White Hat Leadership Team

Robert Lueck

Robert (Bob) Lueck, Managing Director of White Hat Growth Partners is an accomplished management and retained executive search consultant with extensive experience successfully partnering with large multinational and middle-market firms to identify, attract and onboard their top executive talent needs.

Prior to founding White Hat Executive Search in 2021, Bob spent a number of years in senior-level marketing and marketing communications roles with several advertising agencies. Additionally he served as Director of Marketing Services for Sea World of Florida, and Director of Marketing to launch Space Center Houston, the collaborative project of NASA and Disney Imagineering. Bob also held a senior management consulting role with W. Robert Michaels, a boutique management consulting firm, and Stanton Chase International, a global top 10 executive search firm.

Bob earned his Bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and his Master’s degree from Texas A&M.

Benjamin Lueck

Benjamin R. Lueck, Director at White Hat Growth Partners is a former general contractor, U.S. Army combat veteran, and strategic advisor with 25 years of experience leading field teams, fixing broken systems, and scaling operations that hold up under pressure. He's overseen $25M+ in construction projects, directed global HR and logistics for 2,400+ military personnel, and now works directly with business owners to install leadership systems that deliver clarity, consistency, and control.

Benjamin holds a bachelor’s degree in Leadership from Texas A&M, and an MBA from the University of Memphis. He is also the bestselling author of a leadership and team development book. He's been married for more than two decades, has five kids, and spends his weekends hiking to lakes and waterfalls, by the grill, or swapping stories around the fire pit, because leadership isn't just about what you do at work.

The White Hat approach is disciplined, insightful, and pragmatic, with a clear focus on positioning leaders for sustainable, long-term impact rather than short-term moves.

F. Rossi

White Hat forecasts requirements and implements systemic solutions to complex problems… among the finest I’ve worked with in 20 years.

G. Goodman

★★★★★

★★★★★

Our Services

1. Growth-Stage Retained Executive Search

What Makes Our Search Different

We design the role around where the business is going, not where it has been

Candidates are evaluated for operating maturity, change leadership, and founder partnership

Search includes leadership and behavioral assessment - not just resume matching

Global search firms are optimized for large, mature organizations. White Hat is built for growth inflection points.

We evaluate executives on their ability to lead in the 3 key domains that determine the success of an organization over the next 10 years: People, Profits, and Processes.

How We Evaluate Executives:

People Leadership

• Founder Partnership Readiness – Can they lead alongside founders with trust and clarity?

• Talent Multiplication – Will they strengthen the team beneath them?

• Cultural Evolution – Can they evolve culture without damaging it?

Process Leadership

• Operating Maturity – Can they build scalable systems, not just manage complexity?

• Growth Constraint Diagnosis – Do they identify root causes, not symptoms?

• Stage-Appropriate Leadership – Are they right for this phase, not the last one?

• Decision Judgment Under Pressure – How do they decide when data is imperfect?

Profit Leadership

• Economic Value Creation – Can they grow EBITDA with capital discipline?

Critical for plateaued firms: Growth stalls when leadership remains overly centralized or underpowered.

We specialize in placing first-time, “professional” executives into founder-led organizations.

Common Roles We Place

• Chief Operating Officer (COO)

• Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

• Chief Information Officer / Chief Technology Officer (CIO / CTO)

• Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

• Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)

2. Founder & Owner Evolution

Many plateaus exist because founders are still carrying responsibilities they should no longer own.

We help founders:

• Redefine their role post-hire

• Transition authority without losing control

• Shift from doer to enterprise leader

This advisory work reduces executive failure risk and accelerates trust between the founder and new leadership.

3. Executive Onboarding & First-Year Acceleration

Hiring the right executive is only half the work. The first 6–12 months determine success. [NTS: find statistics about the cost of failed retention of executive placements]

Included Support

• Structured 90-day and 180-day onboarding plans

• Stakeholder alignment sessions (founder, board, leadership team)

• Executive coaching during the transition period

This dramatically increases retention and time-to-impact.

4. Executive Coaching for Growth-Stage Leaders

We coach both:

• Newly hired executives adapting to founder-led environments

• Legacy leaders who must scale their leadership capability

Focus areas include:

• Decision-making at scale

• Delegation and accountability systems

• Leadership presence and influence

• Navigating ambiguity and growth pressure

5. Leadership Team Development

Growth stalls when leadership teams operate as individuals instead of a system.

We work with executive teams to:

• Clarify roles, decision rights, and accountability

• Improve cross-functional execution

• Build trust and productive conflict

• Align leadership behavior with growth strategy

This work is particularly impactful after adding a COO, CFO, or other senior leader.

Our Process

1. Growth & Leadership Diagnosis
We identify what is truly holding growth back - structure, leadership capacity, or role clarity.

2. Executive Role Architecture
We define the mandate, authority, and success metrics required to move the business forward.

3. Retained Executive Search
A disciplined, confidential search focused on leadership maturity, change capability, and founder/cultural fit.

4. Integration & Acceleration
Onboarding, coaching, and leadership alignment to ensure the hire succeeds beyond day one.

Industries We Serve

We work exclusively with businesses where leadership scale - not market demand - is the primary growth constraint.

Manufacturing (50–500 Employees)

• Industrial and engineered products

• Specialty, Contract and custom manufacturing

• Distribution-adjacent manufacturers

• Founder-led and privately held firms

Common challenges:

• Founder bottlenecks in operations and decision-making

• Lack of professionalized finance, systems, or supply chain leadership

• Difficulty scaling margins, throughput, and accountability

Professional Services (50–500 Employees)

• Engineering and technical services firms

• Architecture, design, and consulting firms

• IT and managed services organizations

Common challenges:

• Rainmaker founders unable to scale delivery leadership

• Inconsistent execution across projects or offices

• Leadership gaps in finance, operations, and talent development