Schaffmann Consultants

Schaffmann Consultants is an executive search boutique that fills top management and board positions in the upper German Mittelstand. It is independent and owner managed, and every mandate is carried personally at partner level by Herr Schaffmann, from clarifying the role through to the signature on the contract, something the company has done for more than twenty years. It was named among the best Personalberater of 2025 by the SZ-Institut. Mandates do not begin with an advertisement, they begin with a confidential conversation between decision makers.

Three fields make up the practice. Executive search covers the discreet appointment of Geschäftsführung, VP level, C-level, Vorstand and Bereichsleitung, worked exclusively by Direktansprache in the hidden market, with mandates running from CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, CPO, CRO and CHRO down to Werksleiter, Vertriebsleiter and heads of operations, supply chain, purchasing, quality, engineering, service, product management and operational excellence. Unternehmensnachfolge places external managing director successors in family businesses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, including private equity buy and build and carve out situations. Board search fills Aufsichtsrat, Beirat and advisory board seats. The focus sectors are automotive and its supplier industry, FMCG and food, construction and building suppliers, plastics, packaging, automation, robotics, machinery and plant engineering, and logistics and supply chain, with only a few clients taken per sector to avoid conflicts of interest.

Clients are shareholders and entrepreneurs, supervisory and advisory boards, family businesses, private equity houses and their portfolio companies, family offices, mid sized world market leaders, succession and buy and build structures, and foundations. They choose the boutique for its constraints as much as its reach: a maximum of six to eight mandates run at any one time, the client company stays anonymous until the shortlist, and a shortlist of three to four carefully checked people is presented within six to eight weeks, won personally rather than pulled from a database. The two year replacement guarantee is twice the market standard. Enquiries go to [email protected] or +49 (0)7131 2793616.