00:00Hi everybody, I'm Evan Metzger, a project manager at ECA Partners.
00:11We're an executive search firm that focuses on C-level positions and the people who report
00:15up to them for businesses across a variety of industries.
00:19One of the things that distinguishes ECA is that we've had fantastic success hiring PhDs,
00:25providing them the mentorship and support so that they succeed in the executive search
00:30industry, and many of them are now in leadership positions with us.
00:35So for me, I did my PhD at UCLA before joining ECA, but that is a story for another day.
00:41Today we're having the first of several conversations with my colleagues at ECA who've made that transition
00:47from academia into executive search.
00:50For many people, thinking about making this transition, you might feel anxious or a little
00:55unsure about making such a big move from the world of scholarship and conferences and seminars
01:00into the business world.
01:01So we thought it'd be useful to hear from someone who's not only made this transition, but also
01:06thrived at ECA and moved into a senior leadership position.
01:10So with me here today is Steven Haug, managing director at ECA and the head of our CFO practice.
01:16Steven, thank you so much for being here today.
01:19Why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about your career in academia before you
01:23came to ECA?
01:25Evan, thanks for having me here today.
01:28I'll be glad to tell you the story about how I ended up at ECA after academia.
01:33So for undergrad, I went to Texas A&M University, studied liberal arts field, like almost all
01:41of our PhDs here at ECA that focused on philosophy and history.
01:46When I was finishing my undergraduate degree, I was accepted into the PhD program at UC Santa
01:54Cruz, University of California at Santa Cruz.
01:57I joined that department and I was able to, I had some ideas about a dissertation already,
02:02actually, luckily from my undergraduate days at A&M.
02:05I was able to fairly quickly get started on that.
02:07I moved through the PhD fairly quickly, finished in just under five years.
02:15And right when I was wrapping that up, I was considering opportunities, both in academia,
02:20but really thinking about outside of academia as well for a variety of reasons.
02:26That's when I got a message from ECA through LinkedIn, had a few conversations with them.
02:31This is early on in the days when we were hiring PhDs.
02:34I wasn't the first, but I was among that group.
02:38I saw the future at ECA in terms of the company itself and how they valued PhDs.
02:45So I joined the organization.
02:46I've been here for almost six years and haven't regretted it at all.
02:50I'm excited to join this organization that both values PhDs, but provides opportunities for
02:56career growth for folks coming out of academia.
03:01Fantastic.
03:02And, you know, I know a lot of people as they're, you know, thinking about joining ECA or early
03:08on, like myself at ECA, a lot of us want to develop a specific area where we might focus.
03:15You know, you've made a name for yourself now in the finance world as a go-to person for
03:20CFOs and various other senior finance leadership positions.
03:24I'm curious if you could tell us a little bit about how you made that decision to focus
03:27on finance as your practice area.
03:30Yeah, great question, Evan.
03:31So I found it helpful to think about the career at ECA in a similar way to the way that PhD
03:38programs are designed.
03:39And what I mean by that is the first few years, you really study a variety of things in the
03:44same way that you take a variety of courses during your PhD.
03:48At ECA, we like our project managers to get exposure to a variety of different kinds of
03:53positions and different kinds of industries.
03:55So early on at ECA, I worked with tech businesses, I worked with manufacturing companies, I filled
04:01CEO positions, COO, corp dev sales, a variety of different roles.
04:06And through that process, I was able to learn that I really enjoyed focusing on the high-level
04:12finance positions.
04:14The finance leaders of organizations really understand what makes the business operate and
04:19how it ticks, and they're really able to tell you what they've done to help a company succeed.
04:26So through interviews with those kind of folks, I realized I enjoyed those conversations and
04:31wanted to spend more time on that.
04:33And there's lots of opportunities at ECA to focus on whatever you enjoy doing.
04:37So I began to raise my hand, tell the managing directors that I was working with that if
04:42they had any searches related to CFOs or the office of the CFO, that I'd be excited to
04:47work on with them.
04:48And that's really the path that I took in order to begin to focus on CFO positions.
04:55Right.
04:56So it sounds like it was, in many ways, kind of organic, came out of the experiences that
05:01you had at ECA and wasn't something that was in any way predetermined before you joined
05:05us.
05:05Yeah, yeah, exactly.
05:07I would say that whenever I was first at ECA, some of the most common positions we filled
05:12were strategy roles, which were really exciting.
05:15We still do a ton of those.
05:17So there was some opportunity to have more folks focus on the CFO positions.
05:22But overall, it was something that I enjoyed working on.
05:28And the executives and leaders at ECA are more than happy to give folks room to explore
05:35topics that they're interested in.
05:37Fantastic.
05:38So I know a lot of us more junior project managers here at ECA look to you for a lot of
05:44advice and mentorship on how we can succeed at ECA.
05:47What would be maybe the biggest piece of advice you'd give to someone who's maybe contemplating
05:53this career path or just joined ECA in terms of success and moving up into a senior leadership
06:00position?
06:01That's kind of you, Evan.
06:02But happy to explain some of the things that I learned at ECA because it is a big transition
06:07moving from academia into the executive search world.
06:11And there are a few things that really matter a lot in academia that matter a lot less in
06:16executive search.
06:17And there are a few things that almost don't matter at all in executive search or in academia
06:21that matter a lot in executive search.
06:24So a couple of tactical things that I think our incoming PhDs learn very quickly are to change
06:31their communication style.
06:33The world of business moves much more quickly than the world of academia.
06:37So we generally adjust the communication style, us as PhDs, whenever we enter the business
06:43world, to shorten our emails and to have very succinct conversations.
06:50So those are some tactical things, adjust the communication.
06:53And then also, I think it takes some time to understand that we are a client services organization.
07:02And so our interactions with our clients are extremely important.
07:07And that's a great opportunity for PhDs to shine or in those every week you're going
07:13to be meeting with clients.
07:14And it's in those opportunities that the managing directors and the rest of the executive team
07:19really get to see how well our PhDs are able to interact with our clients, how they're
07:26able to share ideas, guide our clients through making really impactful decisions.
07:32Our clients trust us to help them decide which CEOs to bring in to run their businesses, which
07:37CFOs or COOs, extremely important decisions for them.
07:41And it's in those conversations, I think, if you navigate them well and provide quality
07:47advice to our clients, that's the quickest way to provide great work for our clients as
07:53well as to exceed at ECA.
07:55Okay.
07:56Fantastic.
07:57Well, those were all my questions for you today, Stephen.
08:00I'll let you get back to your day and thank you so much for joining us.
08:03Evan, thank you for this.
08:05Thanks for the questions.
08:06They were great.
08:07Absolutely.
08:08Thanks.
08:09Good, man.
08:10Great.
08:11Cool.
08:12Is that good?
08:13We can do it again later if you want to, but yeah.
08:20Yeah.
08:20I think at this point, here, I'll hit stop recording.
