How to Find a CEO's Email Address (and Write One They'll Read)

A CEO's email almost always follows the same format as everyone else's at the company, usually firstname@ or firstname.lastname@ the company domain. So the reliable way to find it is: confirm the CEO's exact name, find the company's email format, build the address and verify it before sending. An email finder does those steps in one go from a name and company or a LinkedIn profile. When the address is impossible to find, go through the CEO's assistant, a LinkedIn message or a mutual connection.

Below: each step in detail, the other places executive emails show up, what to do when you can't find one, and how to write an email a CEO will actually read.

Step 1: Confirm who the CEO is

Spelling matters: one wrong letter and the email bounces. Check the name in at least one of these:

• The company website: About, Team, Leadership or Press pages.
• The company's LinkedIn page: the People tab lets you search employees by title.
• Official registers: Companies House lists the directors of UK companies; for US public companies, annual reports and proxy statements on SEC EDGAR name the executive officers.
• Recent press releases and interviews, which also confirm the person still holds the job.

Before going further, ask yourself whether the CEO is the right person. At a 20-person company, the founder often buys everything. At a 2,000-person company, the CEO will at best forward your email to the VP who owns the problem, so writing to that VP directly is usually faster.

Step 2: Find the company's email format

Most companies use one pattern for all employees, CEO included. To find it:

• Look for any published address on the domain: press contacts, job ads, PDFs, event sponsor pages, the website footer.
• Search Google for the domain: "@company.com" lists pages that mention addresses at that domain.
• Use a domain search tool: Hunter's Domain Search, available on its free plan, shows the pattern it has detected for a domain once it has found a few addresses there.

If you find jane.doe@company.com for one employee, the CEO is very likely firstname.lastname@company.com too. Small startups are the main exception: founders often use firstname@ even when later hires got firstname.lastname@.

Step 3: Build the address and verify it

The usual candidates for a CEO named Jane Doe at company.com:

Then run the candidates through a free email verifier, which checks whether the mailbox exists without sending anything. Don't send to unverified guesses: bounces damage your sender reputation and every later campaign pays for it. One caveat: on catch-all domains, the server accepts every address, so a "valid" result proves nothing. There, look for a published example of the format before sending.

The shortcut: use an email finder

An email finder combines steps 2 and 3. You enter the CEO's name and company (or their LinkedIn profile URL) and get a verified address, or nothing if it can't be confirmed.

useArtemis's email finder works this way: it searches for the person's professional email and verifies it, flagging risky results such as catch-all domains. Other options, and how much you can do for free with each, are in our comparison of free email finder tools. If you need CEOs of many companies at once, a B2B database with job title filters saves you from looking up names one by one.

Other places a CEO's email shows up

• Google with operators: "Jane Doe" "@company.com" or site:company.com "Jane Doe" can surface an address quoted in a document or an old press release.
• Their own channels: a personal website, a newsletter, a podcast, or a blog with a reply-to address.
• Conference and speaker pages, interviews and guest articles, which sometimes end with a contact email.
• Their LinkedIn Contact info, if you're connected and they share it. Our guide on finding someone's email on LinkedIn covers what you can see and when.

When you can't find the CEO's email

• Write to their executive assistant. At larger companies, the assistant manages the CEO's inbox anyway. Find them on LinkedIn (search the company with "executive assistant" or "chief of staff") and ask for the best way to reach the CEO.
• Message them on LinkedIn. A connection request with a short note, or an InMail if you have Premium or Sales Navigator.
• Ask for an introduction. A mutual connection, an investor or a shared customer gets you a reply far more often than any cold email.
• Try the generic inbox at small companies. At a ten-person startup, hello@ or contact@ is often read by the founder.
• Use the official channels at public companies: investor relations or press contacts, if your message genuinely concerns them.

How to email a CEO (so they reply)

CEOs triage their inbox in seconds. What gets read:

• A specific subject line, written like a colleague would: "Question about Acme's Berlin expansion", not "Partnership opportunity".
• A first line about them or their company, not about you: a recent announcement, a hire, a post they wrote.
• Three to five sentences in total. What you noticed, what you can do about it, one piece of proof.
• One clear, small ask: a 15-minute call, a yes/no question, permission to send a two-line summary.
• No attachments in a first email.

An example for a fictional company:

Subject: Acme's new Berlin office

Hi Jane,

Congrats on opening Berlin. Hiring 30 sales reps in a new market usually means a few months before they're fully productive.

We help sales teams cut that ramp-up with ready-made prospect lists and outreach sequences in the local language. Would a 15-minute call with your Head of Sales next week be useful, or should I send a two-line summary first?

Best,
Sam

If there's no reply, one or two short follow-ups spaced a few days apart are fine; our follow-up email examples show how to write them without being pushy. For more on the first email itself, see our cold email tips.

Rules to follow when emailing executives

A CEO's work email is personal data under GDPR, and cold emails to US recipients fall under CAN-SPAM, B2B included. In short: write only when your message is relevant to their role, say who you are and how you got their address, include a simple way to opt out (and honor it), and don't send to purchased lists you can't vouch for. Some countries, Germany for example, require prior consent even for B2B email marketing. The guide on finding emails on LinkedIn linked above has a longer legal section.

If you contact executives regularly, useArtemis brings the pieces together: find and verify their emails, then reach them through LinkedIn and email steps in the same sequence, from $69/month (pricing).

FAQ

Is it OK to email a CEO directly?

Yes, especially at small and mid-sized companies, where the CEO is often involved in buying decisions. Keep it short and relevant to their business, and don't be offended if they forward you to someone else: a referral from the CEO's inbox carries weight with the person who receives it.

What is the most common CEO email format?

The same as the rest of the company, most often firstname.lastname@company.com or firstname@company.com. Founders of small startups frequently use firstname@ only. Check a published address from the same domain before guessing, and verify the result.

How do I find out who the CEO of a company is?

Check the company's About or Leadership page, the People tab of its LinkedIn page, or recent press releases. For UK companies, Companies House lists directors; for US public companies, SEC filings name the executive officers.

Can I buy a list of CEO emails?

You can, but bought lists are often outdated, and in Europe you can't show where the data came from or that the people agreed to be contacted, which is a GDPR problem. Building your own list of the CEOs you actually want to reach, with verified emails, gives better results and fewer bounces.

How do I find a CEO's phone number?

Call the company's main number and ask for the CEO's office, which usually puts you through to an assistant. Some B2B data tools include direct dials. Our guide on how to find someone's phone number by name lists the options.