ON Partners is proud to have collaborated with SmartBear in finding the organization’s Chief Revenue Officer.

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ON Partners is proud to have collaborated with SmartBear in finding the organization’s Chief Revenue Officer.
ON Partners, over the last few years, has collaborated with Niche and its CEO to grow its executive leadership team.
We build C-level leadership teams across sectors. View our C-level work.
Our expert consultants specialize in building board leadership teams. See our results.
View our track record for placing HR executives across a variety of industries.
We are at the forefront of identifying supply chain leaders across sourcing, operations, logistics, and more.
We offer go-to-market sales and marketing executive search across a range of industries. Check out our results.
View our recent executive appointments for CTO, CIO, CPO, CISO, and more.
We work with the top financial leaders driving innovation and change. See our results.
The digital transformation era has led to a demand for innovative and data-driven leaders. See our work.
See our research & development appointments, primarily in the life sciences sector.
We are ranked as one of the most prominent PE executive search firms in the nation.
We work across PE-backed organizations to build leadership teams.
We place C-level and board leadership teams across a range of public organizations.
We are built to be as nimble and quick as high-growth organizations. See our work in VC and growth equity.
We understand the unique operational needs of high-growth companies. Check out our recent work.
See our expertise across the technology sector including enterprise software, SaaS, hardware, and more.
See our work across the consumer sector including retail, online marketplaces, CPG and more.
View our expertise across fintech, insurtech, banking, accounting and more.
We have deep expertise across biotechnology, digital health, diagnostics and more.
Our work in industrial spans across automotive, equipment, plastics, transportation and more.
A growing expertise across solar, cleantech, LED and more.
View all of our case studies here
ON Partners is proud to have collaborated with SmartBear in finding the organization’s Chief Revenue Officer.
ON Partners, over the last few years, has collaborated with Niche and its CEO to grow its executive leadership team.
See all of our DEI work here
Nvidia, the world leader in AI computing, appointed Kristin Major as Senior Vice President, Human Resources.
Anagram Holdings, the world’s leading manufacturer and producer of foil balloons, is pleased to announce the appointment of Kyle Duea as Chief Executive Officer.
See all of our recent wins here
ON Partners, is proud to be named to the HR and Diversity Power 70 Recruiting list, announced by market research firm Hunt Scanlon.
ON Partners was named, once again, to the Cyber Technology Top 45 list published by market research firm Hunt Scanlon Media.
See our recent successful executive appointments here
Nvidia, the world leader in AI computing, appointed Kristin Major as Senior Vice President, Human Resources.
Anagram Holdings, the world’s leading manufacturer and producer of foil balloons, is pleased to announce the appointment of Kyle Duea as Chief Executive Officer.
See all of our DEI work here
Nvidia, the world leader in AI computing, appointed Kristin Major as Senior Vice President, Human Resources.
Anagram Holdings, the world’s leading manufacturer and producer of foil balloons, is pleased to announce the appointment of Kyle Duea as Chief Executive Officer.
See our work get recognized here
ON Partners releases its 2025 CEO Report, offering a blueprint for future CEOs and hiring organizations.
With the addition of Jessica Johnson as partner, ON Partners strengthens healthcare and life sciences expertise.
See all of our recent wins here
ON Partners, is proud to be named to the HR and Diversity Power 70 Recruiting list, announced by market research firm Hunt Scanlon.
ON Partners was named, once again, to the Cyber Technology Top 45 list published by market research firm Hunt Scanlon Media.
View our most recent ON blogs here
Gain actionable insights from private equity industry experts and elevate your PE talent strategies for long-term success.
ON Partners analyzes the years of experience of C-level executives in new market conditions and realities.
May 18, 2021
MAY 18, 2020 ─ All of us at ON Partners are excited to celebrate the firm’s 15th anniversary this month! First, we want to thank our ON community of executive leaders for the partnership and trust throughout the years. Since the very beginning in 2006, we have always been focused on the executive search experience, with the goal of designing a values-driven firm from the ground up that delivers a collaborative, accessible, and transparent experience for clients and candidates alike.
To honor this 15th-anniversary milestone and the experience we have delivered over the years, several members of the ON team weigh in on how the market has evolved, opportunities, challenges, and surprises along the way. There’s some well-deserved reminiscing, but more importantly, they offer insights about the industry, its evolution, and the importance of a better executive search experience. Read on to hear from our executive search consultants.
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Bryan Buck, Partner: “We started off focused on semiconductors and optics. There were 1,000 companies between those two industries. Now there are 20. Fortunately, the technology innovation and application expansion, and the strong relationships we’ve built over time, have allowed us to be incredibly relevant in following the market trends – be it solar and LED lighting, IoT/connected devices, AI/ML, autonomous vehicles/everything, consumer marketplaces, gig economy, biotech innovations, non-tech companies needing to become tech companies, and others. Our technology backbone has continued to put us at the intersection of highly relevant and planet-impacting trends.”
“I joined in October 2008, about two weeks before the “crash.” With few exceptions, it may have been the worst time to join a boutique retained executive search firm. But we were scrappy. In a lot of ways, our firm – and our ‘no mahogany walls’ business model – was designed to withstand it. We made it through ’08 – ’09 by doing great execution. Most other firms our size didn’t make it. We came out stronger – adding Suzanne (Zebedee), Andy (Hickman), and a few others shortly thereafter that absolutely changed our scale, trajectory and momentum. Now fast forward to March 2020 and again, we were scrappy. And we came out of it with unparalleled momentum.”
Tim Conti, Managing Partner: “Brand building was the biggest challenge particularly in the early days. Each individual partner had a solid practice and set of client relationships, but the ON brand was not well known, so it made winning work with new clients difficult.”
Nina McMaster, Consultant: “When I joined ON Partners, we were a 20-person firm. Coming from a larger firm, the initial challenge I encountered was around a lack of resources. Since that time, we’ve evolved to a very user-friendly database with great client-facing features, and we have access to some of the best data and research platforms out there to be successful. And our industry focus is much broader, including consumer, healthcare IT, and optics, among other areas.”
Tim Conti: “There have been dramatic changes. Our elevation amongst industry peers is at the top of the list. The brand recognition is a close second. With the addition of new partners has come the diversification of our practice areas. Our origins were in technology, but we’ve since expanded into areas such as consumer, life sciences, and industrial, while building functional expertise in the areas of finance, IT, supply chain, and digital.”
Nina McMaster: “We have expanded our reach in terms of industries and functions that we recruit for. We now have a dedicated board services practice. Talent is more educated and informed about the market, and advanced platforms have allowed for people to stay very connected and aware of what is happening in the market.”
Matt Mooney, Partner: “We have gone through the typical growing pains in many ways. Most important has been maintaining our entrepreneurial spirit while implementing overall business processes around technology, HR and other corporate functions. When I joined in 2015 we did not have much of an external brand and we were just learning how to collaborate internally.”
“Sectors have expanded significantly in the last six years. The breadth of experience has shifted dramatically beyond core tech, while at the same time, the definition of technology has expanded as well. We now have very credible stories in life sciences, consumer, industrial, supply chain and a number of other sectors.”
“Our talent has continued to upgrade to match our growth. The caliber and trajectory of our younger talent far exceeds most of our old partners like me, and in conjunction, we have a much better platform and brand for them to continue to build their careers. We have created an ideal model for established partners and for rising talent to make a major impact in this industry.”
Tim Conti: “In reflection, the 2008-2009 great recession proved to be an incredible growth opportunity for us. In the few years that followed, we added several key partners from other global firms as they had become disenchanted with the bigger firms during the downturn due largely to the lack of voice they had in the firm. We were able to offer them a more nimble and client-centric platform, a voice in decision-making, a transparent compensation plan, and the most collaborative partnership in the industry.”
Matt Mooney: “This place just buzzed with energy when the Class of 2015 arrived. In some ways, I’m not sure if this crowd knew how good they could be and what they were starting to build. It was clearly the best-kept secret in the industry and just needed a match to start the fire. The simple compensation plan, lack of drama internally, and openness to new ideas fueled some of the most legitimate, sustainable growth in the industry.”
“The biggest surprise to me is how fast it took off when everything started to click. Intuitively, we knew that if we did great search work, maintained a great culture, and started to do a better job telling our story, the market would respond positively, but the last four years have been a pleasant shock to see.”
Bryan Buck: “We’ve gone from seven to 60 people since I’ve been here. It was a bit surreal sitting in our last companywide offsite, looking around, and seeing just how far we’ve come. Most companies don’t make it past five years, and even fewer past 10. Through a lot of hard work – and luck – we’ve been able to build something really special and resilient around great people.”
Nina McMaster: “The firm has grown tremendously in the seven and a half years that I have been with ON. From a business perspective, we have expanded our reach in terms of industries we recruit in. From an employee perspective, we’ve grown 3X in size and expanded our diversity footprint. We’ve rebranded ourselves to focus on the areas of collaboration, transparency, and accessibility. While those have always been the values we operate by, the rebranding has reinforced our strengths in those areas. We’ve always strived to deliver the best experience, but now have additional data to measure and reinforce this.”
Josh Nathanson, Partner: “The kind of work has changed, from Venture to PE and public companies. And we’ve seen a big increase in high-profile projects. In 2007, we never would have gotten the CFO search at a public company. Venture-backed work to public company work at the board and c-suite level has been an incredible shift.”
Matt Mooney: “The biggest change is this continued gain in confidence and swagger. We understand that we have something special here and for ON employees, our clients, and our candidates, this is a differentiated experience that benefits everyone. We still have a ways to go but just seeing the whole team start to believe that we are building something unique is rewarding.”
Bryan Buck: “One of our biggest opportunities if not the biggest is creating the next generation of excellent, execution-oriented retained executive search partners. Our ‘partner you see is the partner you get’ search philosophy has been a differentiator since day one. As others continue to broaden their portfolio offerings well beyond retained executive search, we have an opportunity to perfect our (search) craft and develop the next wave of outstanding partners. We’ve never been an ‘all things to all people’ type of firm. But we are – and will continue to be – the best top-down executors in the industry.”
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Since 2006, ON Partners is the only pure-play executive search firm building diverse C-level and board leadership teams. We rebuilt the institution of executive search for the way you work. Our approach includes present partners who engage with their clients from the first brief to the final decision, individually crafted solutions that are unique to each client, and an easier experience all around. Named by Forbes as one of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms and to the Inc. 500/5000 Lists nine times, ON Partners is consistently ranked among the top 20 retained executive search firms in the U.S.
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