, leadership development and organizational growth than simply replacing someone who’s leaving.
To me, that’s a very positive sign.
Canada’s defence and aerospace sectors are entering another significant period of investment and growth. From your perspective, what does that mean for leadership hiring?
Whenever an industry experiences significant growth, people become even more important.
Organizations invest in equipment, facilities and technology, but ultimately it’s people who determine whether those investments succeed.
The defence and aerospace sectors have always required highly specialized talent, but today there’s an even greater emphasis on leadership.
The ability to navigate change, build strong teams and adapt to increasingly complex customer requirements becomes critical.
Finding those leaders isn’t easy.
Many of them aren’t actively looking for another opportunity, which makes understanding the market and maintaining meaningful connections even more important.
As we’ve been reconnecting with leaders through the Beyond Placement series, one thing has become clear – many of the searches KEC completed years ago weren’t simply replacing people. They were helping organizations build new capabilities. Do you think businesses are thinking that way more today?
I do.
Organizations are being more intentional about it.
They’re asking different questions than they did years ago.
Instead of asking, “Who can do this job?” they’re increasingly asking, “Who can help us become the organization we’re trying to build?”
That’s a very different conversation.
Those are the conversations we enjoy most because they let us contribute beyond recruitment. We become strategic advisors – understanding the market, challenging assumptions and helping organizations build the capabilities they’ll need in the future, not simply fill today’s vacancy.
As industries evolve, so do the tools organizations use to recruit. Yet one question kept resurfacing throughout our conversation: what role should technology play in executive search?
Technology is a tremendous tool. No doubt, it helps organizations process information more efficiently, and it can improve many parts of the recruitment process.
We use technology ourselves.
But technology doesn’t build relationships, doesn’t earn trust.
It doesn’t understand why someone is considering a career move, what motivates them professionally or whether a particular opportunity genuinely aligns with their long-term goals. Those conversations are still very human.
Executive search isn’t simply about identifying people. It’s about actually understanding them.
Technology can support that process, but it can’t replace it.
How do you think executive search itself will continue to evolve?
I think the fundamentals will remain the same while the tools will change.
Technology will continue to improve, access to information will continue to increase. But organizations will still need trusted advisors who understand both the market and the human side of hiring.
Clients don’t come to us simply because they can’t find résumés. We know, they come to us because they’re making important business decisions and our responsibility is to help them navigate those decisions with honesty, transparency and a strong understanding of the market.
That’s what I believe executive search will continue to be about, regardless of how technology evolves.
Looking ahead, what gives you the greatest confidence about the future of KEC?
For me, it’s the trust we’ve earned over time.
That’s always been the foundation of this business. Over the years we’ve built relationships with clients, candidates and communities that continue to grow. And, many of the people we placed years ago are now leading organizations themselves.
Many clients who first partnered with us decades ago continue to call us today.
To me, that says we’re doing something right.
As long as we continue earning people’s trust, adapting to the market and genuinely caring about the organizations and individuals we work with, I’m optimistic about the future.
Beyond the Placement: Relationships That Continue
Many people remember the day they accepted an offer. You often have the opportunity to reconnect with those same people after a while. What has watching those careers unfold taught you?
It’s one of the most rewarding parts of what we do.
You meet someone at a particular point in their career, help them make an important decision, and then years later you see where that decision has taken them.
Sometimes they become leaders within the organization they joined. Sometimes they move on to other opportunities. Quite often, they become our clients afterwards.
It’s a unique perspective to have and I can’t be thankful enough for being a part of peoples journeys and moments like these.
It reminds you that every search is about much more than filling a position. You’re helping shape someone’s career and, in many cases, helping organizations build the leadership they’ll rely on for years to come.
If you were speaking to a CEO, General Manager or Vice President preparing to partner with an executive search firm on a critical leadership hire, what would you encourage them to ask for from that partner? And just as importantly, what do they need to bring to that partnership themselves for it to succeed?
First thing I would recommend is to expect your search partner to challenge your thinking. In fact, I’d encourage you to insist on it.
A good executive search firm shouldn’t simply agree with everything you say. They should bring market knowledge, honest advice and the confidence to tell you when something isn’t aligned with today’s reality.
At the same time, the client has an equally important role to play. And we always are very clear about this with our Clients when we are at an early stage of engagement.
We do believe that the best outcomes come from a real partnership. That means being transparent about the business, being clear about expectations, providing timely feedback and trusting one another enough to have difficult conversations when necessary.
Executive search isn’t something that’s done to a client.
It’s something that’s done with a client.
When both sides are fully engaged, the results are much better.
After nearly two decades with KEC, what continues to motivate you?
The people.
Every search is different because every person and every organization is different. And just when you think you’ve experienced every possible situation, something new comes along to surprise you.
I still enjoy learning about businesses, understanding what they’re trying to achieve and connecting them with people who can make a meaningful difference.
That’s what keeps the work interesting.
Finally, when people look back at KEC’s next 50 years, what do you hope they’ll say the firm was known for?
I hope they’ll say we built long-term partnerships based on trust.
That we acted with integrity.
That we cared about our clients and our candidates.
That we listened.
That we were honest.
And that when organizations faced important decisions, they knew they had a partner they could rely on.
If that’s how KEC is remembered, I’ll be very proud.
As KEC celebrates fifty years, one message comes through clearly from Ian Fairfax’s reflections: executive search has never been about simply filling vacancies. It’s about understanding businesses, investing in people and helping organizations make leadership decisions that shape what comes next.
For Ian Fairfax, and for Kitchener Executive Consultants, that has always been the measure of success. Not simply making placements, but building relationships that continue to shape careers, strengthen organizations and create lasting impact long after the search is complete.
That’s what Beyond the Placement means.
Throughout our conversation, one theme kept resurfacing: the best executive search partnerships aren’t built over the course of a single assignment – they’re built over years.
Before we wrapped up, we asked Ian for ten final reflections on the principles behind that philosophy.
10 REFLECTIONS WITH IAN FAIRFAX
1. In one sentence, what is executive search really about?
It’s about building relationships that help organizations make better hiring decisions – not simply filling positions.
2. What’s one misconception about executive search you wish would disappear?
That it’s only for executive titles. Some of the greatest impact comes from critical contributors throughout an organization.
3. Three words that define a successful partnership between a client and an executive search firm?
Truth. Trust. Transparency.
4. What should every hiring leader ask an executive search firm before starting a search?
“How are you going to represent our organization in the market, and what’s your strategy for finding the right person?”
5. And what should every hiring leader bring to that partnership?
Clear direction, honest communication and ongoing engagement throughout the process.
6. One quality technology will never replace?
Human conversation. Technology creates efficiencies, but relationships are still built person to person.
7. What’s one quality you consistently see in leaders who succeed?
They show up, follow through on their commitments and earn people’s trust over time.
8. What’s one thing you’ve learned after watching hundreds of careers evolve?
The right opportunity, at the right time, can completely change the trajectory of someone’s career. Sometimes that takes years of staying connected until that moment appears.
9. Finish this sentence: Beyond the Placement is…
…the relationships that continue long after the offer is accepted and the search project is closed.
10. Fifty years from now, what do you hope people will remember KEC for?
That we built trusted relationships, acted with integrity, genuinely cared about our clients and candidates, and became a partner organizations could rely on when making important hiring decisions.