# Michelle Edmondson

Michelle Edmondson works in executive search and advisory for senior technology and cyber leaders. Edmondson's posts describe CIO, CTO and CISO searches, executive assessment, and helping leaders explain their experience and impact.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/michelle-edmondson/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/m-edmondson
- LinkedIn followers: 10,501
- Topics: recruiting
- Based on 11 dated posts, latest 2026-10-09

## Summary

Useful for evidence-led thought leadership on CIO and CISO hiring and executive assessment.

- Best for: Search firms or boards hiring CIOs and CISOs who want practical hiring content.
- Not for: Consumer brands seeking sponsored product posts for broad consumer audiences.
- Check first: Confirm sponsorship or content collaboration availability, deliverables, disclosure, and audience data.

### Takeaways

- Hiring a CIO or CISO is about fit for one mandate, not ranking who is best.
- Interview performance is not evidence of capability.
- Candidates have to make their own case, because the consultant makes it in the room.

## Main ideas

- **Hiring a CIO or CISO is about fit for one mandate, not ranking who is best**: Edmondson argues that executive search is not a league table of the strongest candidates. A search consultant may meet an outstanding CISO and decide not to put them forward—not because someone better exists, but because the client needs something specific. The consultant’s job is to understand the mandate, advise the client on the market and the company’s needs, and find people whose experience and leadership fit.
- **The formally engaged model means taking responsibility for the appointment**: Edmondson argues that proper executive search is not a race among recruiters to get CVs in front of a client. In the formally engaged model described here, the firm is hired by the company and takes responsibility for the appointment before approaching any candidates. The work begins with understanding why the company is hiring, what needs to change and whether everyone involved in the decision agrees on what they are looking for.
- **Interview performance is not evidence of capability**: Edmondson warns that a CIO interview process can end up selecting the best interviewer rather than the best CIO. Some executives are polished, articulate, quick on their feet and ready with a compelling answer. That is impressive, but it does not prove they should lead a technology function. The countermeasure is to agree on what is being assessed before interviews begin and give the hiring team criteria more useful than instinct.
- **Getting known by search firms is not a strategy; understanding how search works is**: Edmondson considers “get to know some headhunters” unhelpful advice. More useful, they say, is understanding how the system works and how to position yourself within it: how mandates are won, how firms identify potential candidates, how researchers and consultants map a market, why an executive might hear nothing for months and then suddenly get a call, and how to build relationships before a relevant role exists.
- **Candidates have to make their own case, because the consultant makes it in the room**: Edmondson says one question follows every meeting with a CIO or CISO: what am I going to tell my client? To put someone forward, the consultant needs to explain why they fit this business, what they have delivered, how they think, where they have made difficult decisions, what changed because of their leadership and where the client should probe further. The client is paying for judgement, so the consultant must understand the candidate well enough to put their own credibility behind the introduction and argue the case when the candidate is not in the room. The clearer executives make their case to the consultant, the stronger the consultant’s case will be.

## Work to read

- [Executive search matches candidates to a mandate, not a ranking of the “best CISO”](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/m-edmondson_executive-search-is-about-fit-to-a-specific-activity-7513214107194560513-sZJK)
- [Why Edmondson Group works only on a retained basis](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/m-edmondson_why-do-we-only-work-on-a-retained-basis-activity-7510707610149548032-LwBC)
- [Your CIO interview process may be selecting the best interviewer rather than the best CIO](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/m-edmondson_your-cio-interview-process-may-be-selecting-activity-7513606598033047552-ZdRw)
- [What happens in CIO and CISO advisory sessions](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/m-edmondson_a-few-of-my-favourite-things-from-this-week-activity-7514338899859800064-PS4H)
- [What a search consultant must be able to tell the client after meeting a candidate](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/m-edmondson_after-every-meeting-with-a-cio-or-ciso-there-activity-7512851623392624643-BBeU)

## Brand relationships

- **Edmondson Group** (employment)

## Partnerships

Michelle Edmondson's posts describe commercial work in executive search and one-to-one advisory, not sponsorships or brand content partnerships. Edmondson Group has delivered executive searches for 15 years, taking responsibility for CIO, CTO and CISO appointments from brief definition through market mapping and candidate assessment. Edmondson also describes advisory sessions with individual CIOs and CISOs, including a module on how executive search works and how to engage with it, and weekly sessions on reshaping an executive's narrative, interview answers and market positioning. These services are sold to companies hiring executives and to executives themselves; neither is presented as a paid placement, sponsored post or co-produced content slot for a brand or agency. The posts include no media kit, sponsorship policy, published rate card, disclosed brand collaboration or public partnership inquiry route. A search firm or agency considering a thought-leadership or advisory content collaboration would need to approach Edmondson directly and agree on scope, deliverables and disclosure. Ask whether Edmondson offers this work and on what terms.

## Alternatives

- Warren Beazley: For thought leadership from a search firm hiring CIOs or CISOs, consider Beazley when the campaign should focus on technology-leadership mandates and the business case for a strategic search. Beazley’s posts argue that technology leaders should be assessed on what they have built and delivered, and that hiring teams should define the role’s outcomes. This gives a campaign a more technology-hiring-centered angle than Edmondson’s posts on candidate assessment and executive-search process.
- Marc Okeon: Consider Okeon when the hiring need is specifically about startup executive roles and aligning stakeholders. Okeon’s examples address changing or unclear criteria during a search and the distinction between a senior title and hands-on operating ability. They give a search firm concrete material for a campaign about setting a realistic brief and keeping a hiring process focused.
- Roy Ripper: Consider Ripper if the campaign focuses on the commercial side of running a recruitment business rather than CIO/CISO hiring. Ripper’s examples discuss how assignments affect revenue forecasting and how a founder’s or recruiter’s individual skill can become a growth bottleneck. That material is more relevant to recruitment-firm operators than Edmondson’s mandate and candidate-assessment themes.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/