About Us
Our Vision
To redefine leadership search as a strategic, risk-mitigating leadership transition discipline rather than a transactional hiring exercise.
IndySchool Consultancy exists to help independent schools secure leaders who will succeed, stay, and lead well in an increasingly complex governance and operating environment. We believe leadership transitions are among the highest-stakes decisions a school will ever make, and they deserve expertise, clarity, and disciplined strategy, not volume, bureaucracy, or outdated process.
ISC’s vision is to become the most trusted leadership transition partner in independent education by delivering fewer, better-aligned candidates; reducing institutional risk; preserving leadership bandwidth; and guiding boards and heads with seasoned judgment at moments that matter most.
IndySchool Consultancy is a boutique leadership search firm built by former Heads of School for schools navigating high-stakes leadership transitions. We deliver a streamlined, high-touch alternative to legacy firms by presenting a focused slate of deeply aligned candidates, reducing committee burden, and mitigating the costly risk of misalignment. With national reach, niche expertise, and decades of lived leadership experience, ISC serves as a trusted strategic partner to boards and school leaders who value clarity, alignment, and long-term success over volume and outdated process.
Core Value Propositions
Leadership Search as Strategy, Not Administration
ISC approaches every engagement as a strategic leadership transition, not a staffing exercise. We help schools clarify governance readiness, role sustainability, cultural realities, and leadership expectations before candidates are ever introduced. This ensures that the search process strengthens the institution rather than exposes hidden fault lines.
Value Delivered:
Better alignment, faster decisions, and leaders who succeed long term.
Streamlined, High-Touch, Human-Centered Model
ISC operates with a deliberately lean, two-consultant model that ensures consistency, accountability, and deep relational engagement. Schools work directly with senior advisors throughout the search, not rotating teams or junior associates.
Value delivered:
Clear communication, reduced burden on school leaders, and a calmer search experience.
Fewer Candidates. Better Outcomes.
ISC intentionally delivers a focused pool of five to six deeply vetted, mission-aligned candidates rather than overwhelming committees with twelve to fifteen semifinalists. This precision reduces decision fatigue, accelerates consensus, and significantly lowers the risk of misalignment.
Value delivered:
Time savings, clarity, and higher confidence at every stage of the process.
Risk Reduction Through Alignment and Readiness
Leadership misalignment is one of the most expensive failures a school can experience. ISC mitigates this risk by investing heavily in discovery, cultural diagnostics, and profile alignment before recruitment begins. We identify misalignment early, not after a hire is made.
Value delivered:
Protection against costly leadership turnover and institutional disruption.
National Reach with Niche Fluency
Real Leadership Expertise at the Table
ISC is led by former Heads of School with more than thirty-five years of combined executive leadership experience. We understand governance dynamics, faculty culture, enrollment pressure, financial stewardship, crisis leadership, and board-head relationships because we have lived them.
Value delivered:
Boards receive seasoned judgment, not scripted process.
Quantifiable Value and Opportunity Cost Awareness
ISC explicitly addresses the hidden costs of leadership searches, including opportunity cost, administrative burden, committee fatigue, and misalignment risk. Our work helps schools understand not just who to hire, but how to protect time, energy, and financial resources.
Value delivered:
A financially and strategically responsible approach to leadership hiring.
ISC combines national search capability with deep expertise in key school communities, including boarding schools, Montessori schools, Catholic schools, Episcopal schools, all-girls schools, and international contexts. We understand the cultural nuances that determine success in each.
Value delivered:
Broader reach without sacrificing cultural fluency or fit.
Anti-Complexity by Design
Legacy firms add steps, documents, candidates, and committees. ISC removes friction. Our model aligns with modern transformation research showing that simplicity, clarity, and focus outperform complexity every time.
Boutique Accountability
Schools know exactly who is leading their search from start to finish. There is no handoff, no dilution of expertise, and no confusion about responsibility.
KEY DIFFERENTIATORS
Led by Practitioners, Not Process Managers
ISC advisors are former school leaders, not career recruiters. We bring lived leadership intelligence that cannot be replicated by legacy firms built around process administration.
Governance and Culture Literacy
ISC reads schools accurately. We help boards understand what candidates will see, feel, and question, and we help candidates understand what success will truly require.
Modern Tools, Human Judgment
ISC leverages modern research tools and AI-enabled sourcing, but never replaces judgment with automation. Technology supports expertise; it does not substitute for it.
Precision Candidate Pools
ISC’s reputation is built on quality, not quantity. Our candidate slates are smaller because they are stronger, better vetted, and more deeply aligned.
Search Readiness as a Strategic Discipline
ISC operates upstream of urgency. Through readiness assessments, advisory conversations, and discovery work, we help schools prepare before pressure forces decisions.
Meet our Founder
Tim Viands
Tim has over two decades of extensive experience in independent schools as a teacher, administrator and school leader. He has developed innovative models of learning in day and boarding schools in the US and has vast experience in international education. During that time, Tim has developed an innovative approach to hiring (Competency Based Hiring) and to strategic planning (The d4 Process).
He started IndySchool Consultancy because the Stone Age process of hiring school leaders is broken, with shorter tenures and abrupt departures. As a former head, he founded this forward-thinking firm to make a difference. Tim felt there was a better way in which firms interacted with their clients. Much of IndySchool Consultancy’s search model is based off of the frustrations Tim and countless heads of school had when working with search firms.
What People Say
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“Storylines is pleased to be working with IndySchool Consultancy to create the world’s first globally traveling accredited school. Having a home aboard our inaugural residential ship MV Narrative guarantees exclusive access to this groundbreaking youth education model in which students learn anywhere and everywhere around the world."
— Alister Punton, CEO, Storylines
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Having never worked with a recruiter before, I was surprised to learn how easy the job application process could be. While the typical application process has long, quiet waiting periods and many unanswered questions, Tim was responsive, supportive, and even collaborative. Because of his experience working in schools, he had a clear understanding of the position I was applying to, and he also understood the unique needs of the position for this particular school. After conversations with him, I felt very prepared for my interviews. It was a seamless process.
-Bronwyn Roy, Placed as Director of Development at Washington Episcopal School
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We are very excited and thank you for rounding out my pool and for being so wonderful and flexible to work with.
-Megan Harlan, Head of School, Fountain Valley School
