At Sheldon Harris, executive search isn’t a process. It’s a strategic partnership built on trust, curiosity, and deep commercial experience.
We combine decades of senior leadership and global search experience with a commitment to doing things differently. Rather than templated solutions, we bring nuanced, experienced thinking to every engagement, tailoring our approach to your organisation’s unique challenges and culture.
Our Board Reviews or Executive Team effectiveness processes are outcome driven, pragmatic and steeped in proven methodologies. Our clients tell us we have brought new insights or ways of working that have helped them consider the overall performance of their businesses.
Our work is built on meaningful client relationships, shaping each engagement to their context and providing insight that supports confident decision-making.
We dive deeply before we act, asking the right questions, challenging assumptions, and uncovering what really matters.
We give frank, respectful advice grounded in reality and market insights.
With seasoned judgment and market wisdom, we go beyond profiles to read between the lines of talent and organisational fit or organisational change.
Our approach is lean, pragmatic and focused delivering outcomes that reflect depth over volume and drive better performance.
We don’t just fill seats or run leadership initiatives, we help shape leadership that advances culture, capability and future success.
Being trusted advisors to Boards and Executives is something we pride ourselves on. Many of our relationships have stood the test of time as we have helped our clients navigate change and complexity.
Sheldon Harris started at the height of the Global Financial Crisis in 2010 when many businesses were collapsing. Andrew found himself at a crossroads with a suggested move to Hong Kong with Korn Ferry and John was retiring after being the Managing Partner at KPMG in Melbourne.
Andrew and John each had five children who were still at school. Failure was not an option, and neither was moving away from Melbourne. Together they decided to create Sheldon Harris and provide the market with a different way of working compared to what the traditional search firms were offering.
The ethos of the company has always been to challenge the status quo and find more agile ways to deliver exceptional results for clients. Sheldon Harris was one of the first firms to offer a flat fee structure and design the firm in a way that clients dealt directly with partners to leverage their expertise and knowledge, rather than more junior employees completing the bulk of the work.
Over the years our offering has extended beyond executive and board search and now encompasses our bespoke Succession Planning methodology, our insightful Board Review processes and our leadership development practices.
John retired in 2025 and leaves a lasting legacy of how we go to market, how curious and questioning we are and how we design pragmatic solutions for our clients. As new partners join the practice, one thing remains the same, the desire to partner with great clients and deliver outstanding outcomes for all involved.
Sadly in March 2026, John passed away. He will be fondly remembered by the firm and the clients that he worked with over many years.