Mike Gozon

About Mike Gozon

I work with accomplished senior leaders who are in the executive job market and want to create the right momentum. C-suite executives, direct reports to the C-suite (L1), enterprise-level VPs, and Operating Partners who have built real track records and now find themselves without momentum, unsure how to target the right opportunities, or uneasy about mishandling conversations with recruiters, investors, or boards.Executive job markets follow different rules. Signals are opaque. Feedback is often indirect. And effort alone rarely produces momentum.My work sits upstream of execution, where your decisions still have leverage.I operate a proprietary executive job-market intelligence platform spanning retained executive search firms, specialist boutiques, and U.S-based private equity ecosystems.I use it to help senior leaders:• See how recruiters and sponsors read them• Focus on the right targets, not all targets• Build momentum without overexposure• Navigate recruiter and PE interactions• Pressure-test decisions before committingOnce opportunity begins to form, I work side by side with my clients, providing judgment, context, hypotheticals, and role-play so they move through the process cleanly and deliberately.I work with:• CEOs, C-suite, and direct reports to the C-suite• Enterprise VPs with board- or sponsor scope• Operating Partners and senior operators• Senior Directors evaluated for VP-level rolesExecutive job markets reward judgment, timing, and restraint. My role is to help senior leaders gain momentum without guessing.

Experience

1. Founder, Advisor

   Thrive Career Advisory

   Aug 2024 — Present · Pinehurst, NC, US

   Thrive Career Advisory is a private, 1:1 advisory platform focused on how senior leaders navigate executive job markets.I work with CEOs, C-suite execs, direct reports to the C-suite (L1), enterprise-level VPs, Operating Partners, and select Senior Directors evaluated for VP-level roles who are navigating retained executive search and PE-backed leadership markets.The work centers on market orientation before execution:• How exec backgrounds are interpreted• Where momentum is structurally likely• Which firms and conversations matter• When visibility helps or hurts• Decisions tested before commitmentOnce opportunity forms, I work side by side with clients, providing judgment, context, hypotheticals, and role-play so they move through the process cleanly, deliberately.Historical Focus and Domain ExpertiseEarlier in my advisory work, over a 24-year period, I built deep expertise working with current and former McKinsey, Bain, and BCG professionals navigating high-stakes career transitions into PE, corporate leadership, and adjacent operating roles.That experience shaped much of the perspective I bring today:• How elite credentials are discounted• Where strong execs lose momentum• Why early missteps compound quietly• How search firms evaluate signalWhile my work now spans senior leaders from a range of backgrounds, this foundation in MBB talent remains a core part of how I assess executive readiness, signal, and positioning.Engagement PhilosophyEngagements are structured around decision risk, not time or volume. This is not generalized career coaching or professional search support.The objective is simple: help senior leaders create the right momentum in executive job markets without guessing.

Education

• Southern Methodist University

  BBA, Marketing

  1981 — 1985