Synova is a lifetime talent company. Executive and professional search is the flagship, built over more than thirty years by founder Tom Johnston, known in the industry as the Headhunter for Headhunters. Traditional search begins with an opening and ends with a placement. Synova begins with people and stays invested across careers, companies and generations. That is the whole premise of the firm: people before placements.

What sets the work apart is who does it. Most firms staff a search with a recruiter who has never worked in the field, or whose industry knowledge is decades old. Behind every Synova engagement is a network of over 100 Senior Advisors, active leaders and functional experts who have recently held the roles being recruited for. They open doors a recruiter cannot, because a sitting CFO takes the call from another CFO. They assess the way an operator assesses. They tell the client honestly what the role actually requires, which is often different from what the position description says. Technology supports all of it, with custom-trained engines for search briefs, candidate profiling and market mapping, but a person still makes the call. AI-empowered, human-led.

Synova recruits the whole organization, not just the corner office. Placements run from CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CROs and board members through VPs, directors, controllers, plant managers, sales leaders and technical talent, across practices in industrial operations and transformation, defense-tech, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, and sports, entertainment and media. The firm recruits across the United States and internationally, wherever a client’s business takes it. Private equity is one of the deepest practices, with more than 200 completed searches for PE-backed portfolio companies behind it. The Synergy Program builds on that record, giving a fund one talent partner across the entire portfolio from pre-close diligence through exit. Alongside permanent search, the firm delivers interim, fractional and project leadership for clients who need an experienced operator in days rather than months.

The model is deliberately different. Limited off-limits restrictions, no hidden charges, and engagement economics designed with each client, including one agreement across a fund’s portfolio companies and a Portfolio Partnership Credit when the client creates the opportunity. On flexible talent, every line of the economics is in plain sight: the professional’s compensation, the fee, the employment costs. Internally, a portion of every search fee is shared based on contribution, so the whole firm shows up on every engagement. Rounding it out is a career management practice, including the book Where’s Your Buffalo?, a structured curriculum, seminars, and a modern alternative to outplacement, so the relationship can start years before someone becomes a candidate and continue long after a search closes.