Executive Search Built on Judgment Since 2010
STRANCE is a confidential executive search and leadership intelligence practice, founded in 2010 by two partners whose judgment boards and executives trust in equal measure across India and the Middle East.
Founder-Led Since 2010
STRANCE is an executive search and leadership intelligence firm, founded in 2010 by Sania Nazeef and Irfan Nazeef. The firm appoints senior leaders for boards, CEOs, and CHROs across India and the Middle East, built on confidential, founder-led search rather than transactional hiring.
Sania and Irfan Nazeef founded STRANCE in Hyderabad in 2010, after careers spent inside two of the world's largest talent organisations. They built an independent practice on direct partner involvement in every mandate, rather than an account-manager model. The firm's footprint has since grown from India to the Middle East, with mandates now running across both markets from dedicated offices.
Over more than a decade, STRANCE has built genuine depth in sectors where leadership decisions carry unusual weight. This includes leadership hiring for fighter aircraft programmes and defense manufacturing, and senior appointments across commercial and private aviation operators in the Middle East. The same rigor extends to petrochemicals, specialty chemicals, agriculture, and industrial manufacturing.
Every STRANCE appointment follows the same five-stage discipline behind our executive search practice, regardless of mandate or market. Read the full methodology →
How We Work
Understand
We start by understanding the mandate, the culture, and the outcome the board truly needs.
Map
ChangeLabs.ai maps the market to identify every relevant leader, whether visible or not yet public.
Assess
We assess capability, judgment, and cultural fit through structured interviews and independent reference work.
Shortlist
A confidential shortlist is presented with comparative insight and evidence on each leader considered.
Secure
We support negotiation and onboarding until the appointment is fully secured and confirmed.
Led by Two Founder Directors
Every STRANCE mandate is led personally by one of two founder directors, not handed to a case team.
Sania Nazeef
Founder Director
Sania co-founded STRANCE in 2010 and leads the firm's executive search practice. She has spent her career in leadership hiring, previously with Kelly and ManpowerGroup on elite executive appointments.
She has completed cross-border searches for CXO, CFO, and senior R&D leadership across petrochemicals, aviation, specialty chemicals, agriculture, defense, and automotive. Her mandates include scientific research and production leadership for global manufacturers and multinational programmes.
Beyond established enterprises, Sania advises founders and angel investors on building leadership teams from the ground up.
Irfan Nazeef
Founder Director
Irfan co-founded STRANCE in 2010 and leads market mapping, talent intelligence, and technology-enabled search. He directs IT and industrial leadership mandates across the United States and the Middle East.
He also leads ChangeLabs.ai, the intelligence layer behind STRANCE's research, benchmarking, and market-mapping capability.
What Governs Every Mandate
Discretion
Every conversation with STRANCE is confidential, in both directions. A client's search stays private until an appointment is confirmed. An executive's interest in a new role is never disclosed to their current employer without consent.
Rigor
A shortlist earns its place through structured assessment and independent reference conversations, not database convenience. Every leader we present has been evaluated against the mandate's actual decisions, not simply their track record on paper.
Judgment
A senior appointment is rarely decided by matching qualifications to a role description. STRANCE weighs judgment, cultural fit, and timing, qualities no keyword search or algorithm can measure on its own.
Whether you are considering STRANCE for a mandate or for your own next appointment, every conversation starts in confidence.