W. Lynton “Lyn” Edwards III
W. Lynton Edwards III
Mr. Edwards is the founder and a Managing Partner of Edwards Executive Search. He resides in Tampa, Florida and Chicago, Illinois.
He is a diversified business leader and entrepreneur. He has run companies, started companies, bought companies, merged/integrated companies and sold companies. Mr. Edwards has served as a Director/Trustee for numerous civic and business, both privately-held and publicly-traded, organizations.
After receiving his MBA from Washington University’s Olin Graduate School of Business in 1974, he spent the first fifteen years of his career managing consumer product business units for major corporations such as General Mills, Pillsbury and INTERCO. Mr. Edwards took a sabbatical from his business career for two years during which time he served as Deputy Mayor for Development for St. Louis under his good friend, Mayor Vincent Schoemehl. He is recognized as playing a significant role in the dramatic redevelopment of downtown St. Louis in the mid 1980’s.
In 1988, Mr. Edwards led a group of partners in the acquisition of The Ansehl Company from Weyerhaeuser. Ansehl was a leading manufacturer/marketer of private label topical health and beauty care products sold through mass merchandisers, chain drug stores and supermarkets. Mr. Edwards was President/CEO of Ansehl until December, 2000 when he sold the Company to a strategic buyer, Cumberland Swan…Ansehl’s largest competitor. During his tenure as CEO he made several strategic add-on acquisitions and consolidated these businesses into one centralized operation significantly growing the size of the Company.
Since the sale of Ansehl, Mr. Edwards has focused his business activities primarily on the sourcing and optimization of human capital. In 2002, he joined DHR International, the fifth largest retained executive search firm in the U.S., as an Executive Vice President. At DHR, he specialized in locating top management i.e. C-level, for companies from $50 million to $5 billion in revenue. He has placed CEO’s, CFO’s, General Counsel’s, VP’s Sales/Marketing, VP’s Operations and Crisis Managers, among others.
In early 2003, Mr. Edwards started his own retained executive search firm, Edwards Executive Search LLC continuing to serve a national client base in sourcing C-level and other key executives.
He is the developer of several executive search processes utilized by his firm to select the optimal match for its clients, both technically and personally/culturally. These include the Cultural Considerations® analysis process, Business Values Alignment® process, Matrix Assessment Evaluation® format and Contribution-Centric® interviewing process…all proprietary to Edwards Executive Search.
To further demonstrate his commitment to his clients’ success, he also has developed and performs a personalized integration-into-client mentoring program for executives placed by Edwards; the Placed-Executive® on boarding mentoring program.
At the request of several of his clients, he has developed and employs a process that will objectively evaluate executives under consideration for promotion and/or client sourced candidates under consideration for employment. This Assess-To-Excel® executive evaluation process combines the objectivity of validated executive assessment tools within the context of the experience and judgment of a seasoned former CEO business leader.
Finally, Mr. Edwards also helps individual executives in transition with the Partners-in-Transition® mentoring programs for executives who are in between job assignments, considering a change in career or joining a new company in a key position.
As a former CEO and multi-company Director, Mr. Edwards’ business background is somewhat unique for an executive search consultant. He understands, and has experienced, the value of effective talent acquisition and the cost and disruption of executive turnover. He realizes that executive turnover can be significantly reduced with a thorough, systematic and professional hiring process. And as a practitioner, not just a consultant, he has successfully built and motivated his own executive teams.
Prior to Washington University, Mr. Edwards graduated from Colgate University in 1971. He attended Harvard University’s Executive Leadership Program as a Danforth Fellow; and he is a graduate of Leadership St. Louis.
Mr. Edwards has been active throughout his career serving as a Trustee or Board Member for a number of civic or business organizations.
Mr. Edwards has been trained as a Master Career Coach at The Career Coach Institute, and is certified in the application/interpretation of several leading executive selection and development assessment tools. He is a member of the International Coach Federation, the Human Capital Institute, the Society of Business Ethics and InterimCEO.
W. Lynton Edwards III
800-453-2570 Ext 701
wle@edwards-search.com