Case Studies — Pre-IPO, High-Growth & Semiconductor Recruitment

Modern manufacturing plant floor with large industrial machinery

Executive Search Manufacturing

Building a new leadership team for a foreign manufacturer’s Thailand launch.

leaders placed

days from brief to full team

100%

retained at 12 months

The challenge

A European manufacturer was establishing its first plant in Thailand and needed a complete senior team — plant director, operations, quality, supply chain and finance — in place before commissioning. With no local entity yet and a fixed opening date, speed and judgement both mattered, and discretion was essential while existing operations continued elsewhere.

What we did

•Mapped the Thai manufacturing leadership market and built a confidential target list across five functions.

•Ran parallel searches so the team was assessed as a group, not in isolation — protecting culture fit and chemistry.

•Advised on market salary, titles and total package to keep offers competitive and consistent.

•Coordinated offers and notice periods so the team could onboard together ahead of commissioning.

The result

All five leadership roles were filled within 90 days of the brief, ahead of the plant’s commissioning date. Every hire was still in place a year later, and the client has since engaged Q Hunter for further mid-management hiring as the site scaled.

“They understood that we were hiring a team, not five separate people. The chemistry across the leadership group is a big part of why the launch went so smoothly.”

Regional HR DirectorEuropean manufacturer · Thailand launch

Stock market candlestick chart on a trading screen

Executive Search Pre-IPO · Finance

A confidential finance bench for a pre-IPO consumer group.

senior finance hires

days to a signed CFO

confidentiality leaks before announcement

The challenge

A family-founded Thai consumer group was preparing to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The board needed a CFO that investors and underwriters would trust from day one — someone who had taken a company through listing before — plus a financial controller and an investor relations lead. The search had to stay completely silent: the incumbent CFO had not yet been informed, and any market rumour could complicate the filing.

What we did

•Mapped every finance leader in Thailand with a completed IPO on their record — sitting CFOs of listed companies, IPO-experienced deputies and Big-4 capital-markets alumni.

•Approached candidates under a blind brief — the client’s name was disclosed only after NDA, at the shortlist stage.

•Assessed for the specific demands of the listing window: IFRS conversion, filing and roadshow experience, and credibility in front of analysts and the SEC.

•Structured packages that balanced cash with pre-IPO equity, benchmarked against recent Thai listings, so offers landed first time.

The result

The CFO signed within 42 days of the brief; the controller and IR lead followed before the filing was submitted. The search never surfaced in the market, the transition with the incumbent was handled respectfully, and the listing proceeded on the board’s original timetable with the new finance bench fronting the roadshow.

“We needed a CFO the market would trust on day one — and we needed the search to stay invisible until we chose to announce it. Q Hunter delivered both.”

Group Chief ExecutiveThai consumer group · SET listing

Aerial view of Bangkok high-rise buildings, Thailand

Team Build · RPO High-Growth

Scaling a high-growth regional expansion from 15 to 60 people.

hires in six months

89%

offer acceptance rate

92%

retained at 12 months

The challenge

A Singapore-headquartered, tech-enabled logistics scale-up had just closed a funding round and chose Thailand as its next growth market. The plan called for the Bangkok team to grow from 15 to 60 people — sales, operations, customer success and finance — within six months. There was no internal talent team, no local salary benchmarks, and every month of delay pushed revenue targets back.

What we did

•Embedded a dedicated Q Hunter recruitment pod as the client’s de-facto in-house talent team, with a weekly hiring cadence and a single shared pipeline dashboard.

•Benchmarked salaries and titles for every role against the Thai market so the client — new to Thailand — competed credibly from the first offer.

•Built structured, repeatable interview loops with the founders so quality stayed constant as volume scaled.

•Positioned the employer brand for candidates who’d never heard of the company — growth story, regional backing and career path, not just package.

The result

Forty-three hires joined in six months — on plan, with an 89% offer-acceptance rate and cost per hire well below a traditional agency model. A year on, 92% of those hires were still in place and the Thai unit had become the group’s fastest-growing market. The pod model has since been extended to the client’s Vietnam entry.

“Q Hunter behaved like our in-house talent team. The weekly rhythm meant hiring never became the bottleneck to our growth plan.”

Regional Chief Operating OfficerSingapore-headquartered scale-up · Thailand expansion

Close-up of a silicon semiconductor wafer with colourful dies

Executive Search Semiconductor

Sourcing scarce semiconductor talent across four markets.

specialists placed

markets sourced (TH · MY · SG · TW)

months to a full ramp team

The challenge

A global semiconductor test-and-packaging company was expanding capacity into Thailand and needed the engineering core of a new site: process, equipment and NPI engineers, quality leadership and a site director. The difficulty was blunt — much of this talent barely exists in the Thai market, and every competitor in the region was hunting the same profiles.

What we did

•Mapped the regional talent pool role by role — Penang and Kulim in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan — alongside the small Thai base in existing electronics clusters.

•Targeted Thai engineers working abroad in semiconductor hubs and built relocation-home cases — career step, family, cost of living — that made returning attractive.

•Screened for genuinely scarce skills — wafer sort, final test, wire-bond and flip-chip processes — with technical interviews the client’s regional engineers helped design.

•Advised on packages and titles against regional semiconductor benchmarks — not Thai general-manufacturing rates — so offers survived counteroffers.

The result

Sixteen specialists — including the site director and quality head — were in place within five months, drawn from four markets, with relocations landed and notice periods coordinated around the equipment-install schedule. The site hit its qualification milestones on time, and Q Hunter continues to run the talent pipeline as the second phase of the ramp begins.

“They knew exactly where this talent sits in the region and how to bring it home. We could not have staffed this ramp from the Thai market alone.”

Site DirectorGlobal semiconductor company · Thailand site

Real searches. Real teams. Real outcomes.

Building a new leadership team for a foreign manufacturer’s Thailand launch

A confidential finance bench for a pre-IPO consumer group

Scaling a high-growth regional expansion from 15 to 60 people

Sourcing scarce semiconductor talent across four markets

Building a new leadership team for a foreign manufacturer’s Thailand launch.

The challenge

What we did

The result

A confidential finance bench for a pre-IPO consumer group.

The challenge

What we did

The result

Scaling a high-growth regional expansion from 15 to 60 people.

The challenge

What we did

The result

Sourcing scarce semiconductor talent across four markets.

The challenge

What we did

The result

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