Retained Executive Search

Defining
Leadership
at the Apex.

A boutique global retained executive search firm partnering with Boards, Investors, and Leadership Teams to identify and secure transformative C-suite and senior executive talent across the world's most dynamic industries.

8+
GLOBAL PRACTICE AREAS
150+
YEARS COMBINED LEADERSHIP experience
5
CONTINENTS SERVED
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Financial Services Technology Artificial Intelligence & Semiconductors Infrastructure & Energy Consumer & Retail Healthcare & Life Sciences Private Equity Product & Engineering Financial Services Technology Artificial Intelligence & Semiconductors Infrastructure & Energy Consumer & Retail Healthcare & Life Sciences Private Equity Product & Engineering
CTP
2017
Est.
About CTP

The Intersection of Intelligence & Talent

Cognitive Talent Partners is a boutique and global retained executive search firm committed to creating seamless global partnerships with a client-centric approach and a strong diversity focus. Agile, nimble, and innovative, we build partnerships with Boards, Promoters, Investors, and Leadership Teams to create transformative, entrepreneurial, and culturally quick-assimilating winning teams.

Client-Centric
Every engagement is bespoke, tailored to the specific strategic and cultural context of our clients.
Global Reach
Offices in New York, India, and Belgium — talent networks spanning 4 continents.
Deep Domain
Sector specialists who speak the language of your industry and your leadership challenges.
Diversity Focus
Actively driving inclusive slates — diversity of thought, background, and experience.
Practice Areas

Sector Expertise,
Global Scale

Our practice areas reflect the industries where leadership is most consequential — and where our depth of knowledge creates genuine competitive advantage for clients.

01
Technology
CxO and senior leadership for global technology corporations, digital transformation leaders, and technology-enabled services businesses.
CTO CEO Digital SaaS
07
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Board and executive mandates across hospitals, pharma, medtech, and healthcare-enabling technology businesses in both developed and emerging markets.
Pharma Hospitals MedTech OTC
08
Private Equity & Shared Services
Trusted search partner to leading global private equity funds — portfolio company leadership, operating executives, and captive and third-party shared services leadership.
Portfolio Co. GCC / GIC Operating Partner Board
Our Approach

How We
Deliver

A rigorous, relationship-driven methodology that places the right leader in the right organisation — every time.

01
Mandate Intelligence
Deep diagnostic of the organisation's strategy, culture, and the specific leadership gap — building a precise success profile before the search begins.
02
Global Research
Comprehensive market mapping across geographies and talent pools, leveraging proprietary networks and primary intelligence — not just database searches.
03
Rigorous Assessment
Structured executive assessment combining competency evaluation, psychometric insight, and cultural fit analysis — presented through narrative assessor dossiers.
04
Seamless Integration
End-to-end partnership through offer, acceptance, and on-boarding — with post-placement support to ensure long-term leadership success.
"Only the innovative survive. Attracting and retaining the best leadership talent is not a process — it is a competitive advantage."
Founder & Managing Partner  —  Cognitive Talent Partners
PE

Private Equity Practice

Board, CEO & C-Suite Search for PE Portfolio Companies

At the moment of value creation, the right leader is not a luxury — it is the entire thesis.

Board Directors & Independent NEDs

Sectoral depth, governance rigour, and value-creation experience for PE-backed boards globally.

CEO & Managing Director

Transformational CEO appointments aligned to the PE sponsor's value-creation plan.

CFO, CTO & CRO

Mission-critical C-Suite hires across Finance, Technology, Revenue and Risk.

CHRO & Talent Leadership

Human capital leadership with PE experience to drive organisational scale and DEI.

PE Practice · Our Capabilities

Six Ways We Drive Portfolio Value

01 01
Pre-Deal Talent Assessment

Partner with funds during due diligence to assess leadership capability and map talent landscapes ahead of acquisition.

02 02
100-Day Leadership Build

Rapid mobilisation of full Board and C-Suite at deal close to activate the value-creation roadmap without delay.

03 03
Cross-Border Talent Pools

Rigorously curated executive networks spanning North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, UAE and India.

04 04
Psychometric Assessment

Scientific testing integrated into every search to de-risk decisions and validate cultural alignment.

05 05
Diversity at Board Level

Proactive diversity sourcing strategies for Board and C-Suite — building inclusive governance and stronger performance.

06 06
Exit-Ready Profiling

Leaders who enhance enterprise value, strengthen institutional credibility, and maximise exit multiples.

Leadership

Meet The Founder

Founder & Managing Partner — Cognitive Talent Partners
Founder & Managing Partner
Cognitive Talent Partners
30+
Years Experience
5
Continents Served

The Founder and Managing Partner of Cognitive Talent Partners brings more than 30 years of deep expertise in retained executive search, talent advisory, and cross-border leadership assessment. With a career spanning some of the world's most consequential leadership mandates, he has established CTP as a globally respected boutique firm trusted by Boards, Investors, and C-suites across multiple industries and continents.

His expertise encompasses Board-level, CEO, and CXO executive talent acquisition across Artificial Intelligence, Semiconductors, Robotics, Digital, BFSI & FinTech, Retail, Consumer Products, Engineering & Product, Private Equity, Captive and Third-Party Shared Services, Infrastructure, and Energy sectors.

Prior to founding CTP, he built one of the largest retained private equity and technology executive search practices globally — working with some of the world's most prominent private equity funds, Asian business conglomerates, and global MNCs.

Anuj was featured in Forbes India and VCCircle on the evolution of operating partner models in private equity. His expertise spans identifying leadership talent across Semiconductors, AI, Digital, Machine Learning, Product Management and Robotics.

Prior to CTP, Anuj worked in the Global Executive Search Industry in Atlanta, GA and India delivering talent solutions across 15 countries. Passionate about technology, he has also been an early stage angel investor in Healthcare IoT, Artificial Intelligence and FinTech startups.

Areas of Expertise
Board & CEO Search Private Equity Technology & Digital Financial Services Infrastructure & Energy Consumer & Retail Executive Assessment Diversity & Inclusion
Global Presence
New York Gurgaon
Global Footprint

Markets We Serve

With offices in New York, Gurgaon, and Belgium, and active search mandates across four continents, CTP brings genuine local knowledge to every global engagement.

The Americas
North America
  • New York
  • Dallas
  • Silicon Valley
  • Seattle
South Asia
India & SAARC
  • Gurgaon
  • Mumbai
  • Bangalore
  • Hyderabad
Europe
EMEA
  • Belgium
  • UK
  • Netherlands
  • DACH
Asia Pacific
APAC
  • Singapore
  • Hong Kong
  • Australia
  • SEA
Mandates & Case Studies

Leadership Delivered

A selection of landmark retained mandates where CTP's sector expertise and global networks shaped the leadership trajectory of transformative organisations.

Case Study  ·  Financial Services  ·  Digital Finance
Global Custody &
Financial Services Leader
Digital Assets Division — Global Products Team Build-Out
Retained Mandate Global Search Digital Finance
Client Context
$40.3T
Assets Under Custody & Administration
$3.6T
Assets Under Management
100+
Geographic Markets

Our client is one of the world's foremost providers of financial services to institutional investors — spanning investment servicing, investment management, and investment research and trading. With a global workforce of approximately 39,000 professionals and operations across more than 100 geographic markets, the organisation is a systemically important institution in global capital markets.

In response to the accelerating industry shift toward digital finance, the client established a dedicated new division specifically focused on digital assets. This new division was built to expand upon the organisation's existing digital capabilities — incorporating crypto assets, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), blockchain infrastructure, and tokenization. The proprietary multi-asset technology platform was earmarked as a foundational component, to be evolved into a digital multi-asset platform capable of supporting crypto asset classes alongside traditional instruments.

CTP Mandate
Cognitive Talent Partners was retained to build out the global products leadership team for the new digital division. The mandate encompassed identifying and placing domain specialists capable of defining the product roadmap, creating new revenue streams, and establishing category leadership across the full digital assets spectrum. The Global Head of Product role — a strategic, division-defining appointment — was the centrepiece of this engagement.

The division was established under the leadership of a three-decade industry veteran and Executive Vice President, reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer of the parent corporation.

Search Scope — Product Category Domains

CTP's mandate specifically required domain expertise and leadership capability across the following product categories, each representing a distinct revenue stream and strategic growth vector for the new division:

  • Digital Custody
  • Cryptocurrencies
  • Tokenization
  • Payments & Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
  • Digital Asset Exchange & Trading
  • Data
Leadership Architecture

The new division's product organisation required leaders who could bridge deep technical fluency in distributed ledger and blockchain infrastructure with the commercial acumen of institutional finance — a rare intersection that demanded CTP's proprietary global talent networks across both the crypto-native and traditional financial services communities.

The search encompassed candidates across North America, Europe, and Asia — reflecting the global ambition of the division to create new peer-to-peer liquidity venues for institutional clients and investors worldwide.

Case Study  ·  Technology  ·  Digital Media & Creator Economy
Nasdaq-Listed Creator
& Digital Media Platform
C-Suite Build-Out — Chief Marketing Officer & Chief Design Officer
Nasdaq-Listed Retained Mandate Dual Role Search
Client Context
100K+
Creators on the Platform
+201%
Q2 Net Revenue Growth YoY
2016
Year Platform Founded

Our client is a Nasdaq-listed technology company that empowers creators and brands through data-driven innovation. Leveraging a flagship creator platform and a portfolio of complementary digital businesses — spanning creator memberships, brand partnerships, an agency business, and e-commerce — the organisation delivers value across the full creative ecosystem.

Since its platform launch in 2016, the company has grown to over 100,000 creators globally, providing infrastructure for storytelling, creative expression, and community building. In its most recent Q2 reporting period, the client recorded net revenue growth of 201% over the prior year — driven by premium memberships, agency revenues, and an expanding e-commerce vertical.

The client's growth strategy is anchored in a highly synergistic acquisition model: leveraging its network, infrastructure, and distribution capabilities to accelerate revenues of acquired businesses quickly and efficiently, while simultaneously validating the multifunctional capability of its platform.

CTP Mandate
Cognitive Talent Partners was selected as the client's preferred retained search partner to place two critical C-suite appointments simultaneously — a Chief Marketing Officer and a Chief Design Officer — both reporting to the President and central to the company's next phase of growth.
Role 1 — Chief Marketing Officer

The incoming Chief Marketing Officer was required to bring a sophisticated command of media relations, marketing, advertising, and partnership sales. Reporting to the President, the CMO assumed leadership of the Marketing and Business Intelligence team — responsible for the strategy and execution of paid and organic growth campaigns across the client and its full portfolio of subsidiaries.

The role demanded a leader with the commercial fluency to drive creator acquisition, premium subscription growth, and brand partnership revenue — operating at the intersection of media, data, and performance marketing.

Role 2 — Chief Design Officer

The Chief Design Officer joined the client's Product and Design team, reporting to the President with accountability for all design and innovation output — spanning product and service design, user experience, and packaging. The CDO operates in close partnership with the Chief Marketing Officer to optimise advertising, marketing, and engineering touchpoints, while managing and directing the broader creative team.

This role required a rare combination of product design sensibility, brand vision, and the operational authority to elevate creative output across a multi-platform digital ecosystem.

Functional Scope — Both Roles
  • C-Suite / President-report appointments
  • Digital media & creator platform expertise
  • Growth marketing & paid/organic strategy
  • Brand, UX & product design leadership
  • E-commerce & subscription revenue models
  • Cross-functional creative & BI team leadership
Case Study  ·  Technology  ·  Product Engineering & Lifecycle Services
Global Product Engineering
& Lifecycle Services Leader
C-Suite Build-Out — Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Digital Officer & Global Head of M&A
Retained Mandate Three-Role Search Global Engineering
Client Context
20+
Years of Engineering Excellence
56
Global Delivery Centres
11,250+
Personnel Across 13 Countries

Our client is a globally recognised product engineering and lifecycle services firm with over two decades of deep domain expertise. Trusted by many of the world's most recognised companies, the organisation operates across Aero Engines, Hi-Tech, Aerospace & Defence, Transportation (Auto and Rail), Power and Industrial, Oil & Gas, and Medical Devices.

With 56 global delivery centres and a workforce exceeding 11,250 professionals across 13 countries, the client stands at the forefront of the convergence of mechanical, electronics, software, and digital engineering — engineering solutions for a safer, cleaner world.

The organisation's deep domain knowledge and digital expertise enable its clients to accelerate product development and innovation cycles, create alternate revenue streams, enhance consumer experience, and drive greater efficiency in manufacturing operations.

CTP Mandate
Cognitive Talent Partners was retained to build out three critical leadership appointments simultaneously — a Chief Marketing Officer, a Chief Digital Officer, and a Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions. Each role represented a strategic pillar of the client's next phase of global growth, requiring leaders of exceptional pedigree from the world's most demanding engineering, technology, and consumer brands environments.
Role 1 — Chief Marketing Officer

The appointed Chief Marketing Officer — a recognised diversity leader and industry luminary listed among the top marketing executives globally — brought over 20 years of experience across some of the world's most iconic brands. Immediately prior to this appointment, the executive served as Chief Marketing Officer at a leading North American consumer goods corporation, where she oversaw a $4.5B portfolio of 16 brands.

In this role, the Chief Marketing Officer assumed full ownership of marketing strategy, brand positioning, advertising, and corporate communications across geographic regions, industry verticals, and service lines — taking a holistic view across market research, integrated marketing communications, sales channels, public relations, and pricing to align customer experience with the organisation's overall goals, ROI, and KPIs.

Role 2 — Chief Digital Officer

The appointed Chief Digital Officer was sourced from the Bay Area technology ecosystem, bringing senior leadership experience from within two of the world's foremost technology platforms. This appointment signalled the client's commitment to digital transformation at the highest level of its engineering and delivery operations.

Role 3 — Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions

CTP also placed the organisation's Global Head of M&A — a strategic role central to the client's inorganic growth agenda across its key industry verticals and geographies.

Functional Scope — All Roles
  • Global brand strategy & corporate communications
  • Integrated marketing across verticals & geographies
  • Digital transformation & engineering innovation
  • Inorganic growth & M&A strategy
  • Bay Area & global technology talent networks
  • Diversity & inclusion-led executive search
Case Study  ·  Financial Services  ·  Insurance & Emerging Technologies
Global Tier-1 Insurance Group
Emerging Technologies & Data Hub — Asia Leadership Appointment
Retained Mandate Asia-Pacific Emerging Technologies
Client Context
Top 3
Global Insurance Group by Scale
800+
HQ Employees, Paris
39
Nationalities at Group HQ

Our client is one of the world's largest global insurers — a Paris-headquartered Group whose purpose is to act for human progress by protecting what matters. With protection at the core of its business, the Group serves individuals, businesses, and societies across its global network, driven by a long-standing commitment to acting as a force for collective good.

The Group's headquarters, based in Paris, coordinates all corporate entities with the Group's overall strategy and manages international projects across its global footprint. The HQ is characterised by a strong international culture — approximately 800 employees representing 39 nationalities — reflecting the Group's genuinely global operating model.

Committed to innovation, prevention, and responsible risk management, the Group has consistently been at the forefront of leveraging data, artificial intelligence, and emerging technologies to redefine insurance for the digital age — particularly across high-growth Asian markets.

CTP Mandate
Cognitive Talent Partners was retained to identify and place the leader for the Group's Emerging Technologies and Data Hub division in Asia — a Singapore-based role of significant strategic importance, reporting to the Head of Innovation Scaling and Entity Transformation. The mandate demanded a rare profile: deep technology and data expertise combined with the entrepreneurial and co-creation capability to operate within a large, complex global insurance Group across multiple Asian markets.
Role — Head of Emerging Technologies & Data Hub, Asia

The appointed executive was tasked with leading and developing the Group's regional innovation team in Asia — responsible for developing, piloting, and scaling innovative use cases in co-creation with the Group's Asian entities. The role operates at the intersection of data partnerships, AI-driven insurance applications, and blockchain technology, with an explicit mandate to take successful pilots to implementation at scale.

Strategic Focus Areas
  • Data partnerships — banking & telecom ecosystem collaborations
  • AI-based use cases — claims automation, IoT, pricing intelligence
  • Blockchain technology applications in insurance
  • Ideation, prototyping & seed-funding of emerging tech pilots
  • Co-creation with Group entities across Asian markets
  • Scale implementation of validated innovation pilots
Focus Markets — Asia
  • China
  • Hong Kong
  • Japan
  • Thailand
  • Indonesia
  • Philippines
  • Singapore
Case Study  ·  Financial Services  ·  Insurance & Takaful — Asia
Pan-Asian Insurance Group
— Takaful Business Unit
Post-Acquisition CEO Appointment — Malaysia Market Entry & Growth
Retained Mandate CEO Appointment Post-Acquisition
Client Context
10M+
Customers Across Asia
10
Asian Markets
2013
Year Established

Our client is a pan-Asian insurance group serving over 10 million customers across 10 markets — including some of the fastest growing insurance markets in the world. Established in 2013, the Group is focused on making the insurance journey simpler, faster, and smoother through innovative propositions and easy-to-understand products, underpinned by digital technology.

Through a customer-led approach, the Group is committed to fundamentally changing the way people feel about insurance — positioning itself as a disruptive, digital-first force in Asian insurance. Its Takaful business unit serves the Islamic insurance market, operating in one of Southeast Asia's most significant growth markets.

Strategic Context — Post-Acquisition
The mandate arose directly from the Group's strategic acquisition of a 49% stake in a major bank-owned insurance business in Malaysia — one of the region's most consequential insurance transactions. Following the completion of this acquisition, the Group required a new Chief Executive Officer for its Takaful business unit to lead market expansion and drive growth within Malaysia's significant and underserved Takaful sector.
CTP Mandate
Cognitive Talent Partners was retained to identify and place the incoming Chief Executive Officer — a critical appointment that would define the Takaful unit's trajectory in Malaysia. The brief required a leader with deep Takaful expertise, a proven track record of CEO-level P&L ownership, and the commercial acumen to capitalise on the significant market share opportunities created by the acquisition.
Appointment — Chief Executive Officer, Takaful

The appointed Chief Executive Officer brought an exceptional and directly relevant pedigree — over twelve years of CEO experience leading a major Takaful operation in Malaysia for one of the world's largest global insurers. This tenure represented deep, on-the-ground expertise in the Malaysian Takaful regulatory environment, distribution landscape, and consumer market.

The appointment followed a highly targeted search focused exclusively on candidates with substantive Takaful CEO experience in the Malaysian market — a deliberately narrow brief that demanded CTP's proprietary regional financial services networks rather than a conventional database-driven approach.

Strategic Objectives — New CEO
  • Lead integration following 49% acquisition of bank-owned insurer
  • Drive significant market share growth in the Malaysian Takaful sector
  • Establish the Group's Takaful brand in a high-growth Islamic insurance market
  • Leverage digital-first proposition in an underpenetrated market
  • Build and align leadership team post-acquisition
  • Deliver on revenue, customer growth, and market positioning KPIs
Appointed Profile
  • 12+ years as CEO of a major Takaful entity in Malaysia
  • Prior experience at a globally recognised insurance Group
  • Deep expertise in Malaysian regulatory & distribution landscape
  • Proven track record of P&L ownership at CEO level
In the News

Media Coverage

Cognitive Talent Partners has been recognised by leading global and Indian business publications for thought leadership in executive search, private equity talent, and cross-border recruitment.

Additional Press Coverage
PR Newswire
Anuj Dhawan Launches Global Executive Search Firm Cognitive Talent Partners, LLP
July 2017
Hunt Scanlon Media
Cognitive Talent Partners Opens to Serve Private Equity Companies
July 2017
Our Presence

Global Offices

Strategically located to serve our clients across North America, India, and beyond.

276 Fifth Avenue New York
🇺🇸 USA
New York
United States — North America HQ
📍
Address276 Fifth Avenue, Suite #704-1375
New York, NY 10001
📞
Two Horizon Centre Gurgaon
🇮🇳 India
Gurugram
India — Asia Pacific HQ
📍
AddressTwo Horizon Centre, Golf Course Road
DLF Phase 5, Sector 43
Gurugram, Haryana 122002, India
📞
🏢
BuildingLEED Certified Gold — Fortune 500 Address
0.5 km from Sector 53–54 Rapid Metro Station