David E. Perry — Executive Recruiter, Author & Managing Partner of Perry-Martel International
David E. Perry is a Canadian executive recruiter, author and Managing Partner of Perry-Martel International, an Ottawa-based executive search firm specializing in technology, real estate and construction leadership.
Over more than 40 years in executive recruiting and executive search, David has personally led or closed more than 1,000 executive search assignments and negotiated more than $423 million in executive compensation.
David E. Perry and Anita Martel created Perry-Martel International’s proprietary Inside-Out Approach® to executive search, a methodology that begins with the business outcome a leader must deliver before defining the candidate profile or going to market.
He is the author or co-author of several books on executive recruiting, leadership and career strategy, including Hiring Greatness, Executive Recruiting For Dummies, Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters and Revolutions Need Leaders.
David is also co-creator of Perry-Martel’s Inside-Out Approach® to executive search and the 1:3:8 Leadership Lens, frameworks designed to define executives around business outcomes, capabilities and behaviours rather than job-description checklists
Executive Search Career
David E. Perry has spent more than four decades recruiting executives and senior leaders for organizations in Canada, the United States and international markets.
As Managing Partner of Perry-Martel International, he has personally led or closed more than 1,000 executive search assignments across technology, real estate, construction and other leadership-intensive sectors.
David E. Perry has spent decades recruiting senior technology leaders across Canada, including CEOs, Presidents, CTOs, CROs, engineering leaders, product executives and senior sales leaders for software, SaaS, telecommunications and advanced-technology companies.
His technology executive search work includes long-standing relationships with Canadian technology companies and industry organizations, including repeat search assignments, leadership-team rebuilding and recruitment of executives who were not actively looking for new roles.
His work has included searches for CEOs, Presidents, Chief Operating Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Chief Revenue Officers, technology executives, General Managers, Vice-Presidents and other senior leaders.
Perry’s approach to executive search starts with the business problem rather than the résumé. The objective is to define what the new leader must accomplish, identify where executives capable of delivering that outcome are likely to be found, and recruit the strongest leader for the mission — including executives who are not actively looking for another position.
That philosophy became the foundation of Perry-Martel International’s Inside-Out Approach® to executive search.
In more than 1,000 executive search assignments, Perry-Martel has required only five replacement searches under its guarantee since 1988.
Books & Authorship
David E. Perry is the author or co-author of several books on executive recruiting, leadership and career strategy.
Hiring Greatness
Hiring Greatness: How to Recruit Your Dream Team and Crush the Competition examines how organizations can improve recruiting by defining what success in a role actually requires and building a disciplined process around finding and securing the right people.
Executive Recruiting For Dummies
Co-authored with Mark Haluska, Executive Recruiting For Dummies explains how executive search works from both the employer and recruiter perspective, including how leadership requirements are defined, candidates are identified and executives are assessed.
Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters
Co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson, Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters introduced a more aggressive, market-driven approach to career strategy and job search. The series became one of David Perry’s best-known bodies of work and helped establish his reputation for unconventional recruiting and career tactics.
Revolutions Need Leaders
Revolutions Need Leaders examines how the Fourth Industrial Revolution has changed the rules of leadership and executive recruiting.
The book introduces frameworks including the 1:3:8 Leadership Lens and explores how CEOs, boards and recruiters must define, assess and secure leaders capable of operating in environments shaped by technological, economic and organizational disruption.
Together, these books form a body of work around one central idea: great recruiting starts with understanding the mission, not with searching a database.
Frameworks and Leadership Methodology
David E. Perry’s executive search work is built around a set of leadership and recruiting frameworks developed through decades of search assignments, client work and research.
The Inside-Out Approach®
The Inside-Out Approach® is Perry-Martel International’s executive search methodology.
Instead of beginning with a vacancy, job description or candidate database, the process starts inside the organization — with the business outcome the new leader must deliver, the problems that executive will inherit, the capabilities required to solve them and the environment in which the leader must perform.
Only then does Perry-Martel go to market to identify and recruit the executives most capable of delivering the mission.
Learn more about the Inside-Out Approach®
The 1:3:8 Leadership Lens
The 1:3:8 Leadership Lens is designed to define leadership around performance rather than credentials.
It asks three questions:
1 Outcome — What must this leader accomplish?
3 Abilities — What must this leader be capable of doing?
8 Behaviours — How must this leader operate in order to succeed?
The framework is used to sharpen leadership mandates, improve executive assessment and create a clearer connection between business strategy and executive performance.
Revolutions Need Leaders
Revolutions Need Leaders extends these ideas into the realities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The book examines how technological disruption, changing business models and faster market cycles have changed the rules of executive leadership and recruiting.
It argues that organizations need a more disciplined way to define, identify, assess and secure leaders who can operate in environments where yesterday’s leadership playbook is no longer enough.
Together, the Inside-Out Approach®, the 1:3:8 Leadership Lens and Revolutions Need Leaders form the intellectual foundation of David Perry’s approach to executive search.
Recognition, Media & Third-Party Authority
David E. Perry’s work in executive recruiting, leadership and business has been documented beyond Perry-Martel International through books, business media, industry publications and public commentary.
Ottawa Business Journal
The Ottawa Business Journal profiled David Perry and Anita Martel’s Inside-Out Approach®, describing how Perry-Martel’s methodology begins by looking inside the organization before going to market for an executive.
The article documented the firm’s emphasis on Heart, Head and Feet, leadership alignment and the importance of defining the organization clearly before recruiting.
Published Recruiting Authority
David’s books have helped establish his authority in executive recruiting and career strategy, including Hiring Greatness, Executive Recruiting For Dummies and the Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters series.
These books extend many of the same ideas used inside Perry-Martel’s executive search work: define the mission, understand the market, engage people differently and assess leaders against what the organization actually needs.
Carl Albert and Hiring Greatness
Carl Albert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fairchild Venture Capital Corporation, wrote the foreword to Hiring Greatness after working with David Perry on executive searches for three different companies. Albert said his description of a great executive recruiter was based on observing Perry at work and working with him directly.
Timothy Keiningham and Executive Recruiting For Dummies
Timothy Keiningham, PhD, wrote the foreword to Executive Recruiting For Dummies after first encountering David as a recruiter trying to persuade him to consider an opportunity. Keiningham later described Perry’s approach as fundamentally different from conventional recruiting — deeply researched, persistent and focused on long-term fit rather than simply filling a vacancy.
Jay Conrad Levinson and WorkInsight
Guerrilla Marketing creator Jay Conrad Levinson wrote the foreword to David Perry’s early career guide WorkInsight, describing Perry’s approach as being written “from the inside out” and grounded in his experience as a professional headhunter.
Business and Technology Commentary
David has also written and been quoted publicly on issues affecting Canadian technology companies, leadership and capital formation.
His commentary in the Ottawa Business Journal has included the relationship between Canadian technology growth, investment and leadership, including his work advocating the extension of Flow-Through Shares to Canada’s technology sector.
Independent Recognition
Perry-Martel International has also received external recognition for its work in executive search and people services, reinforcing the firm’s position as an established Canadian executive search practice.
These independent sources help document David Perry’s work across executive recruiting, leadership, publishing and Canadian business beyond Perry-Martel’s own website.
For a broader look at David Perry’s media coverage, published work, awards and independent recognition, visit the Perry-Martel Media & Recognition page.
Featured in Major Business and Industry Media
David E. Perry’s work in executive search and leadership has been profiled and published by major business and industry media.
The Wall Street Journal profiled Perry’s unconventional recruiting methods in “No Excuse For Failure” Drives Rogue Recruiter, documenting the persistence and creativity behind his approach to executive search.
Read the Wall Street Journal article →
Manage HR Magazine profiled Perry-Martel International as an emerging Canadian executive search firm and highlighted the firm’s Inside-Out Approach®, more than 1,600 completed searches, and long-term executive placement results.
Engineers Outlook published Perry’s work on recruiting leaders for an Industry 4.0 world, including the leadership changes required as organizations adapt to accelerating technological and organizational change.