Every search begins with a written brief and a single retainer payment, agreed before any work commences. We review the brief in full with the client — not because it is procedure, but because a misaligned brief produces a wrong hire. We accept a mandate only when we have the capacity to conduct it properly. Meridian maintains eight active mandates at any time for exactly this reason.
Marcus Lim conducts every search personally — sourcing, assessing, and presenting candidates to the client without exception. There are no junior researchers, no associate-led long-lists, and no database trawls passed off as executive search. The person you speak to on the first call is the person who makes the final approach to your candidate. This accountability is structural, not incidental.
Every active mandate receives a written status update each Friday throughout the search. Not a portal login or a shared spreadsheet. A letter: what we have done in the past seven days, who we have spoken to, what we have learned about the market, and what we intend to do next. If the search is not progressing, the letter will say so — and explain why.
We have placed CFOs, Heads of Treasury, Group Finance Directors, and Heads of Internal Audit across listed companies, private equity portfolio businesses, and regional banks in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Our finance mandates are typically board-initiated appointments — principals who have operated across multiple regulatory jurisdictions and can speak credibly to investors, regulators, and audit committees simultaneously. We do not work from a database of available candidates; every approach is individually researched and individually made. Our placement record since 2021 reflects a market that rewards specificity over volume.
Our legal practice covers General Counsel and Senior Legal Counsel appointments across financial services, technology, and fast-growth private companies. We understand that the transition from private practice to an in-house role is not a promotion — it is a change of discipline — and we brief candidates accordingly. The General Counsel mandates we accept typically carry a seat at the operating committee, not a position three levels below it. We have placed counsel into businesses from Series C through to post-IPO stage, and into regional bank holding companies navigating cross-border regulatory complexity.
We place CTOs, VPs of Engineering, Chief Data Officers, and Heads of Product Engineering, with a concentration in financial technology and enterprise software businesses headquartered or operating regionally. Our technology mandates come from boards that require a commercially literate technologist — someone who can hold a conversation with the CFO and the engineering organisation in the same afternoon. The candidates we present have typically managed significant engineering teams and understand that technology leadership at this level is as much about organisational design as it is about architecture. We do not place engineers who want to continue engineering; we place technologists who want to build institutions.
Current searches. Updated weekly.
All mandates are confidential beyond what is shown here.
Fourteen years.
One discipline.
Marcus Lim spent fourteen years in executive search before founding Meridian in 2021. He began at Korn Ferry in Singapore, later leading the financial services practice at a boutique retained firm across the region. Over that period he conducted searches for boards and management committees in finance, legal, and technology — placing CFOs for SGX-listed companies, General Counsel for regional banks, and CTOs for Series B and C technology businesses.
Meridian was founded on a single conviction: retained search done at this level should not be delegated. The model that operates at most established firms — where partners win mandates and associates conduct searches — produces a structural conflict of interest. The person accountable to the client is not the person doing the work. Meridian operates the opposite way. Eight mandates at any time. One consultant. Every search conducted by the same person who agreed to conduct it.
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