The hiring process can be tedious and sometimes brutal.  But for a company to have good cohesion it's essential.  Although I have no official HR experience, I have run sections and interviewed individuals to come work for my work center.  I usually start with getting to know the individual.  Questions would include family, hobbies, background, and possible prior experience.  Those are the comfortable lead-in questions that can put an interviewee at ease allowing you to follow up with tougher ones like pay.  One would assume anything with the title "executive" in it will be salary-based so then credentials and experience come in to play.  That and to keep in mind an executive role is going to have this person in charge of individuals.  Some key things to observe while interviewing would be attitude, tone of voice, attention, & finally how a person presents.  Once hired this individual will be looked at as a representative of your company so appearance needs to be that of a professional image.  On the end of the interview the answers are provided to you are just as important as the questions. I would never expect an answer to be "it's been my dream to work for this company and I want to be here until I retire", although not impossible.  Some examples would be their response on work hours.  Are they capable of working off-shifts & weekends? Are they flexible with schedule and shift changes?  All the answers an interviewee provides aid in your decision of whether they are right for the position.