ABOUT WHALEY SEARCH
Experience to go deeper. Judgment to choose better.
Whaley Search Partners is a founder-led retained executive search and leadership advisory firm built on more than 20 years of experience assessing leaders, guiding high-stakes decisions, and helping companies secure executives prepared to carry what comes next.
Start a confidential conversation
ABOUT HEATHER
Built through the work
Heather Whaley is the Founder and Managing Partner of Whaley Search Partners. Across more than two decades in executive search, she has partnered with CEOs, boards, founders, private equity leaders, and senior executives on consequential leadership decisions.
Her work spans consumer products, food and beverage, beauty and personal care, health and wellness, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical, retail and e-commerce, distribution, transportation and logistics, manufacturing, and industrial markets.
She founded Whaley Search Partners to provide the judgment, access, candor, and personal accountability that high-stakes leadership searches require.
FOUNDER-LED MODEL
Founder-led by design
Every search is led directly by Heather—from defining the mandate and mapping the market through assessment, finalist selection, references, closing, and transition.
This model keeps communication direct, judgment consistent, and accountability clear throughout the search.
Discerning in judgment
Assess beyond presentation and pattern-match to what the mandate truly requires.
Direct in counsel
Communicate candidly so leaders can make consequential decisions with clarity.
Discreet in execution
Protect confidential circumstances, relationships, and reputations throughout the work.
Deliberate in process
Map the market, assess rigorously, and move with purpose from mandate through transition.
Decisive when it counts
Bring the evidence and judgment required to choose confidently at the consequential moment.
SEARCH PHILOSOPHY
Search is a decision discipline, not a volume exercise.
The goal is not to produce more resumes. It is to understand what the business requires, reach the right leadership market, assess beyond presentation, and help decision-makers choose with confidence.
SPEAKING & INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP
Experience behind the microphone—and around the table.
Heather has spoken at executive forums, moderated leadership discussions, served on conference committees, and contributed to senior-level conversations involving executive search, talent strategy, consumer products, operations, supply chain, and business transformation. Her perspective is grounded in the work: the questions that reveal more, the signals companies overlook, and the leadership decisions that can change the trajectory of a business.
Executive hiring judgment · Leadership assessment · Succession and transition · Consumer products leadership · Operations and supply chain · Private equity and transformation · Building effective executive teams
RECOGNITION & MEDIA
A career recognized in the industry—and beyond it.
THE WHALEY WIRE
From The Whaley Wire
Practical perspective on executive hiring, leadership assessment, and the decisions that shape companies.