Success Stories

Having a reliable team of seasoned professionals with practitioner experience on your side is a blessing at the best of times - never more so, than when hiring a head of school. Add to the challenge, a most demanding brief, in the midst of a global pandemic. We sure made it difficult, but Art, Ralph, John, and Deb brought trusted counsel, sound wit, and sage advice all along the way, and despite having hideous time zone differences, email responses were nearly always within the hour. Taking the time to comprehensively get to know our school, community, and needs, privileged Carney Sandoe with the knowledge and informed discernment, which along with their proven methodology, delivered a shortlist which, well, nailed it. Our school benefited greatly from our collaboration, and I know will continue to reap untold benefits stemming from our hire, perfectly matched, by our perfect search partners.

Due to an unavoidable change in personal circumstances, International School Basel found itself needing to recruit a new Senior School Principal very late in the annual recruitment cycle (late February). We knew that recruiting an excellent Senior School Principal at such a late stage of the year was going to be a real challenge. We thus decided to contact Carney Sandoe in the final week of February about assisting us with this search. Within five hours I had a reply and was connected with Art Charles and John Chandler. This was immediately followed up with a video call the same evening, where Art and John clarified our requirements and outlined a possible way forward. I was impressed by the rapid response to my initial request. We were very happy with the plan suggested by Carney Sandoe and made the decision to work with them on this important search.

Over the next few days, we worked closely with the Carney Sandoe team to develop the candidate brief and advertise out role. Art and John constantly kept in touch with me, regularly updating me on the progress of our search. In just over two weeks from my initial contact, we received the first of the candidate dossiers. We were amazed at the strength of the field we were able to attract. Without doubt, this was largely due to Carney Sandoe's strong reach and connection within the international school leadership community.

The candidate dossiers we received from Carney Sandoe were detailed and extremely helpful in allowing us to develop a very strong shortlist of candidates, who we started interviewing just one month and a day after first contacting Carney Sandoe. We ended up appointing our new Senior School Principal only 36 days after first contacting Carney Sandoe. I am absolutely sure that this would never have been possible without all the work done by Art Charles and John Chandler, who remained fully engaged during the entire process. I was amazed at how quickly they responded to any queries - do they ever sleep!

I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Carney Sandoe to any school looking to recruit a senior leader to your team.

Many thanks to you, Bill, and Bob Regan for guidance through this process. Not only did we find the perfect fit for our school, but this process also helped us look at our school community through many different constituent lenses … something we should have done long ago. I am grateful that you challenged us to do so, and I think we will be better for it in the future.

We were amazed at the strength of the field we were able to attract. Without doubt, this was largely due to Carney Sandoe's strong reach and connection within the international school leadership community.

Thank you for your work on this important leadership search. We couldn't have done it without you and I've really valued your expertise and guidance along the way. I've learned so much and, most of all, really enjoyed working together on this.

Dear Ben, Deb, John, and Ralph,

Just want to take this moment to thank you and your colleagues for your professional guidance. The search process was arduous and demanding at times, and your support has helped to smooth out the bumps. We are grateful to have met many accomplished educational leaders whose education philosophy resonates deeply with us.

I am deeply grateful to Sara Shulman and Elyse Waterhouse for helping us land our fabulous new CFOO. They took time and care to understand a great deal about our current context - successes, challenges, and future opportunities. Their inclusive approach in working not only with me but also with our business team and other school leaders enabled them to develop a nuanced understanding of skills and qualities of our ideal candidate. The portfolio of candidates they provided were stronger across the board than I could have imagined, and I particularly appreciated the diversity of the group (gender and race/ethnicity, as well as industry backgrounds). Their guidance was instrumental in shaping a process that has not only led to our successful new hire in the role but also to our people feeling valued. They were generous in sharing what they learned about us in the process, which has also helped greatly with the transition plan for our new CFOO and our operational teams. The partnership with Sara and Elyse continues to pay off. And it was fun to work with them, too!

I enjoyed partnering with you on this one. You are a real professional. You served up a strong slate of candidates … but we couldn’t be more excited about the ultimate winner of the race.

I can say wholeheartedly that it was terrific to partner with Sara and Greg on our recent CFOO search. They are pros — they come with background in finance and advancement, attracted a very strong candidate pool, gave very good and sage advice to me throughout the process, and also engaged the board members in very thoughtful ways.

I would highly recommend them, so much so that I am now working with another Carney Sandoe consultant in our next important search. She, too, has been great with me and our internal search committee.

As a new head it was hard to trust myself. But Peter helped me learn to trust myself and work through the steps that would make it possible to hit the ground running. The work included getting clarity about my approach to leadership and what I needed to focus on at the start of my tenure.

Through conversations with Peter I was able to keep the 30,000-foot view of the school front and center and identity my priorities. I learned both the importance of balance in my work and my life and how to find it. As a new head of school, I was able to clarify my view that what matters most is focusing on the school culture and environment — creating a climate where students and adults thrive. This big-picture thinking has even distilled itself down to a simple guiding principle: “To look within and see beyond.”