C-Level Executive Search Boutique advises CEOs, boards, investors, founders, private equity firms and industrial enterprises on critical leadership appointments across Automotive & Aftermarket, Industrial, and Technology sectors.
We work with boards, CEOs, and investors on the leadership decisions that shape the next chapter of a company.
Mandates focused on transformation, growth, value creation, and leadership under performance pressure.
Sensitive succession, replacement, and senior leadership transitions handled with discretion and judgement.
Leadership search and advisory across Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the wider European market.
A senior network built through personal relationships, applied one decision and one mandate at a time — not aggregated catalogue work.
Leadership changes execution speed, investor confidence and enterprise value.
Each sector practice is led with direct senior involvement and a clear view of the operating realities behind the mandate — from transformation and aftermarket disruption to investor-led performance environments.
From OEM and Tier-1 supply through to independent aftermarket networks — leadership for the structural shift the industry is going through right now.
Mid-cap and large industrial enterprises navigating operating model change, restructuring, and the next chapter of European manufacturing.
Scale-stage software, deep-tech, and industrial technology businesses where the leadership decision unlocks the next stage of value creation.
Portfolio CEOs, operating partners, and value-creation leadership across the full holding period — from thesis to exit readiness.
The perspective behind MARKUT Executive Search is shaped by extensive leadership experience across operational, commercial and transformation-driven management positions within industry environments — including restructuring situations, growth phases, operational transformation and investor-led performance environments.
First-hand industry leadership exposure across restructuring, transformation and growth — the same environments our mandates are recruited into.
Every mandate is treated as a strategic question. The process starts with business context — not a database query or a long-list reflex.
The work is led personally, not delegated. Boards and investors deal with the same advisor from first conversation to signature.
Access to the strongest leaders depends on trust, reputation, and continuity — built across two decades of board-level work.
Each engagement is run as a five-stage advisory process — designed to give boards and investors clarity, control, and confidence at every step of the decision.
Clarify business context, leadership challenge, stakeholder expectations, and a written success profile before any market contact begins.
Research-led identification of relevant companies, leadership pools, and target profiles — including those beyond the visible market.
Confidential outreach, interest testing with the necessary care, and structured assessment against the agreed success profile.
A short, considered shortlist with structured profiles, assessment notes, and explicit fit rationale — not a long stack of CVs.
Coordinate references, board alignment, negotiation, and final decision support through to a signed contract and successful onboarding.
Advisory work remains relationship-led. But speed, consistency, and information quality matter more than ever. Our operating model is designed to support senior judgement with structured workflows, sharper research, and continuity across mandates.
Most transformation programs are well-designed and under-led. A note on why operating model change so often fails at the level of the executive team — and what it takes to fix it.
Read perspective →Succession is treated as a process problem when it is, in fact, a judgement problem. Observations on where boards over-engineer the mechanics and under-invest in the decision.
Read perspective →Why portfolio leadership models that worked five years ago no longer survive the current holding period — and what the next generation of PE-backed executives needs to look like.
Read perspective →Pressure exposes leadership quality faster than any interview can predict it. A short framework on what to look for — and what to stop interviewing for — when the stakes are real.
Read perspective →Whether you are preparing a succession, strengthening leadership capabilities, or accelerating transformation — MARKUT acts as a trusted advisor to CEOs, boards, and investors requiring discreet access to proven executive talent.
MARKUT is led personally by Norbert Markut — an advisor to boards, investors, and chief executives on the leadership decisions that define enterprise value. The work draws on more than two decades at the senior end of executive search, alongside first-hand industry leadership experience across restructuring, transformation, growth, and investor-led performance environments.
That dual perspective — operator and advisor — shapes how every mandate is approached: with a clear view of the operating realities the appointment is walking into, and the standards a board or investor should be entitled to expect.
Every engagement is led personally. Boards and investors deal with the same advisor from the first conversation through to signature — and, where useful, well beyond it.
If you are an executive open to discreet, mandate-specific conversations, we welcome an introduction. Contact is selective and follows only when a relevant mandate aligns.