When you are hunting to fill Purple Squirrel Positions, sometimes you get lucky and often you just work hard. Here are some of our favorite Purple Squirrel searches from over the years.

Endless Exclusivity for a High Voltage Engineer. After several searches, our client called us and said they were giving us an exclusive search without a time limit. They wanted us to find two specialized engineers and talk them into coming to work for them in East Texas. We took four months of digging and we found the best High Voltage Alternating Current engineer in the U.S. specializing in corrosion prevention programs for oil and gas pipelines.

The CIO/CFO from South Africa. 7-Eleven was replacing all of its legacy software with new software that ran all of its operations and financial transactions for the company and its 8500 franchisees. We found a candidate who had done this kind of conversion twice for multi-billion-dollar firms, including one who had over 12,000 franchisees. He was living in Cape Town, South Africa.

Spanish Labor Lawyer who will work in Germany. Our client was searching for a labor lawyer who would work in Germany but live outside of Germany. It took over 100 connections in Europe but we uncovered two qualified candidates in Barcelona, Spain.

Global VP of Distribution for Uranium Enrichment Plant. Our client was building a greenfield plant for uranium enrichment in the desert in New Mexico. Our candidate was soon promoted to have global responsibility for Purchasing.

The CTO from Heaven. Our client’s COO/CFO hired a CTO for her company that she described as the best hire she had ever made. The CTO over the next seven years built the new company from scratch using AI and Internet Marketing to create a company worth $100MM.

The Flyover CFO. It was an early search for a CFO in Harrison, a small town on the northcentral border of Arkansas. The client ran a Maintenance and Repair Operation (MRO) for Southwest Airlines. We found a candidate in Florida who took a plant tour and then interviewed with the management team after work in the local bar. This was “Flyover America” where candidates smoked cigars, drank beer (not Merlot), had a deer rifle and a bass boat and preferred life in a small town. He was offered the job on Thursday and started the following Monday.

The Extroverted Controller from Jamaica. She was a happy person and extremely intelligent, outgoing and well qualified to be the Controller of a billion-dollar client. Everyone loves working with her and she is still a trusted friend 15 years later.

The VP of Tax with a Sense of Humor. The Chief Accounting Officer told us she had developed a culture where everyone had fun and enjoyed working on her team. She needed a VP of Tax with a background in global tax issues but who could tell jokes and make people laugh. We found three and she hired one of them and they are still friends eight years later.