Who is the right leader for your culture?
We’ve spent 30 years answering that question for boards and CEOs. Every search, assessment, and advisory engagement starts with your organization, not a résumé.
Capabilities
Leadership questions we help you answer
Executive Search
How do we hire an executive who fits, performs, and stays?
Leadership Assessment
Is our leadership team actually ready for what’s next?
Executive Coaching
How do we develop the leader we already have?
Culture & Performance
What is our culture costing us, and how do we change it?
CEO & Board Advisory
How do we get succession right before it’s urgent?
A retained executive search and leadership advisory firm built on cultural alignment.
Allen Austin is a Houston-based retained executive search firm and leadership advisory firm serving boards, CEOs, founders, and private equity-backed companies across North America and Europe. For 30 years we have placed C-suite executives, board members, and mission-critical senior leaders through culture-aligned executive search, guided by our proprietary Foresight™ process.
Search is where we started, but it is not where we stop. Our leadership assessment, executive coaching, organizational culture consulting, and CEO succession and board advisory practices share one methodology: understand the organization first, then the human being. It is why our placements stay, and why our clients come back.
About the firm1996
Founded in Houston. Thirty years of continuous operation across every economic cycle.
92%
Placement retention at the two-year mark.
vs. 55% industry average
4,000+
Retained engagements completed. Zero abandoned.
Every single one
97%
Offer-to-acceptance ratio on presented candidates.
vs. 70% industry average
The Allen Austin Difference
Culture first. Then candidates.
Most firms describe the role and start calling names. Our Foresight™ process begins with a rigorous Organizational and Position Needs Analysis, so fit is defined before the search begins, not discovered after the offer. The same discipline governs every capability we offer.
01
Culture Before Candidates
We map your culture, leadership expectations, and the specific conditions for success before we source a single name.
02
Define “The Pivot”
We identify the three or four things the incoming executive must accomplish to be considered successful. Then we search for that.
03
Hidden Talent, Not Recycled Names
Original research and predictive analytics surface high-fit leaders who are invisible to the broader search community.
04
Candidates Who Self-Select
A structured self-appraisal compels less-than-ideal candidates to remove themselves before presentation.
05
360° Reference Audit
Every shortlisted candidate is audited for strengths, blind spots, and cultural fit indicators before you meet them.
Backed by a full two-year guarantee on every placement above $250K.
Because when fit is defined first, leaders stay. 92% of ours do.
See how Foresight™ worksWhy Allen Austin
Why boards and CEOs choose a firm built on cultural alignment
Operators First
Built by people who have actually run companies
Every senior partner has held P&L responsibility, built teams, and lived the consequences of getting leadership wrong. That operating lens shapes every engagement.
Senior-Led
The partner you meet is the partner who does the work
Partners execute every mission-critical phase: candidate contact, evaluation, due diligence, and reference audits. No junior handoffs, ever.
Accountable for Outcomes
Measured by whether leaders succeed, not whether searches close
A full two-year guarantee, a 92% retention rate, and 4,000 engagements without a single one abandoned. The results show the methodology works.
Thought Leadership
Serious leadership decisions deserve serious thinking
Observations from 30 years advising boards, CEOs, and leadership teams. Published weekly as Total Performance Leadership Insights.
Leadership Conversations
The Leadership Breakfast Series
Twice a year, Allen Austin convenes a select group of senior executives to hear from leaders who have built, transformed, and sustained high-performing organizations. Not panels. Not keynotes. Candid conversations about what leadership actually requires.
Most Recent · Spring 2026
Pattye Moore
Board Member, ONE Gas & QuikTrip · Former President, Sonic · Former Chairman & CEO, Red Robin
Relational vs. Transactional Leadership“Organizational health is the ultimate competitive advantage.”
Sponsors: Allen Austin · WoodRock & Co. · Crowe · Tanglewood Legacy Advisors
“Allen Austin is pound for pound, the best executive search firm on the planet.“
Jim Eggleston · Board Member, Silberline Manufacturing Company
26 minutes with Rob AndrewsWhy executives fail, and the process built to prevent it.