Vice President, International Business
A high-growth beverage brand needed a P&L leader to build out international sales from a small European base. Case-based assessment centred on scaling from emerging to established markets.
Executive Search and Assessment, built on substance and discipline.
A principal-led practice for consumer-focused businesses. Zürich.
The practice
Executive search rebuilt as a transparent, methodical, evidence-based discipline.
Salomons & Partners is an executive search and leadership assessment practice for consumer-focused businesses in Europe. Every mandate is led by the principal directly. Every assessment is designed for the actual demands of the role, using a case-based process. The reasoning behind every recommendation is scrutable to the client.
Assessment can be commissioned as part of a search, or standalone for internal succession and development.
Search and assessment are one discipline, not two separate services.
Services
Executive Search
Retained search for senior specialists and executives in consumer-focused businesses across Europe. Assignments are led directly by the principal — from mandate design through longlist reasoning, assessment, and offer close.
Assessment
Case-based assessment centres, designed per mandate, for selection and development. A Saville-accredited approach that evaluates candidates on the substance of the specific role — not on the incumbent's profile. Conducted in Dutch, English, French, and German.
How we work
A method you can see from the start.
Four steps. Each one leaves a written artefact the client can read, question, and hold us to.
01
Understand
A working session to read the mandate. Where our reading differs from the brief as presented, we flag it before the search begins.
02
Assess
A case-based assessment centre designed for the specific role. Candidates are evaluated on the demands of the mandate, not on their résumé.
03
Advise
A structured written recommendation with the reasoning shown. The client can see what we saw, and why we recommend what we do.
04
Deliver
Discreet execution through offer close, and ongoing support through the appointed executive's transition.
Candidates are assessed on the demands of the role. Clients are shown the reasoning behind every recommendation.
Recent work
Assignments completed across Europe and adjacent markets.
Net Revenue Management Director
A large FMCG player facing stagnating volume needed a specialist to drive net-revenue improvement across a matrixed European organisation. Thought leadership and analytical depth were as important as functional experience.
General Manager, Switzerland
A pan-European eCommerce player set up a country GM role to give the Swiss market focus. The mandate combined deep local market insight with the ability to represent Switzerland at global HQ.
Commercial Director, Switzerland
A large FMCG business had identified internal candidates to succeed a departing Commercial Director. An external slate was developed and interviewed. The appointment went to one of the external candidates.
The principal
Charles Salomons
Managing Partner. Principal on every mandate.
Charles has held the roles he now assesses: more than twenty years in full P&L General Management and Marketing & Sales at Colgate-Palmolive, Coca-Cola and Carlsberg, across single- and multi-market European roles.
Over the past twelve years he has placed 100+ senior executives for consumer-focused businesses across Europe. A Saville-accredited assessor, he designs a case-based assessment centre for each mandate.
A Swiss-Dutch dual national resident in Switzerland since 2003, he conducts interviews and assessments in Dutch, English, French and German.
Contact
Two lines of contact.
One for clients considering a mandate. One for candidates submitting a CV. Both go directly to Charles.
Clients
To discuss a mandate, or to test the fit before you commission a search.
Candidates
To share your CV for consideration in current and future mandates. Consent-gated per GDPR; the practice retains and processes CVs only on that basis.