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Executive Branding & Leadership Positioning  ·  Service line 02

Your leadership team, told to one standard

Leadership biographies are read in the places where an organisation is being judged: the integrated report, the investor pack, the website, the conference programme, the announcement of a new appointment. They are usually written by whoever was free, at different times, in different voices, and half of them are two roles out of date. We write them as one set, to one standard, and keep them current.

Written by a professional Annual report ready Handled before announcement
Since 2017
Nine years of practice
38 countries
Across five continents
Who It Is For

For the people who publish the leadership team

Nobody’s job title is leadership biographies, which is exactly why they end up incoherent. The request usually lands on a communications lead or a company secretary three weeks before a report goes to print.

Communications and marketing leads

Owning the website, the integrated report and the media list, and needing a leadership set that reads as one organisation rather than 11 individuals who wrote their own.

Company secretaries and investor relations

Where board profiles carry governance weight, committee membership and independence status have to be exact, and the annual report is a filing rather than a brochure.

Chief executives and their offices

Where the chief executive is the public face of the organisation and their biography, speaker profile and media materials need to say the same thing in the right register for each audience.

Where These Are Read

Four audiences, four different readings

A leadership biography is not one document used in several places. It is one argument that has to survive four different kinds of scrutiny, and the version that works in a conference programme is not the version that belongs in an integrated report.

i

The report reader is checking

Investors, analysts and governance reviewers read leadership sections looking for tenure, qualifications, committee roles, independence and other directorships. Vague warmth in that context reads as evasion. Precision is the register.

ii

The website reader is deciding

A prospective client, partner or senior hire arrives at your leadership page to work out whether this is a serious organisation. They spend seconds. What they are actually assessing is whether the people running it have done this before.

iii

The programme and the press are compressing

Conference organisers and journalists take whatever they find and cut it to fit. If you have not written the 60-word version, someone else will, and it will be the version that circulates.

iv

The announcement sets the frame

An appointment announcement is the first thing the market learns about a new executive, and it is quoted afterwards. It is worth writing rather than assembling from a CV on the morning it goes out.

On tone and house style. These documents belong to your brand, not to ours. We work to your existing style guide where you have one, and where you do not, we set conventions with you first and apply them consistently across the team: how titles are rendered, whether qualifications are listed, how tenure is stated, first person or third. Consistency is most of the value, and it is the part in-house drafting almost never achieves across a full leadership team.
What You Receive

One set of documents, every format you publish in

i

Leadership team biographies

Every member of the executive team written as one set, in one voice, to agreed conventions. Each supplied in a short version for programmes and listings, a standard version for the website and a long version for reports and investor materials.

Three lengthsOne voiceWebsite and report ready
ii

Board and director profiles

Non-executive and board member profiles written to the precision governance reporting requires: tenure, committee membership, independence status, other directorships and the specific competence each director brings to the board.

Integrated reportCommittee detailListed and state-owned conventions
iii

Speaker, media and announcement materials

Speaker profiles for conference programmes, media profiles for press engagement, and written appointment or transition announcements, all drawn from the same underlying material so nothing contradicts.

Conference programmesPress-readyAppointment announcements
iv

Executive CVs, where the organisation needs them

For internal succession processes, board submissions, regulatory appointments and bid documentation naming your leadership. Written by the same executive practice that serves individual leaders, on behalf of the organisation.

SuccessionRegulatory appointmentsBid documentation
What To Expect

Minimum time from very busy people

01

Scope and conventions

We agree the team list, the formats required, the deadline and the house conventions. You approve the conventions before any writing begins.

02

Intake, briefly

Each executive completes a short written intake, typically 15 to 20 minutes. We work from existing material wherever it exists, so nobody is asked what we could have read.

03

Drafting as a set

Every biography is written against the same conventions, then read across the whole team for consistency of voice, structure and claim before anything comes back to you.

04

One review round, then finals

You review as a set rather than one at a time. Finals arrive in the formats you publish in, with the master set retained for your next cycle.

Chasing executives is our job, not yours

The reason leadership biographies run late is almost never the writing. It is the four weeks spent waiting for three people to respond. Intake is written, short and chased by us on a schedule agreed with you, and we work from what already exists in annual reports, LinkedIn and previous materials so an executive is only asked for what genuinely is not on record.

Request a Proposal

Tell us the brief, and we will scope it

Tell us the size of the team, the formats you publish in and the deadline you are working to. A consultant returns a scope and a fixed quote, usually within one business day.

If the deadline is an annual report or a print date, say so. It changes how the schedule is built.
A consultant responds within one business day, Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 17:00 SAST.

Before an announcement

Appointments, transitions and departures are frequently commissioned before they are public. Work of that kind is handled under NDA from first contact, by a consultant on the corporate desk, and is never referenced afterwards.

Every corporate engagement is scoped and quoted before any work begins. Nothing is charged until the scope is agreed in writing. An NDA is available on request, and is signed before material is shared where you prefer it that way.
Considered Questions

Before you enquire

How much time do our executives have to give this?
Typically 15 to 20 minutes each, in writing, in their own time. We work from annual reports, existing profiles and previous materials first, so nobody is asked to supply what is already on record. Chasing responses is our responsibility, not your communications team’s.
Do you interview the executives?
Only where it adds something. Written intake produces better material from senior people than a scheduled call, because they answer when they have the time to think. Where a chief executive or chair wants a conversation, a consultant is available.
Can you match our existing house style?
Yes, and we prefer to. Send the style guide and we work inside it. Where there is no guide, we agree conventions with you before writing, which is often the more useful outcome because it is reusable long after this engagement.
Our annual report goes to print in three weeks.
Then say so in the brief. Reporting deadlines are the most common driver of this work and we build the schedule backwards from the print date, with a single consolidated review round rather than an open-ended one.
Who owns the finished text?
You do. The finished documents are yours to publish, edit, reuse and hand to a designer. We retain nothing and we do not display client work.
Can you keep these current?
Yes, and it is the sensible way to buy this. An annual refresh scheduled to your reporting cycle costs a fraction of a rebuild, and it stops the drift where three biographies are current and eight are two roles out of date.
How is this quoted?
Per engagement, on the number of people, the formats required and whether it is a first build or a refresh. You receive a fixed quote before anything begins, invoiced off-platform on your terms.
Related Service Line

The individual leader may need their own engagement

Organisational profiles and a leader’s personal career positioning are different pieces of work with different audiences. Where an executive is pursuing a board seat or a next role, the Executive Solutions practice serves them directly and confidentially, at published prices.

By consultation
Scoped as one engagement
See Executive Solutions
Building profiles for consultants and technical specialists rather than the executive team? See Consultant & Specialist Profiles.
Executive Branding & Leadership Positioning · scoped & quoted

An organisation is judged by how clearly it can describe the people running it.

One standard across the team · every format you publish in · handled under NDA where required
Supporting an individual leader rather than an organisation? Executive Solutions.