Peter Santora - Managing Partner of Executive Blueprint Inc.
For over 30 years, Peter Santora has amassed a record of successful client engagements and achieved recognition throughout his professional tenure in top-tier global business consulting and retained executive search firms. He is a recognized industry expert in conducting high level, retained executive searches and advisory assignments that span regions, both domestically and internationally.
Peter has a strong success record of building management teams for next-stage, fast-growth and transformational cultures with various B2B, B2C and B2B2C business models across industries, segments and sectors, especially as they relate to key leadership that drives revenue growth and manages profitability whether through technology, analytics, products or services.
Career Background: Peter has served as a client-facing and delivery partner, as well as a specialty practice leader and subject matter expert, for the top-tier and most recognized private and public organizations in their respective professional services sectors including: Marcus & Millichap, Arthur Andersen, Korn/Ferry International and Boyden Global. Growing up on the east coast in New York City, he began his career in corporate operations for Izod-Lacoste, a one-time General Mills company, working in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. He developed an appreciation for the importance of brand awareness, the demands it requires to deliver superior quality products and services, as well as a customer-centric philosophy.
Professional Profile: Peter is highly regarded for his business acumen, knowledge of the trade, and professionalism by his peers, clients, executive candidates, and the business community alike. Embracing the role of a trusted and valued business advisor, he has also developed a reputation for successfully leading sensitive, confidential and complex client initiatives—augmenting existing senior management teams for critical business P&L roles and key function specialists— all supporting an organization’s growth and transformation objectives. His dedication and insights provide innovative solutions that blend both tested and proven methodologies with adaptive client nuances and requirements, creating a high touch, high performance process resulting in positive outcomes. He has been recognized for high customer satisfaction scores and a solid record of placements tenure within various cultures and environments.
Client Portfolio Dimensions, Profiles & Overview: His client portfolio includes top-recognized brands in their space that span the revenue spectrum and related size/scale from small, mid to large cap domestic and multinational organizations that cross all ownership structures including: private equity owned, public, not-for-profit (that run like a business), private investor backed, and founder-owned organizations. These diverse environments require various executive levels of tested and successful management skills, profiles, and leadership behaviors to satisfy this diverse and full range of environments, business nuances and cultural dynamics. Peter understands these many complex vectors at play, and partners with his clients and prospective executive candidates alike to create the appropriate process and customized experience.
Executive Search Expertise Summary: Having conducted over 400 executive level searches, Peter is an expert in his field and has gained valuable working knowledge developing and deploying client strategies, messaging, recruiting that attract desired executives. He utilizes his working knowledge, deep experiences and executive profile expertise while deploying proven search methodologies and practices; achieving a successful process and placement for clients while providing thoughtful career insights to candidates. Though he has specific industry and functional practices specialization in technology and manufacturing based products & services, he has gained universal leadership trends and insights; understanding the subtle market approaches to helping client’s position their value offering; providing valuable and innovative leadership business solutions; and, identifying key players, as well as, ‘out of the box’ executive profiles within the five major industry groups across senior management, P&L operatives and specialized managerial functions.
Peter has provided relevant trends, thought leadership, and career strategies in his articles, publications and speaking engagements. He has been a member of education advisory boards and lectures at corporate associations and universities.
Kris Speers - Senior Search Partner
Kristin Speer is the founder of Accelerated Search and works with Executive Blueprint Inc. as a senior professional search partner. She draws upon over 20 years of search experience with high tech companies serving clients and executives alike with outstanding results.
As a Client Partner in Korn/Ferry International's Silicon Valley office, she was a member of Korn/Ferry's Global Technology Practice, she successfully completed numerous retained executive searches across a variety of C-level roles for both emerging technology startups and established global technology companies.
Prior to her Korn/Ferry career, she headed up a boutique search and human resources consulting firm, established a software technology and on-site service staffing solution for venture-backed startups (Claria Corporation), and led her own recruiting practice for nine years specializing in engineering management for start- ups. ’ Her industry experience includes national account management positions at Teknowledge, a developer of artificial intelligence software products, and service management roles at Marketron Corporation, a broadcasting industry software application provider.
Kris earned a double major bachelor’s degree (B.A.S.) in Environmental Earth Sciences and music performance from Stanford University, and was elected to the Stanford Cap & Gown Honorary Society.
Doug Herbert - Principal and Practice Leader
Professional Background:
For the past 25 years, Doug Herbert has demonstrated a record of successful client facing engagements throughout his professional tenure in global business sales, business development, strategic partner alliances and B2B marketing; spanning across the many channels and sectors of the technology industry, including: Wireless, Fixed, IoT, Cloud & Hosting, Data Analytics, Security and Sustainability.
Having lived on both U.S. coasts, he has worked extensively internationally as an executive for top tier and globally recognized public corporations. Doug developed and led complex large B2B transactions and recurring revenue engagement activities for both business services and products, leading first time corporate mandates and divisional growth initiatives. He has repeatedly demonstrated success in growing revenues spanning the technology, healthcare, consumer products and professional services industries for clients such as Verizon, Accenture, General Motors, Kaiser Permanente, Hewlett Packard Enterprises and PWC.
Career Overview: After serving in the United States Coast Guard and a public service assignment in Washington D.C., Doug launched his sales career in the infancy of the emerging wireless industry and continued to expand his experiences associated with the multi-level complexity and diversity of this game changing technology, including data analytics, ROI business cases, bi- and multilateral contract negotiations, organizational matrices, and demanding customer requirements; getting exposure across multi-stage fast growth organizations as well as large recognized global corporate entities. His leadership and creative solutions through numerous tactical sales and strategic business development successes advanced his career implementing first time strategic complex revenue initiatives, domestically and then globally, with Verizon and Vodafone.
For the last few years, Doug has focused on leadership advisory, coaching and technology services within the professional services sector. As a certified professional executive and corporate coach from one of the top coaching schools in the world, he advises corporate executives and teams on a variety of leadership topics promoting both personal excellence and professional development. Continuing these services, he expanded his professional profile to include retained executive search through Executive Blueprint Inc.
Executive Search & Advisory Profile: Embracing the Executive Blueprint value of “trusted business advisors”, in addition to the traditional search practice activities, Doug leads the area that specializes in all the front office functions that support the revenue growth of an organization through sales, marketing and business development. His subject knowledge of all facets of these revenues generating roles including strategic channel partners and alliance engagements initiatives, blended with his executive coaching experience is a powerful combination and differentiator to bring to executive search. His track record of high customer satisfaction scores, successful results and positive outcomes, executing at multiple levels and roles, is consistent with best-in-class executive search for delivery of strategic corporate required goals and results.
Revenue Growth Channels: His working knowledge of the revenue growth leadership functions and channels, include: Sales and Business Development; Strategic Alliances and Partnerships; B2B Marketing and leadership roles, and development and creation of Methodologies and Practices.
Leadership Coaching Certification: As a certified professional executive and corporate coach, Doug has had extensive training by one of the top coaching schools in the world in order to enhance his effective leadership advisory acumen.
He has worked consistently and effectively at the "C"-suite level, ensuring expectations and delivery of alliance initiatives are met. Whether working with the sales, operations, or management executives, Doug has proven his ability to confidently engage at each management level within organizations to ensure successful outcomes.