Executive & Leadership Transition Advisory
Every transition needs a fixed point of reference.
Horizon Line Advisory helps accomplished leaders bring clarity and judgment to career transitions, retirement, and the decisions that follow real achievement, from someone still active in the arena, not retired from it.
The Problem
The next chapter rarely announces itself.
Many accomplished leaders reach a point where the path forward stops being obvious. You may be successful on paper and still questioning whether you want to keep doing the work you've always done. You may be approaching retirement without a clear sense of what comes next. Or your career may have changed before you were ready for it to.
None of these moments call for another motivational speech. They call for perspective: someone with enough distance from your situation to see it clearly, and enough experience to know what actually works.
Advice is everywhere. Good judgment is not.Founding Philosophy
How An Engagement Works
A structured way to get your bearings.
Start with an honest picture.
Get a clear, specific read on where you actually stand, not where you think you should be.
Stress test the real options.
Weigh what's realistic against what actually matters to you, not just what looks good on paper.
Leave with a specific plan.
Move forward with a practical roadmap and the confidence to act on it.
Advisory Areas
Three kinds of conversations.
Executive Transition
For leaders navigating a career pivot, an unexpected exit, or the decision to make a change before someone makes it for them.
Learn more →Retirement Transition
For preparing retirement as more than a financial milestone: building the purpose, structure, and identity that come after the title does.
Learn more →Private Advisory
An ongoing, confidential sounding board for leaders working through complex professional and personal decisions in real time.
Learn more →For Advisors & Wealth Partners
A trusted next step for the conversations outside your scope.
Multi-family offices and boutique RIAs are often the first to notice when a client's questions move past the balance sheet: a looming retirement, a career in flux, a search for what comes next. Horizon Line Advisory gives you a specific, confidential place to send that conversation, without stepping outside your own mandate.
Inquire About A Referral Relationship →
About
Jim Wagner, Founder
Jim has spent more than twenty-five years leading B2B media and events organizations. He is currently a senior executive at EH Media, where he oversees a portfolio of brands serving the professional audio and worship technology industries and leads the launch of new ventures.
Earlier in his career, he spent ten years at Informa PLC as President of the Life Sciences division, leading a $40 million portfolio of B2B publishing and events businesses globally. He also served as President of ScholarshipAuditions.com, a venture-backed EdTech company.
He isn't advising from the sidelines. He is still building, still hiring, still making the decisions he now helps clients think through, which is why the perspective he brings is current, not retrospective.
My job isn't to tell you what to decide. It's to help you decide with more confidence.Jim Wagner
Insights
Recent thinking.
New essays published regularly.
Begin
Start with a conversation, not a pitch.
Every engagement begins with an unhurried conversation to understand where you are and whether this is the right fit, for both of us.
Based in Nashville, Tennessee