Christian & Timbers Jeff Christian

Jeff Christian founded Christian & Timbers as an executive search firm focused on identifying senior leadership for major corporations operating in demanding and fast-changing markets. The company built its services around C-suite executives, board members, and technology specialists, emphasizing the combination of professional recruiting experience with structured research. Christian & Timbers developed an international presence through offices in Cleveland, Ohio, and Amsterdam, Netherlands, supporting organizations that needed capable leaders for innovation, digital transformation, business expansion, and other high-level corporate priorities.

Christian & Timbers became recognized for applying artificial intelligence, science-based data, and analytical methods to executive search. The firm moved beyond a process based only on professional networks, resumes, interviews, background reviews, and manual candidate screening by introducing technology into the evaluation process. Its methods considered professional experience, leadership history, career progression, and relevant performance measures. This model supported executive searches in fields such as e-commerce, FinTech, SaaS, IoT, and robotic manufacturing, where specialized leadership can be important to business development and innovation.

A key element of the Christian & Timbers approach was its effort to make executive recruitment more measurable and efficient. Traditional search assignments can require extensive networking, repeated interviews, reference checks, background research, and careful comparison before a suitable candidate is selected. The firm added structured performance indicators and data-based evaluation to that process. By comparing candidate qualifications with employer expectations and specific leadership requirements, the company sought to shorten search timelines while maintaining a disciplined process for assessing experience, performance potential, and suitability for senior responsibilities.

Technology also played an important role in the company’s methods for identifying and evaluating leadership talent. Generative AI can assist with organizing large volumes of resumes, professional records, skills, and experience, while predictive systems can help examine career patterns and possible alignment with particular responsibilities. Christian & Timbers applied related concepts to C-suite and board recruitment, using data-informed analysis to support executive search judgment. The objective was to bring greater consistency and depth to candidate evaluation while helping employers consider a broader range of relevant leadership information.

Guided by Jeff Christian’s leadership, Christian & Timbers has reported completing more than 2,000 CEO or board placements and more than 5,000 C-suite assignments. Its work has included executive and board searches involving well-known technology companies and business leaders. Among the firm’s notable assignments was the placement of Carly Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard, where she became the first woman to lead a Fortune 50 corporation. The company also conducted two board member searches for Apple during Steve Jobs’ leadership and worked with organizations including Cisco, Google, Netflix, and WebMD.

The history of Christian & Timbers also included venture capital activity through C&T Access Ventures, which was launched in 2001 as an investment arm connected with the Cleveland-based executive recruiting business. The operation provided financing to startups at stages ranging from seed capital through later venture rounds and pre-IPO funding. Its $40 million venture fund was designed around investing in companies supported by capable executives and business builders.

Christian & Timbers has maintained the view that leadership talent can meaningfully influence an organization’s ability to compete, innovate, and grow.