Requirements*

Over 8 years of experience
In executive search or strategy consulting
Entrepreneurial mentality
With a strong Belgian business network
Fluent in English and Dutch or French

* Research shows that while male candidates feel confident enough to apply when they meet about 60% of the requirements, female candidates only apply when they tick every box. So if this role has your name on it, but you’re not sure about the criteria, we still want to hear from you.

Top of Minds Executive Search is the fast-growing and innovative market leader in the Dutch mid-level executive segment. Scaling the company’s successful hybrid business model, the Managing Director will drive the growth strategy in Belgium, establish the Top of Minds brand, and use their network and expertise to build the client portfolio.

About Top of Minds

Founded in 2008, Top of Minds has rapidly grown to become the market leader in The Netherlands in the 100-250k salary segment. The company’s unique hybrid approach proves highly successful in placing top talent at their clients, from scale-ups to established brands such as Bol., ASML, and ING.

The key to client impact: Top of Minds’ hybrid business model
Top of Minds blends the qualities of an executive search firm with those of a marketing agency and invests significantly in the continued development of both. Next to the traditional network approach, which is the core of the executive search industry, Top of Minds has built a captive audience across online channels, ready to activate for executive searches—over fifty-seven thousand followers online and over seventeen thousand newsletter subscribers with a sixty percent open rate. This marketing engine has been critical to more than a third of the search mandates last year. Executive search consultants at Top of Minds can thus leverage their networks as well as a wider audience of professionals who might not be actively looking for a new role but prove a critical talent pool nonetheless.

The resulting transparency is unique in the executive search market and leads to client impact: access to a larger pool of high-quality candidates with increased speed and diversity as a result. Top of Minds has placed talent at nearly a thousand clients, and the success of their business model shows in a compound annual growth rate of twenty-six percent since the company was founded.

New frontiers for Top of Minds
Recently, Top of Minds has entered the next phase of international growth and diversification. The company has expanded to Germany and Spain and started new ventures like Chapter Data, their data engineering consultancy, and Lichtblauw, which focuses on practical talent for the energy transition. Belgium is a priority for future growth, as is the company’s evolution towards the top segment of executive search (250k+ salary).

Vacancy: Managing Director – Belgium

The Managing Director is the face of Top of Minds in Belgium. Supported by the company’s European network of eighty-nine consultants and experts, they will build Top of Mind’s brand and name recognition, grow a strong portfolio of clients, and work with those clients on finding the right talent for senior roles.

Growing the Belgian portfolio in two phases
Based on the company’s experience in Germany and Spain, the Managing Director will go through an integration phase before getting to the expansion phase. In the integration phase, they will work with the team in the Amsterdam headquarters and/or the office in Rotterdam. By supporting consultants and the marketing team on a few search mandates, they will learn Top of Mind’s approach, integrating marketing and executive search skills. Being in Amsterdam or Rotterdam for two days a week for two months will also allow them to get to know the team they will be working with for Belgian search mandates.

In the expansion phase, the Managing Director focuses on the Belgian market and maximizes the number of non-retained, yet high-quality search mandates they acquire to attract high-caliber candidates. They identify and prioritize the investments required to build the brand and network in Belgium. With the European team at their disposal, they execute on the chosen strategy to continually grow the number of contingent and retained searches.

“With my personal roots in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, I appreciate as no other that the Belgian executive search market is distinctive, so we need a leader with a deep understanding of the Belgian business world. The combination of their expertise and network with our proven business model will open doors.” –Auke Bijnsdorp, Founder and Managing Director of Top of Minds Group

Working at Top of Minds
Top of Minds is a fast-growing scale-up full of entrepreneurs who seek impact for their clients. The company prides itself on making clients and employees feel at home in a warm environment of people who believe in their mission, their colleagues, and the business model the company is built on.

This is an exciting opportunity for an entrepreneur who wants to scale Top of Mind’s proven business model, using their extensive business network, flexibility, and leadership skills to make it work in the Belgian market. Expertise or a network in a specific industry or function can be a strong foundation for building the Belgian client portfolio.

Interested?

To express your interest, please contact Auke Bijnsdorp at aukebijnsdorp@topofminds.com

Managing Director - Belgium