A CEO for Systemic Global Change Mission

At a critical pivot point in their growth trajectory and with diversity at the heart of their business, the Founder and Board called on our expertise to help secure a successor CEO.

The Valuable 500 are a global business partnership of 500 companies working together to end disability exclusion through synchronised collective action. 

In early 2023, the Founder and Board had arrived on an incredibly bold 3-year strategic plan to scale their impact, culminating in a global event in 2025. 

A critical cornerstone of the plan was to secure a new CEO, yet the company was young, resource light, and had the complexity of partnering with 500 of the world’s most influential brands and their CEOs.

The right appointment really required the company to think outside the box and run a robust and comprehensive process which they did not have the skills, network, budget, or indeed the time, to do in-house or through traditional executive search suppliers.

Excelerator Partners worked with the Founder and Board to design, develop and manage the process to secure a new CEO for the Valuable 500. 

We embedded in the business and brought together a team from the company, their main Board and also their Advisory Board to be part of the selection process, incorporated experts in leadership assessment, and rigorously identified, attracted and assessed a diverse range of talent. It was an incredible experience to work with such a dynamic and mission change-maker like Caroline and her Board.

We were privileged to support the organisation in such an important and under-represented diversity mission, and to work with so many fantastic candidates like Katy Talikowska, who is now Valuable’s new CEO.

Excelerator Partners not only seamlessly become one of our team, they became a highly trusted advisor. With their vast experience they had a unique understanding of where we were in our organisational journey and balanced agility, rigour, professionalism, humour and kindness in working with us. Not only was the appointment of our new CEO incredibly successful, but dare I say, it was enjoyable, and that is how EP engaged, advised and led us through the process.

Caroline Casey, Founder Valuable 500