About us
Executive Search and Leadership Hiring for India’s Growth Sectors
XL Advisors is an executive search firm founded by IIT Kanpur alumni. For over 12 years, we have helped companies across India hire senior leaders and specialist teams. Our core sectors are insurance and reinsurance, Global Capability Centres (GCCs), IT services, retail and jewellery, and power and renewable energy.
Technology hiring runs through all of our work. We place CTOs, engineering heads, data and AI leaders, and cybersecurity specialists for IT services firms, product companies, GCCs and digital teams inside traditional businesses.
We are known for greenfield and expansion hiring. Large corporates bring us in when they launch a new business, plant, GCC or regional operation, often before the first hire is made. That includes new insurers going through licensing, GCCs setting up in India, and new entities in GIFT City. We build the leadership team, design the org structure and benchmark compensation, so the project starts with the right people in place.
300+ clients · 45+ consultants · Retained and contingent search · Greenfield set-ups from first hire to full team
Insurance & Reinsurance · GCCs · GIFT City · IT Services & Technology · Retail & Jewellery · Power & Renewables · BFSI
Our FOUNDERs
Co-Founder & Director
Varun Jain
B.Tech, IIT Kanpur · 9 years at Schlumberger
Varun leads technology and leadership hiring at XL Advisors for IT services firms, Global Capability Centres and large corporates setting up new businesses in India, and runs the firm’s operations. Before co-founding XL Advisors, he spent nine years with Schlumberger across India, the Middle East and Australia, giving him a first-hand view of how global companies build teams. He is Treasurer of the IIT Kanpur Alumni Association, Mumbai Chapter.
Co-Founder & CEO
Minal Jain
MBA (HR), ITM Navi Mumbai · Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women, IIM Ahmedabad
Minal leads XL Advisors’ leadership search practice and its insurance, reinsurance, BFSI and retail hiring. She built the firm’s advisory services, including market mapping, compensation benchmarking and org design, now used by new insurers and corporates setting up in India. Earlier, she set up the global markets and debt capital markets search verticals at Vito India. Minal is part of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women entrepreneurship programme at IIM Ahmedabad (2026 cohort).
Join OUR TEAM
We’re hiring consultants who want to build a career in executive search.