Executive Biography Writing

You know your own story. That can be the problem.

Writing about yourself is surprisingly difficult. Say too little and you undersell yourself. Say too much and it starts to sound like an acceptance speech. Somewhere in between is an executive biography that explains who you are, what you’ve done and why it matters.

I’ve spent 30 years writing about people, businesses and organisations. My background in journalism taught me how to interview people, ask the right questions and find the interesting bit. Copywriting taught me what to do with what I found.

I write executive biographies for CEOs, founders, C-suite executives, board members and other senior professionals who need to sound accomplished without sounding terribly pleased with themselves.

The interesting bit is rarely the job title

A CV tells me you became managing director in 2018. I’m more interested in what happened next. What did you inherit? What did you change? What went wrong? What are you particularly proud of? Why did you leave one career for another? Which apparently insignificant decision turned out to change everything?

Job titles and dates provide the chronology. The interesting part is what happened between them.

That’s why I prefer to interview people rather than simply rewrite their CVs.

A conversation gives me the context behind the career: the decisions, achievements, turning points, setbacks and occasional bits of luck that made it yours. Quite often, the most interesting thing you tell me will be something you hadn’t thought worth mentioning.

What do you want people to know about you?

An executive biography needs a purpose.

A CEO profile on a corporate website has a different job from a biography supporting a board appointment. A conference organiser wants to know why people should listen to you. A journalist needs useful background. Investors may be interested in your sector experience and track record.

You’re the same person in all of them. The emphasis changes.

I can write executive biographies and professional profiles for:

corporate and company websites;
CEO and leadership pages;
board and non-executive director profiles;
speaker and conference biographies;
press and media packs;
investor presentations and corporate communications;
award entries and professional submissions;
LinkedIn profiles; and
short introductions, bylines and contributor biographies.

Where you need several versions, I can create them from the same core material so the story remains consistent without squeezing the same biography into every available space.

Credible without becoming insufferable

Senior people generally have achievements worth talking about. Talking about them yourself can feel faintly embarrassing. Underplay them and the biography doesn’t do you justice. Overplay them and you start to sound like the sort of person who describes themselves as a visionary thought leader.

The useful territory is somewhere in between.

I prefer evidence to adjectives. Businesses built. Organisations changed. Teams led. Markets entered. Problems solved. Deals completed. Ideas turned into something real. The stronger the evidence, the less hard the writing has to work to make you sound impressive.

Finding the person behind the career

People don’t connect particularly well with lists of appointments. They connect with people.

That doesn’t mean your executive biography needs to reveal your childhood dreams, favourite restaurant and handicap at golf. It means giving the reader enough to understand something about how you think, what matters to you and how you approach what you do.

Sometimes that’s your leadership style. Sometimes it’s the thread connecting several apparently unrelated stages of your career. Sometimes it’s an interest, belief or experience that explains why you’ve taken the path you have.

And sometimes the golf really is relevant.

Judgement matters.

One career. Several biographies.

There’s no universally correct length for an executive biography because there isn’t one universally correct use for it. You might need a detailed master biography alongside a 250-word website profile, a shorter speaker biography and a 50-word version for conference programmes or media use.

A board or NED biography may concentrate on governance, commercial experience and sector knowledge. A founder profile may need more of the story behind the business. A speaker biography needs to make somebody want to hear what you have to say.

I can write a longer master biography and adapt it for your website, board applications, speaking engagements, media use or wherever else you need it. Same person. Different audience.

How we’ll work

First, I’ll read whatever you already have: CV, existing biography, LinkedIn profile, company information, press coverage or anything else that helps me understand your career. Then we’ll talk. I’ll ask questions about what you’ve done, but also why you did it, what changed as a result and which parts of your career matter most now. After that, I write.

You’ll have the opportunity to correct anything I’ve misunderstood, add anything we’ve missed and tell me if I’ve made you sound suspiciously unlike yourself. Then I’ll refine it until we have something that feels accurate, natural and properly representative. You on a particularly articulate day, rather than somebody you wouldn’t recognise at a drinks reception.

Thirty years of listening before writing

Before becoming a copywriter, I was a journalist. Interviewing people taught me that the first answer isn’t always the interesting one. Sometimes you need another question. Sometimes you need to challenge an assumption. Sometimes you need to stop talking and let somebody think.

That experience has stayed with me throughout 30 years of professional writing. It helps me distinguish between something that’s important to the reader and something that feels important because it happened to take three years of your life.

That distance is useful.

You’re the expert on your career.

I bring the outside perspective.

Shall I write the bit about you?

If you need an executive biography for a website, board appointment, speaking engagement, media profile or anywhere else, send me what you already have. It doesn’t need to be organised. A CV, LinkedIn profile or existing biography is enough to get us started. We’ll have a conversation. Then I’ll write the bit about you, so you don’t have to.

Executive biography writing FAQs

What’s the difference between an executive biography and a CV?

A CV records your employment, responsibilities, qualifications and achievements. An executive biography uses the most relevant parts of that information to tell a coherent story about your career, expertise and experience. The CV provides the chronology. The biography provides the context.

How long should an executive biography be?

It depends on where it will be used. A short speaker introduction or byline may be 50–100 words. A corporate website profile might be 150–300 words. A detailed board, media or professional biography can be longer. If you need several lengths, I can create them from the same core biography.

Should an executive biography be written in the first or third person?

Usually third person, particularly for company websites, board profiles, speaker biographies and media use. But it depends on where it will appear and how you want to sound. If you need both, I can adapt the same biography accordingly.

Do you need to interview me?

Usually. I can work from written material alone where necessary, but an interview invariably gives me more to work with. It’s where the detail, personality and context tend to emerge.

It also means you don’t have to spend several hours writing a detailed brief about yourself, which rather defeats the point of hiring me.

Can you rewrite my existing executive biography?

If the facts are still right but the biography is dated, too long, too corporate or simply doesn’t sound much like you, I can rewrite it rather than starting again unnecessarily. I can also update an existing biography when your role, responsibilities or career have moved on.

Can you write biographies for several members of a leadership team?

Yes. I can interview and write profiles for an entire board or leadership team, giving each person an individual voice while maintaining an appropriate level of consistency across the set. The objective is consistency, not making everybody sound like the same executive with different hobbies.