Watermark Search International

Founded in 1979, we are one of the longest established Australian executive search firms. Despite the fact that we are, above all else, an Australian based firm we have an established track record in attracting, and then securing, candidates from overseas. We guarantee the quality of our work and are extremely proud of our candidate retention rate of 91.2% after two years.

We have considerable expertise in senior executive appointments across a broad range of public and private sector organisations. Our practice has been built on a substantial body of work undertaken for publicly listed companies, private companies, state-owned corporations, and government agencies, departments and advisory Boards.

We pride ourselves on delivering the best candidates in the marketplace for consideration by our clients. We go further than most executive search organisations in ensuring that our clients have a gender diverse range of candidates as part of the process. In 2016 42% of all successful candidates introduced by Watermark were female. This is a significantly greater representation of women executives as successful candidates than any levels indicated by recent third party studies.

We believe that strong boards make for better organisations and improved business performance. In conducting searches we do not simply look for ‘a name’ but rather search for candidates with the relevant skills to add real value to a board. We often start our board search by working with the client to produce a Board Skills Matrix which then informs the specific brief. Our track record ensures familiarity with the specific, and often sensitive, challenges involved in appointing Non- Executive Directors and Chairs with the right skill, personal and cultural fit. Our process and experience allow us to generate diverse shortlists and consistently find successful candidates who help boards perform at their peak. We often work with our clients and provide an induction process for their new Directors.

We are Australia’s leading Executive Interim practice and we provide immediately available, high-level specialist executives. Clients engage our talent pool to solve a problem, bring stability or provide guardianship for a company during a period of change, executive absence or performance turnaround. We have four dedicated partners focused on the Interim practice. We turn around the assignment in one to two weeks by accessing our pre-qualified network of
professional Interims. The average length of an assignment is 7.6 months.

We have a unique ‘window’ into both the commercial and government worlds and are available to provide informal market insights to our clients on topics such as salary packaging, hiring trends and executive onboarding.