Marque.

Who we represent

We are selective in the way an agency is selective.

Not an admissions committee, and there is nothing here to join. We take on people we believe we can place, because our name goes out with yours every time we make an introduction. Saying yes to the wrong client costs us relationships we spent years building.

Who this is for

Four things we look for.

  • Senior enough that the room makes sense

    VP, SVP, C-suite, founders, and recently exited operators. Not because titles are the point, but because a nominating committee is looking for someone who has carried the decision, not observed it.

  • Deep in something specific

    A domain you have run for years and could be questioned on for an hour without preparation. Breadth is useful in a career. Depth is what gets you invited.

  • A real point of view

    Something you believe about your field that a competent peer might argue with. If everything you would say is uncontroversial, there is no reason to put you on a stage rather than anyone else with the same title.

  • Time you will actually give it

    A few hours a month, consistently. Preparing a talk, writing a piece, sitting on a call with a program director. We can create the opportunity. We cannot attend it for you.

You do not need all four in equal measure. You do need the first three in some form, and the fourth is the one people most often overestimate about themselves.

Who this is not for

The honest disqualifiers.

None of these are judgments about the person. They are judgments about whether we would be any use.

  • You want a job search

    This is not executive search and we are not recruiters. If what you need is your next role, an executive search firm will serve you far better, and we will tell you that in the first call.

  • You want a credential to buy

    There is nothing here to purchase except our work. We do not confer a title, we do not run a program you graduate from, and we do not sell seats on anything.

  • You have no operating track record

    We place people on the strength of what they have run. Without that, we have nothing to take to a committee, and pretending otherwise would waste your money and our name.

  • You want volume

    If the goal is to be everywhere, posting daily and appearing on anything that will have you, that is a different service and someone else does it. We work on a small number of placements that are worth having.

What we look for in an application

One question does most of the work.

The application asks what you want to be known for. That answer tells us almost everything.

Answers that are a job description are hard to place. "SVP of operations at a large logistics company" is not something a conference chair can build a session around. Answers that name a specific problem you have solved repeatedly are easy to place, because they suggest the talk, the article, and the board that needs you.

You do not need to have it worked out. Sharpening it is step two of the process and most people arrive without it. But an answer that shows you have thought about the question at all puts you well ahead.

Capacity

We work with a small number of people at once.

Representation runs on relationships, and a relationship does not scale. When we recommend someone to a program chair, that recommendation carries weight because we do not send them ten names a month.

That puts a hard ceiling on how many clients we can serve properly, which is why we decline more applications than we accept.

If you are not sure whether you fit, apply anyway.

Working that out is our job, not yours, and a no costs you ten minutes.

Apply for representation