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The whole price list — in a category built on hiding it.
Executive search is famously opaque — no rate card, no minimum, no straight answer until you're deep in a call. Meridian publishes all of it: the fees, the minimums, the guarantees.
Four ways to engage — every one, priced here.
Executive Search
of first-year cash compensation
Your most consequential hires — C-suite, board, and VP+.
- Owned end to end by a partner
- Human-verified slate by day 30
- Replacement guarantee, in writing
- Full AI-use disclosure & audit trail
Recruiting-as-a-Service
Ongoing hiring volume — for your team or a fund's portfolio.
- A dedicated, AI-augmented recruiter
- Inside your ATS and hiring rituals
- SLA-based delivery
- Scale up or down · 3-month minimum
Fractional Recruiting
Seed and Series A teams that need senior craft before a full search.
- Part-time, senior embedded support
- Built to convert into a retained search
- Ideal from first key hires to Series B
AI Candidate Mapping
A market map or benchmark — before you commit, or to de-risk a search.
- AI candidate map of 200–500 profiles
- Market & compensation benchmarking
- Delivered in 2–3 weeks
- Credited in full toward a search
Multi-search, RaaS-to-retained conversion, and VC/PE portfolio programs carry published discounts.
Stated up front, in plain language.
Replacement guarantees
12 months on C-level searches, 9 months on VP and board. If a placement doesn't hold inside the window, we run the search again.
14-day cancellation
You can step out with fourteen days' notice — not the industry's ninety. Fees are earned against the work performed, and stated up front.
Credits & confidentiality
An AI mapping engagement is credited in full toward a search launched within 60 days, and every mandate runs confidentially.
The things people ask before they call.
Why publish prices at all?
Because opacity is the industry's default, and we think that's a tell. You should be able to budget a search before you ever take a call — so the numbers live here, in the open.
What does the minimum mean?
Retained fees are a percentage of first-year cash compensation, but never less than the stated minimum. A lower-comp mandate still gets the full retained process — the minimum is what a real search costs to run well.
What if the placement doesn't work out?
C-level searches carry a 12-month replacement guarantee; VP and board searches, nine months. If a placement doesn't hold inside that window, we search again — that accountability is what the retainer buys.
Do you do contingency search?
No. Retained means one firm, exclusively, with senior time committed up front. It is the only model that fits confidential, consequential leadership hires — and the only one we'll stand behind with a guarantee.
How does the AI change the price?
It doesn't lower the fee — the fee is for human judgment. AI buys back the hours that judgment used to be buried under, so that judgment lands where it matters: the shortlist, the assessment, and the close.
A number, a timeline, and a name — before you sign.
Tell us the mandate and we'll send a written proposal: the fee, the minimum, the guarantee, and the partner who would run it. No obligation, and entirely confidential.
Explore our operational excellence division.
Meridian places the leaders. BasePoint — our sister company under North Bridge Path LLC — builds the operational teams beneath them: offshore staffing and virtual assistants that keep businesses running. Two divisions, one ecosystem.
