Legal and Executive
Search Consultants
& Leadership Advisors

Gillian Tessis listened to us, appropriately challenged us, and offered insightful and practical advice while leading and delivering a methodical executive search process for us. Gillian was highly responsive and accessible and guided our selection committee to ensure we moved forward effectively and efficiently. She presented us a rich Shortlist of candidates from which we selected our new Executive Director and provided exceptional value-add to our hiring process.

Our new Vice President of Sales, North America was crucial to our growth plan. We contracted Gillian Tessis’ firm and she produced a fantastic short list from which we made an outstanding hire. She immediately understood our corporate culture and we subsequently hired her to help us with more essential roles.

From a candidate’s perspective, Gillian Tessis ran a seamless process and was detailed, transparent and thorough. Gillian is excellent at what she does. She clearly considers both the client and the candidate to ensure that the role is a perfect fit for both sides.

Gillian really got to know our business and culture. Before we even launched the search she spent many hours meeting with our executive leadership team as well as the direct reports and peers to the role for which we were hiring. This made a huge difference in terms of the quality of Short List we received and the time frame in which we received it. Gillian is a true professional. She is attentive, organized and responsive and she always made us feel like we were her #1 priority.

Our mandate to hire for a newly created role, Head of Legal, was definitely a new experience for our company.  Gillian’s legal background and in-depth knowledge of the legal marketplace combined with her ability to quickly assess the hiring landscape made for an extremely smooth and efficient search process.  We appreciated Gillian’s responsiveness and her in-depth weekly updates.  She presented us with a focused snapshot of the market and a wide range of candidates from which we made an excellent hire.

Gillian did a great job working with us to truly understand our needs and help us refine those needs as we embarked on our VP Human Resources search. Her thorough approach and relentless work ethic produced an exceptional shortlist of executives and resulted in the hiring of our top choice. We most recently engaged Gillian on a CFO search and once again she ran an effective process that resulted in our hiring an outstanding candidate. Gillian is a true professional and I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to engage her on additional searches.

I worked with Gillian Tessis Executive Search on multiple legal search assignments for a boutique law firm and was very impressed with the effective process she ran and the credibility she built with key Partners across the firm as a result of the high caliber of candidates presented. In each instance, Gillian invested time and effort to fully understand our requirements and provided us with relevant market data along the way to keep us updated and informed at all times.  One of the roles we were hiring for was a newly created role at our firm and Gillian ran a seamless process ensuring we saw a range of candidates so that we were confident we successfully hired the most ideal person for the role. Gillian is also a lawyer by background and we completely trusted her to represent our firm and brand well in the marketplace and to engage with the very best candidates with a compelling story.

Gillian is extremely intuitive, responsive and unflappable. She has a strong ability to read our internal dynamics, assess the subtle nature of a situation and determine not only the skills we are seeking but also the type of personalities that we seek. We all know the recruiting game comes with inherent frustrations and Gillian never demonstrated any but was appropriately empathetic to our challenges. When we work with Gillian she gives us her undivided attention. She has a strong sense of urgency in her response rate and we know we can reach her day, night and weekends if required.

Gillian is uber curious, detail oriented, extremely well networked, motivated for a great fit (in fact she set up my husband and I 24 years ago!!) and a complete professional to work with. She has an intense desire to understand any given situation and is extremely inquisitive and detailed oriented. She is thoughtful, purposeful and has a high degree of integrity.

Gillian discovered me for my role at Lenczner Slaght  that was a perfect fit for me. When she first called me I was not looking to make a move but Gillian was tenacious and engaged me in a conversation. I was intrigued by her pitch and she did a wonderful job of understanding my needs and what I would be looking for in the next stage of my career. Throughout the interview process, I found Gillian to be professional, responsive and genuinely interested in ensuring that the role would be both the right move for me and that I would be the right candidate for my employer. I would highly recommend Gillian to any company looking to partner with a true professional who is not afraid to engage passive candidates and who will authentically represent your brand in the marketplace.