Why Wirz & Partners

What sets us apart from our competitors?

The appointment of a Global Head of HR at Argor‑Heraeus in Mendrisio requires a search approach that is precisely aligned with the operational, cultural, and governance realities of the business.

This is the first time the Mendrisio site works with executive search partners. At group level, Argor‑Heraeus typically collaborates with large international search firms. For this mandate, three providers are invited. The challenge is therefore not visibility, but precision.

The role is not a corporate HR position detached from operations. It is a senior management function within the operating company, embedded in a dual reporting structure to the Head of the Operating Company and the CHRO of Heraeus Holding. The Global Head of HR is expected to actively drive organisational and cultural transformation in a historically grown, highly profitable industrial environment.

Conventional large scale executive search approaches often lead to late stage mismatches in this context. In particular, unrealistic candidate salary expectations compared to internal compensation bands regularly cause process breakdowns at the final stage. The result is loss of time, credibility, and momentum.

Our methodology: role clarity before market activity

Our approach starts with a precise understanding of the mandate, not with generic HR profiles.

For Argor‑Heraeus, the Global Head of HR role combines:

• senior HR generalist responsibility for the entire OpCo
• active participation in the OpCo Management Committee
• hands on leadership of 3–4 HR managers
• responsibility for people strategy, culture, and performance transformation
• governance alignment with Heraeus Holding HR

These elements are translated into a concrete search and assessment framework before market contact begins. This ensures that only profiles with genuine role fit are approached.

Addressing the core risk: expectation mismatches

Based on your prior experience with large search firms, a central risk is clear:
candidate expectations that do not match Argor‑Heraeus salary bands and role reality.

Our search strategy explicitly addresses this risk:

• early calibration on compensation and scope
• transparent positioning of the hands on nature of the role
• exclusion of profiles driven by corporate branding rather than substance

This prevents late stage surprises and protects decision speed.

Targeted market access — Switzerland and Greater Milano Area

The target market for this role is well defined:

• Switzerland
• Greater Milano / Northern Italy
• industrial, process, and precision manufacturing environments

Senior HR leaders with transformation experience in such contexts are rarely active candidates. They respond only to approaches that demonstrate operational understanding and credibility.

Our direct access to this market allows us to engage precisely these profiles and position the role realistically from the first contact.

Precision through mandate specific assessment

Candidates are assessed against criteria derived directly from the Argor‑Heraeus context:

• ability to drive cultural change without disrupting stability
• credibility with long tenured employees
• strength in KPI based HR steering
• pragmatic interaction with both OpCo and Group stakeholders
• personal grounding, modesty, and execution strength

Structured interviews and comparative evaluations ensure that assessment goes beyond CV patterns.

An active process model — no waiting loops

Multi stakeholder environments often slow down processes.

Our working model avoids this by design. We do not wait until a full longlist is completed. Suitable profiles are introduced into the process individually as soon as they meet the core criteria. This enables early alignment with stakeholders and continuous calibration.

In comparable mandates at this level, this approach has enabled successful placements within eight weeks, without compromising assessment depth or quality.

A partnership of equals

Each mandate at Wirz & Partners is led by senior partners with direct exposure to industrial organisations and transformation contexts.

For Argor‑Heraeus, this means:

• one consistent senior contact
• clear accountability across OpCo and Holding stakeholders
• structured preparation and follow through from briefing to integration

Our experience — applied to your context

For over 15 years, Wirz & Partners has specialised in executive search in industrial, technology driven, and transformation led environments.

Our approach is based on one principle:
Roles succeed when context, culture, and capability are aligned early and explicitly.

That is exactly how we work.