FOXCAST CEO Series welcomes Dan Veitkus, CEO & Managing Partner of Corsica Partners, LLC

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Today, I am delighted to welcome Dan Veitkus, CEO & Managing Partner of Corsica Partners, LLC, a global executive search and strategic talent management firm specializing in recruiting executive leadership for private equity, venture and family office backed companies. Dan grew up in a family business and started his first company at the age of 13. Prior to entering the field of executive search and coaching, he served 20+ years as a business leader and executive for private and public companies ranging in size from $10M – $1B annual turnover in the telecom, software/SaaS and corporate learning sectors.

Dan is an active advisor to CEOs and boards and a former distinguished mentor & executive coach for the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship, an organization founded by Richard Branson to support entrepreneurs by providing leadership development, mentoring and coaching to help launch and grow their businesses. Dan is the author of the Amazon Best Seller Straight Talk Your Way to Success. He also produced a Broadway Show, Dream Big: The Rudy Ruettiger Story, now available on Amazon Prime.

Succession is easily one of the top three evergreen topics and challenges that UHNW families and their family offices contend with all the time. Dan explains why it is important that succession happens in the family office in a planful and smooth way. He highlights how succession in the family office is different from traditional corporate succession and business continuity practices and points out the unique distinctions of family office transitions and successions.

Based on his extensive experience advising and recruiting talent for family offices, Dan offers his practical suggestions for family offices and family principals looking to hire key executive talent as part of their succession planning.

He also offers practical tips for all the other stakeholders in the succession process, including the candidates looking to land the key role at a family office, but also the advisors, family office employees, and family members who participate in or are impacted by the leadership transition.

Enjoy this insightful conversation with a leading talent and operations practitioner and advisor in the UHNW and family office space.

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A well-developed succession plan forces you to confront brutal truths…

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Jensen Huang is certain “NVIDIA will outlive us all.”

Not, “I’m working on finding a replacement.”

Not, “We have a succession committee.”

A declaration of organizational immortality.

Meanwhile, Brad Jacobs has built eight billion-dollar companies. United Waste. United Rentals. XPO and its spinoffs.

Every single one designed from day one to thrive without him.

Same principle. Radically different execution.

Jensen’s been CEO of NVIDIA for 31 years. One company. One mission. One lifetime commitment. His succession plan? Build systems so deep that no single person matters. Including him.

40+ direct reports. No hierarchical bottlenecks. Every division runs independently. Information flows everywhere, not through him.

The company doesn’t need Jensen. The company IS Jensen. His thinking embedded in every process, every hire, every decision framework.

Brad takes the opposite path. Eight companies in 40 years. Each one built, scaled, and transitioned. $15+ billion in value created across ventures.

His succession plan starts on day one. Before buying or building any company, he identifies who could run it without him. At XPO, he developed Mario Harik for years before handing over the CEO role. The company kept thriving after he left.

Brad builds companies FOR buyers and shareholders, not for founders.

Jensen builds a company that needs NO buyer because it will never be sold.

Here’s what most founders get wrong:

They think succession planning means finding someone like them.

Jensen and Brad know better. Succession isn’t about replacement. It’s about self-reliance; making the company self-reliant. Make yourself unnecessary from the start.

The harsh truth every founder must face: If your company needs you, you haven’t built a company. You’ve built a job.

Jensen made NVIDIA need his thinking, not his presence. Every senior leader can step into another’s role. Every system operates without central command. He once told his team: “If a bus hits me tomorrow, don’t even pause the product roadmap.”

Brad made his companies need systems, not him. Processes over personality. Frameworks over founders. Scale over saviors. Before selling United Waste for $2.5 billion, multiple executives could run any division. The buyer got a machine, not a dependency.

Two paths. One destination: Organizations that outlast their creators.

But here’s the real succession secret Jensen and Brad both mastered:

The plan comes before the person. Not “Who can replace me?” but “What must the next era accomplish?”

A well-developed succession plan forces you to confront brutal truths:

→ The gaps in your current leadership team

→ The concerns that keep you up at night

→ The opportunities you’re missing because of your blind spots

→ The possibilities that only fresh eyes can see

Most founders start with the candidate. That’s backwards.

Start with crystal clarity on what must be accomplished under the next term of leadership.

What does the business need to achieve in the next 5 years? 10 years? What capabilities must the next leader possess? What cultural shifts must occur?

Only then do you pursue the ideal fit with relentless focus.

Not the most convenient choice. Not the longest-tenured executive. Not your favorite. The ideal fit for the plan.

I always coach leaders – build the plan first, then find the person who can execute it.

Because succession without a clear plan is just replacement.

And replacement without the ideal candidate is just hope.

And hope is not a strategy.

Your move.

Executive Hiring Tightens Now, Sets Stage for Selective Rebound in 2026

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Executive hiring is entering a new era — one defined by precision, discipline, and measurable impact rather than headcount growth. Dan Veitkus of Corsica Partners says boards and CEOs are now prioritizing “must-have” leadership roles tied to transformation, growth, and value creation. Mr. Veitkus joins Hunt Scanlon Media to discuss the shift from expansion to precision hiring, how market forces are reshaping executive search, and what trends are defining leadership demand heading into 2026.

November 1, 2025 – After a period of aggressive talent expansion fueled by post-pandemic recovery and capital liquidity, executive hiring is entering a new phase — one defined less by growth at any cost and more by targeted investment. Boards and CEOs are recalibrating leadership priorities, emphasizing profitability, transformation, and resilience over pure headcount expansion. The mindset has shifted from “who can we add?” to “what capability do we truly need right now?” This evolution is changing not just who gets hired, but how and when those decisions are made.

Across industries, we’re seeing a sharper focus on precision, alignment, and measurable value creation. Executive search mandates increasingly originate from clear business inflection points — digital transformation, margin compression, succession planning, or restructuring. The result: hiring remains active, but more deliberate. Firms are making fewer, more strategic appointments, expecting leaders to deliver immediate impact under tighter scrutiny and shorter timeframes.

“What I’m seeing is a move from expansion hiring to precision hiring at the executive level,” said Dan Veitkus, managing partner and CEO of Corsica Partners. “Boards and CEOs are narrowing mandates — fewer across-the-board C-suite additions, more “must-have” roles in transformation, growth, turnaround, or new strategic bets.”

Among public companies, hiring is more measured: succession, digital, ESG, or cost-optimization leaders lead the list, according to Mr. Veitkus. “In private equity backed firms, you’ll see compressed hiring windows tied to deal cycles — more active in the post-close value creation period,” he said. “For venture-backed companies (especially early to growth stage), the shift is toward fractional or interim executives, or using venture operators rather than full-time hires until scale justifies it. Across all sectors, I’m seeing increased use of stretch roles (e.g. a head of operations who also leads digital transformation), stronger alignment of executive mandates to financial metrics, and more rigorous fit and runway criteria.”

In short, Mr. Veitkus explained that executive hiring is alive, but it happens on tighter timelines and under greater scrutiny than in past cycles. “We’re now placing discipline ahead of volume in executive hiring,” he said. “For PE deals, the executive search window is a leading signal — not a lagging one.”

Related: Executive Search 2025: Balancing AI Innovation with a Human Touch

So what is causing this? “It’s a confluence of macro headwinds, internal pressures, and evolving expectations — especially at the C-level,” said Mr. Veitkus. He noted that a few of the strongest forces include:

  • Capital discipline and margin pressure — Boards demand returns; adding executives is not a cost you can absorb lightly.
  • Risk asymmetry in leadership — A mis-hire at the executive level carries outsized reputational and financial risk, so the selection bar is higher.
  • Investor scrutiny and activism — Private equity sponsors want executives who can deliver value quickly; public shareholders demand governance, ESG, and performance signals.
  • Talent scarcity and upskilling gaps — Deep domain, cross-industry, or transformation-capable executives are thin. The market for “fit + future-readiness” is narrow.
  • Expectation of speed and accountability — They are expected to shorten time-to-impact in 12 to 18 months or risk replacement.
  • Alternative models (fractional / gig / interim leadership) — Especially in VC and smaller PE platforms, there’s less willingness to commit before the business proves scale.

“A telling data point: PE deals have become more operationally intense — and that drives demand for executives who can hit the ground running in post-close value creation,” Mr. Veitkus said. “And in VC, there’s growing acceptance of fractional models for CFOs, COOs, etc., to preserve capital while testing the leadership fit.”

Dan VeitkusDan Veitkus is managing partner and CEO of Corsica Partners a global executive search, recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and growth advisory firm. The firm works with global, leading private equity firms, portfolio companies and recognized F500 brands to recruit senior talent, evaluate and develop high-potential individuals and scale growth companies effectively and efficiently. Corsica Partners’ search expertise extends from the boardroom to the back office, encompassing critical roles in the C-Suite to building and scaling across business functions, including sales, marketing, finance, human resources, engineering and product teams. The firm has placed over 4,000 professionals in technology product and services companies, including software, SaaS, PaaS, cloud services, robotics, consumer, semiconductor, healthcare IT, supply chain, AI, machine learning and blockchain.

“So, the cautious approach is not inertia — it’s a new maturity in how C-suite investment is evaluated,” Mr. Veitkus continued. “In executive search today, the upside must justify the risk — or the seat stays empty. Investor discipline now vetoes speculative executive hiring. And fractional leadership is not a stopgap — it’s a strategic option in early-stage deals.”

Near-Term Outlook

Mr. Veitkus’ baseline view is to expect a subdued Q4 with selective upticks in sectors tied to digital, AI, sustainability, M&A, and restructuring — especially in public and PE portfolios. “Into 2026, I lean toward a deliberate rebound in executive hiring, but one stratified by firm strength, sector, geography, and willingness to accept deployment timing risk,” he said.

“A few leadership mandates will resume — especially where delayed transitions, retirements or strategic pivots are unavoidable,” Mr. Veitkus said. “Firms with clean balance sheets (public or PE-backed) will lead. Boards will double down on executive mandates framed as value drivers (AI and digital transformations, growth, M&A, digital). Some backfill roles in transformation, innovation, ESG will slip through.

Looking to 2026

“I expect more confidence if macro cues soften (rate cuts, stabilized inflation, stronger growth),” Mr. Veitkus continued. “The most aggressive hiring, however, will likely be in sectors where disruption is accelerating: AI/ML, renewables, health tech, advanced manufacturing, supply chain. PE-backed platforms that have raised new funds will resume executive buildouts, particularly in commercial, operating and go-to-market leadership. Executive search itself may see an uptick in deal activity and consolidation — search firms betting on a rebound as cited by you, Hunt Scanlon.”

“That said, downside risks remain: a macro shock, renewed credit stress, or prolonged geopolitical disruption could derail confidence and slow hiring,” Mr. Veitkus stressed. “ The fourth quarter will be one where select executive mandates break through — but it won’t be a hiring wave. 2026 will be the year executive hiring reclaims momentum — but only for the prepared and differentiated.”

“Leaders who adapt now — in mindset, metrics, and managerial agility — will win the first leap upward when the cycle turns,” said Mr. Veitkus. “I also believe continued consolidation in our industry will result in clients continuing to gravitate towards the differentiation that boutique firms offer – with preference for personalized, meaningful and senior partner engagement over large conglomerates where search is no longer the core business or where size makes clients feel like just one of many.”

Related: Global Employers Take Cautious Approach to Q4 Hiring

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor  – Hunt Scanlon Media

AI Talent The Continuum

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In private equity, the game is to solve things. To acquire. To optimize. To professionalize. To exit.

But when it comes to AI, that word — “solve” — belongs in quotes.

Because AI isn’t a problem you fix. It’s a capability you continuously evolve.

The equation keeps changing: data shifts, models drift, tools multiply, and what was cutting-edge six months ago is suddenly table stakes.

So the real question becomes:

How do PE firms and their portfolio companies “solve” for AI talent when the variables are constantly in motion?

The AI Talent Continuum

When you strip away the noise, success with AI comes down to three interconnected roles: The Strategist > The Operator > The Tactician

Each plays a vital part. Each is incomplete without the others. And knowing which one you need right now is the difference between a flashy pilot and a scalable capability.

1. The AI Strategist – Charting the Course

The Strategist sits closest to the boardroom. They’re masters at connecting the dots between investor expectations, business needs, and technology opportunity.

This is the role that plays beautifully at board meetings as they layout the AI roadmap. The narrative sings. The vision inspires. Everyone leaves the room nodding in agreement that “AI is a priority.”

But as we all know… A plan without execution is just the Dallas Cowboys for the last three decades.

So after the decks are polished, the key question emerges:

Who will actually do the work? Build vs buy? Internal vs outsourced? What capabilities do we really need in-house?

2. The AI Operator – Bridging Vision and Action

The Operator is the translator — the connective tissue between big vision and practical execution.

They know how to turn “AI roadmap” slides into working systems and repeatable processes. They’re allergic to hype and obsessed with outcomes.

The Operator asks:

Does this initiative move the margin or the mission?

Do we have the right data foundation to scale?

How do we embed AI into workflows, not bolt it on?

They’re pragmatic, commercially-minded, and fluent in both SQL and EBITDA.

This is the quiet leader who actually makes transformation stick.

3. The AI Tactician – Building the Future, Line by Line

These are your builders — data scientists, ML engineers, prompt architects, AI product developers.

They’re happiest with hands on the keyboard, bringing new models and tools to life. They’re curious, creative, and fast.

But sometimes… they’re solving the wrong problem beautifully.

Without the Operator’s guidance and Strategist’s context, even the most elegant model can turn into a science project instead of a business advantage.

When aligned, though? They’re the engine that turns ideas into IP, prototypes into products, and roadmaps into enterprise value.

Putting It Together: The Private Equity Lens

For PE firms and portfolio companies, the challenge isn’t whether to invest in AI talent — it’s how and when.

Each stage of maturity demands a different blend:

Early Stage / Carve-Out: Start with a Strategist to map the AI opportunity.

Growth Stage: Layer in Operators who can operationalize pilots and wins.

Scale Stage: Build your internal AI capability while partnering externally for speed.

The mistake? Hiring a single “Head of AI” and expecting them to do all three jobs. That’s not a strategy — that’s a setup.

Culture Is the Force Multiplier

The best portfolio companies don’t just add data scientists — they create a culture that allows AI to thrive.

They democratize data. Reward curiosity. Celebrate progress over perfection.

Because AI transformation isn’t just about skillsets — it’s about mindsets. Shift the paradigm.

The Takeaway

AI isn’t something you install — it’s something you become.

It takes: The Strategist to define the why; The Operator to drive the how; The Tactician to make it real.

Each role evolves. Each is essential. And the art is knowing which to emphasize — and when.

The Call to Action

If you’re a PE partner evaluating AI maturity across your portfolio, or an operator translating AI ambition into execution — it starts with people, not platforms.

At Corsica Partners, we help investors and executives build the teams that turn AI theory into enterprise advantage.

Let’s connect and map where your organization sits on the AI Talent Continuum — and what it takes to move from vision to value.

The Blindfold

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The same brilliance that builds billion-dollar companies destroys them.

It’s not incompetence. It’s not simply arrogance. It’s a twisted bi-product of success itself.

Watch the pattern that killed billion-dollar empires.

These leaders didn’t lose their intelligence. Success replaced their curiosity with certainty.

1997: Blockbuster has 6,470 stores, $3.91 billion in revenue, and 12 years of experience. Netflix is tiny and unproven.

But Blockbuster CEO, John Antioco, was blinded by success.

Fast forward 13 years, Blockbuster goes bust — audiences demand more Netflix.

1998: Yahoo refuses to buy Google for $1 million. CEO Tim Koogle built Yahoo from startup to $125 billion through complex thinking and deep curiosity.

But success whispered: “Humans curate better than algorithms.”

Google’s algorithm ate them alive.

2000: MySpace dominates social media. 115 million users. Their founders, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, built it from nothing through curiosity and critical thinking.

But success taught them the wrong lesson: “Customization is king.”

Facebook won with simplicity they couldn’t see.

2007: Nokia controls 40% of phones. CEO Jorma Ollila was Europe’s most celebrated executive. He transformed Nokia from paper mills to mobile phones through raw cognitive horsepower.

But success convinced him: “Hardware excellence wins.”

iPhone destroyed them with an app store.

BlackBerry’s Mike Lazaridis: Built the company through obsessive curiosity about mobile email. Died believing physical keyboards were sacred.

See the transformation?

Every single leader STARTED with:

• Cognitive horsepower — Processing complex problems

• Critical thinking — Questioning everything

• Deep curiosity — Hunger to learn

• Complex model building — Understanding how systems work

That’s HOW they built billion-dollar companies.

But then success performed a magic trick…

It replaced their critical thinking skills with overreliance on the patterns of their past success.

Their curiosity became certainty.

Their questions became irrefutable answers.

I call this The Attenuation Factor: The gradual loss in force, effect, value or relevance of one’s experience as conditions change.

When you succeed, your brain locks in the pattern. “This worked, so this is how things work.”

You stop thinking critically because… why would you?

You built a $6 billion company. You must know something.

But here’s the killer:

Your success came from foundational attributes that never expire.

Your failure comes from pattern recognition that expires in 18 months.

Let’s take John Antioco as an example:

Antioco at Circle K: No answers, just grit and critical thinking. He turned it around from bankruptcy to a $425M sale in 2 years.

Antioco at Taco Bell: Pure critical thinking and managing complexity. “What if fast food could be… faster?” In just 8 months, he reversed the 18-month streak of declining sales.

Antioco at Blockbuster: Pure pattern recognition. “Late fees work because they’ve always worked.”

Same person. Same intelligence.

Wrong mindset.

This is happening to you right now ↓

Think about your biggest win.

– What patterns did you extract from it?

– What “lessons” did you learn?

– What “truths” do you now believe?

Those patterns are already decaying.

Because the leaders that embrace disruption thrive!

Reed Hastings. Jeff Bezos. Satya Nadella.

They had the same early success as Antioco — but it didn’t blind them.

Hastings, Bezos, Nadella — they did something different:

They treated success as data, not doctrine.

They kept their foundational attributes active:

• Still questioning despite being proven right

• Still curious despite knowing their industry

• Still thinking despite having working patterns

They understood something brutal:

Success is the enemy of critical thinking.

The more you win, the less you question.

The less you question, the more you trust patterns.

The more you trust patterns, the closer you get to death.

Because certainty is the antithesis of growth.

Satya Nadella at Microsoft: “Be a learn-it-all, not a know-it-all.”

Jeff Bezos at Amazon: “Day 2 is stasis, followed by irrelevance, followed by death.”

Reed Hastings at Netflix: “We have to destroy our own business before someone else does.”

They protected their beginner’s mind despite their expert success.

The Attenuation Factor is a silent killer. AI will multiply the casualties.

The remedy:

1) The Quarterly Unlearning

Pick your strongest belief about your business.

Spend a full week trying to destroy it.

Can’t find flaws? You’re already dying.

2) The Anti-Perfect Resume Hire

Your next senior role: Zero industry experience required.

Just raw cognitive horsepower and a raging level of curiosity.

Hungry. Humble. Core Values Aligned. Fresh Perspective.

Veterans bring patterns. Rookies bring possibilities.

3) The Competitor Test

“If I was starting from scratch against myself, how would I win?”

Weak answer? You’re vulnerable.

No answer? Find a tombstone.

4) The 18-Month Expiration

Strategies older than 18 months: Prove they still work

Beliefs older than 3 years: Burn them down and rebuild

Success stories older than 5 years: Cautiously remember them. Be cognizant of which beliefs they’re still shaping within you. Likely, it’s time for an update.

The moment you trust your experience more than your curiosity, the clock starts ticking.

The saddest part about Blockbuster?

Antioco had the cognitive horsepower to see Netflix coming.

He just traded it for pattern recognition.

He had the critical thinking to adapt.

He just trusted his patterns more.

Your confidence in pattern recognition will kill you the same way.

Unless you choose curiosity over certainty.

Questions over answers.

Thinking over remembering.

The moment you stop thinking like a beginner, you start dying like an expert.

Because in the end, most companies die embracing what success used to look like;

Death comes when you let success blindfold you.

The blindfold has a name: The Attenuation Factor

CAIO: Not the Next Title—The New Foundation

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CAIO! This is not a misspelled Italian greeting; it’s the signpost signaling the rise of the Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer.

We’ve seen a surge in organizations (financial sponsors and their portcos) racing to appoint their first CAIO and we’ve helped them develop the requirements and recruit the best talent for this new C-Suite appointment. But what’s next?

According to a recent AWS study surveying over 3,700 C-suite executives globally, 60% of large enterprises have already appointed a Chief AI Officer (CAIO), and another 26% plan to do so by 2026 pointing to nearly 9 out of 10 organizations will have CAIO-level leadership in place within two years. But appointing a CAIO is not “mission accomplished”!

AI cannot be a project, initiative or lost in a silo. AI must be foundational, a first principle for every function and every C-suite leader.

We engage with AI-First companies to drive alignment across all exec hiring and functions:

· CEOs pressure testing strategy, GTM models, partnerships and product roadmaps, laser focused on improving the velocity of innovation and profitable revenue growth.
· Product leaders launching GenAI-native applications and platform enhancements.
· Finance leaders building more nimble and efficient teams and business processes.
· HR reshaping workforce models, training and onboarding programs with AI.
· Commercial leaders leveraging AI to drive pipeline hygiene and discipline with deeper, more integrated customer insights.

Hiring for AI fluency across the entire executive team isn’t just forward-thinking — it’s foundational.

Who are you trusting to tell your AI story?