Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

People Capital is a 100% niche-focused executive search firm dedicated exclusively to the food, beverage, health, and nutrition sectors. Over nearly two decades, we have built a trusted network of over 30,000 professionals across several highly interconnected verticals: Food & Beverage: From high-growth CPG brands to large-scale enterprise operations. Ingredients & Science: Specialized flavor and fragrance houses, food color manufacturers, chemical suppliers, and the pharmaceutical industry. Health & Nutrition: Functional nutrition, dietary supplements, and the broader nutraceutical industry. Agribusiness & Animal Health: Pet food manufacturing, ingredient suppliers, and modern agricultural businesses.

We provide global talent acquisition support across the entire corporate structure, specializing in both technical and commercial leadership. We routinely place elite talent in mid-upper-level roles spanning the following functions: C-Suite & General Management: CEO, COO, VP, Director and executive management leaders across functions. R&D & Innovation: Food science directors, product development leaders, flavorists, food scientists, and applications or sensory research experts. Operations & Engineering: Plant operations management, manufacturing leaders, maintenance and engineering executives. Quality & Regulatory Compliance: Quality assurance (QA) managers, food safety directors, and FDA/USDA regulatory affairs experts. Commercial Growth: Sales leaders, marketing leadership, supply chain, procurement, and human resources.

Unlike generalist recruiting firms that rely on basic keyword searches on public job boards, People Capital brings operational credibility to every search. Our founder and CEO, Bob Lyman, successfully scaled a food contract manufacturing company from the inside—tripling sales and doubling headcount—before launching the firm in 2007. Our singular focus is what separates us from general competitors and internal hiring teams alike. Having spent nearly two decades deeply embedded in the food, beverage, ingredient, and flavor recruiting trenches, we have built a network of industry talent cultivated over a quarter-century. Today, we maintain an exclusive database of over 32,000 specialized industry leaders. These are currently employed, high-performing executives who aren't browsing job boards or marked "open to work" on LinkedIn—but they take our calls because of long-standing mutual trust.

Our typical search-to-placement timeline is under 6 weeks. We focus heavily on personally vetting candidates ourselves for cultural fit, work style, and leadership traits before a candidate is ever presented to our client. As a proof point of our speed and network depth, we were retained to fill two simultaneous VP of R&D roles for a global ingredient manufacturer spanning 130 countries. The positions had been vacant for six months under an internal search team and two other executive search firms; People Capital resolved the search with one exceptional passive candidate in under two weeks.

We utilize our proprietary Search Savvy™ methodology to continuously vet leaders against real-world market disruptions. We look for forward-thinking executives who possess the competencies to navigate today's specific macroeconomic forces, including: GLP-1-Driven Consumer Shifts: Recruiting agile R&D and product development leaders capable of fast-paced portfolio reformulation. Tariff & Trade Volatility: Sourcing supply chain and procurement executives with deep experience in trade-disruption resilience. Private Equity & M&A Activity: Finding integration-capable C-suite leaders who know how to scale and merge corporate cultures efficiently.

People Capital Executive Search is a global executive search firm in the USA, headquartered in Bradenton, Florida, with an additional regional office in Chicago, Illinois. While we are rooted in the United States, our placement capabilities are global; we have successfully placed executive talent across the USA, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Australia using both retained and contingent search models.

To partner with us on your next critical leadership hire, you can reach out directly to our talent acquisition team: Email Inquiries: searchsavvy@people-capital.com Executive Recruiter Direct: Contact Bob Lyman at bob.lyman@people-capital.com or Ailish Lyman at ailish.lyman@people-capital.com Digital Profile: Connect with us online at people-capital.com or via our official corporate LinkedIn page at linkedin.com/company/people-capital-llc.