Brandt: Chicago-based firm will help Lions find leaders

Allen Park — As they look for their next executives, the Lions have enlisted the services of the same search firm that helped the NFL hire Paul Tagliabue as commissioner in 1989.

Heidrick & Struggles, a Chicago-based executive search firm, will assist Lions owner and chairwoman Martha Firestone Ford to identify new leadership, longtime Cowboys executive Gil Brandt told The Detroit News on Tuesday.

Jon Harmon, vice president for corporate communications for Heidrick & Struggles, would neither confirm nor deny the company’s involvement with the Lions, saying relationships with clients are confidential.

According to its website, Heidrick & Struggles is an international company that serves its clients “as trusted advisors providing diversified solutions across executive search, leadership consulting and culture shaping.”

Lions spokesman Bill Keenist also declined comment.

The Lions fired president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew last week. Ford promoted Allison Maki to interim chief operating officer and Sheldon White to interim general manager, but said they would immediately begin a national search to find the “best leadership to manage our team going forward.”

Outside of assisting the NFL with finding Tagliabue to replace Pete Rozelle as commissioner in 1989, it’s unclear how much experience Heidrick & Struggles has in identifying NFL executives.

Other teams have hired search firms to identify general managers. The Jets used Korn Ferry, a Los Angeles-based firm, to hire John Idzik as general manager in 2013. Idzik had worked for the Buccaneers, Cardinals and Seahawks.

Two partners at Heidrick & Struggles, Phyllis Scheble and Gregg McDonald, previously worked for Ford Motor Co.

Brandt, vice president of player personnel for the Cowboys from 1960-88, said some teams look to search firms when the people in power are unfamiliar with the pool of candidates for executive positions. Although he said it’s never a good time to fire people, the Lions can target candidates before other teams expected to be searching for new executives for 2016.

“Even though they’ve had terrible results over the years, they’re a franchise that everybody is interested in because of the Ford’s ownership in it and because of the facilities that they have,” Brandt said. “And the fact that they do have a quarterback (Matthew Stafford) that is much maligned, but he’s still a 27-year-old that’s a pretty darn good quarterback.”

Ford took over as owner for her husband, William Clay Ford Sr., after his death in March 2014. He had owned the team since 1964.

William Clay Ford Jr. had significant experience in the NFL as Lions vice chairman, but is serving in a diminished role with the team as his sisters, vice chairwomen Sheila Ford Hamp and Elizabeth Ford Kontulis, have had an increased presence since Martha Ford became owner.

“You have to admire the lady for stepping up and doing what she’s done,” Brandt said of Martha Ford. “It looks to me like she’s saying my husband and my son haven’t been real good at this and just maybe, just maybe, I can do it and get it done with the help of other people, and get it done better than it’s ever been done before.”

jkatzenstein@detroitnews.com

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