The Rising Star of CEO Consulting

At 43, Heidrick & Struggles' Stephen Miles has quietly built a client list that includes BHP Billiton's Marius Kloppers and Best Buy's Brian Dunn. Who is this guy?

Photograph by Miller Mobley

By Diane Brady

Anyone setting out to explain the remarkable success of Stephen A. Miles, a rising star in the world of executive coaching, might start with the nomadic childhood that helped turn him into a student of human psychology. Born in Nairobi to a schoolteacher mother and an agro-economist father, Miles lived in South Africa, Iraq, and Argentina by the time he turned eight, then in Canada—New Brunswick, Ontario, and British Columbia—honing his adaptability and talent for observation all along the way. "You have to read people quickly to fit into the social network," says Miles, 43. "My whole world is about trying to read people, to find that one ticket in, and get them to do something differently."

Someone else might point to Miles' years as a young prison caseworker with a master's degree from the University of Victoria, counseling maximum-security inmates at Ontario's Kingston Penitentiary. Caring for an often violent population, he had to explain to clients why they couldn't expect parole anytime soon, or gently convey that they wouldn't be granted furlough to attend a father's funeral. "I didn't like the negative environment," he says. "But it gave me the confidence to tell people anything." Beyond that, Miles is reluctant to discuss his career behind bars. He deflects the question of whether there are useful comparisons between the inmates he worked with then and the chief executive officers he works with today, a list that includes Marius Kloppers of mining giant BHP Billiton (BHP), Best Buy's (BBY) Brian Dunn, Stephen Elop at Nokia (NOK), and Shantanu Narayen, of softwaremaker Adobe Systems (ADBE).

Miles may not enjoy such biographical scrutiny, but it is the method he uses with his CEO clients. "Our first encounter was three hours," says New York Life CEO Theodore Mathas, "and I think we got up to when I was in the seventh grade. He asked questions like 'Did you get your homework done?' and 'Did you spend more time with your mom or your dad?' It was a little unusual." Miles says his goal is to understand what shaped the executives as human beings. "I care less about what they think than what they have done." Says Mathas: "He made me feel comfortable, but it was clear he wasn't there to be my friend."

An arm's-length relationship makes Miles more valuable. After hours of interviewing senior executives and those who work with them, he paints a portrait that can be surprising to the subject—and crucial to their careers. For some, it's the key to getting a CEO job. For others, Miles' insights are indispensable in managing the transition to the top job. And friends or not, they all regard him fondly. "I love him unreservedly," says Kloppers, with a laugh. "He's wicked smart," says Narayen. "It has been fascinating to see the wisdom he brings," says Stephen MacMillan, CEO of medical device maker Stryker, "for such a young punk."

Although he's been consulting for barely a decade, Miles has already developed a client list rivaling those of the world's best-known consulting sages, such as Marshall Goldsmith and Ram Charan. "Stephen is near the top, especially given his age," says Goldsmith, 61, the longtime dean of the executive-coaching set. "He probably has a broader knowledge base than me."

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