What if you could partner with specialists as invested as you?
I’m William Laitinen, CEO of Exige.
I’ve been working with the world’s most talented people for 2 decades. Helping to shape their people strategy through growth and restructuring advice.

At the end of the day, it’s all about relationships.
I founded Exige in 2001 with one goal: change the face of recruitment.
Why? Because after years in the industry, I’d seen the trends firsthand:
- Low-quality shortlists
(thanks to minimal research) - Bad candidate experiences
(thanks to questionable ethics) - Endless recruitment wait times
(thanks to random non-approaches) - Mediocre candidates
(thanks to superficial searches).

I was determined to create something different.
Headquartered in picturesque Devon… serving multinationals across Europe
Mother Nature is the greatest nurturer
Our primary location in countryside Devon — with its rolling hills, pristine wildlife, and acres upon acres of rich greenery — helps us to be better people and better headhunters.




But we can’t expect nature to be there for us…
if we don’t do our part.
In the last 30 years, we’ve lost more than 500,000 square miles of forest.
With fewer trees and increasingly smaller forest cover, there’s
- more circulating carbon dioxide
- more noxious greenhouse gases
- more heat trapped in our atmosphere.
That’s why we’ve made a commitment to ourselves… and to our planet:
At Exige, our values lead to concrete behaviors:
Relationships Matter
There’s only one (real) secret to landing outstanding leaders: carefully cultivated relationships — with the candidates, stakeholders, and everyone in between.
Every exceptional match is driven by trust. And we build that trust painstakingly, with frequent meetings, regular updates, and a genuine desire for human connection.
Say No to Shortcuts
It’s simple to say and harder to execute: for the absolute best person, you’ve got to do the work. All of it.
Anyone can serve up a data dump. For a highly filtered list of stars, you need to review thousands of profiles and invest hundreds of hours.
Select with Confidence
We are not scared to select — truly select — for our clients, even if that means a smaller shortlist.
“Why are you leaving?” “What are you hoping to find?” “What work makes you really happy?” By asking carefully-crafted questions that get to the heart of their motivations, we get incisive responses that help us determine YES or NO.
A 98% success rate is not an accident
It’s the product of a rigorously tested method honed over 18 years
Our process, in 120 seconds
Helping teams across Europe hire smarter
Corporate Trainings / Events / Conferences

Are you an HR Director looking to improve your recruitment process… and build better teams?
Our CEO William Laitinen presents at company events and conferences across Europe — sharing time-tested, actionable recruitment secrets with the people who need it most.

“Useful and engaging”
It was great having Will over to talk about the Exige Value Framework. Our attendees found the insights useful and engaging.
Click here to contact us with your unique request.
