BarkerGilmore Opens Industrial Practice

October 31, 2018 – Over the past several years, New York-based boutique search firm BarkerGilmore has experienced a surge in demand for executive search, coaching and advising services throughout the industrial and manufacturing sectors.

In response, and to increase the value delivered to its clients, the firm has opened an industrial practice and named co-founder and managing partner Bob Barker as its chair.

Mr. Barker will lead a team of executive search consultants and senior advisors with extensive industrial industry expertise. The general counsel and chief compliance officer advisors have decades of experience advising executives and boards from some of the most powerful and respected industrial corporations in the country.

“Having faced and successfully resolved challenges like those clients are currently experiencing, these highly accomplished advisors are uniquely capable of providing a broad range of battle-tested insights and solutions,” BarkerGilmore said. “They also provide executive coaching for legal and compliance leaders to help them improve productivity, strengthen relationships and increase performance.”

Advisors in the industrial practice group include Roya Behnia, former SVP, general counsel and corporate secretary of Pall Corp., Cornell Boggs, former SVP, general counsel and corporate secretary of Dow Corning Corp., Bill Morelli, former EVP, general counsel and secretary of Ingram Industries, and Gjon Nivica, former SVP, general counsel of Celanese Corp.

In making the announcement, Mr. Barker said that the “new practice team looks forward to enhancing the services and support the company provides to leaders of industrial and manufacturing companies and expanding their trusted relationships throughout the industry.”

BarkerGilmore specializes in building corporate legal and compliance teams. Last year, the firm formed an advisory board of 12 former general counsel and chief compliance officers. This team, many of whom have served in Fortune 500 companies, is charged with providing advisory and leadership development services, complementing the firm’s core recruiting business. These consultants offer BarkerGilmore’s clients access to experience that can help them to optimize their organizations and accelerate profits.

In addition to the advisors mentioned above, BarkerGilmore’s advisory team includes: Michelle Banks, former global general counsel, corporate secretary and CCO of Gap;  Frank Fernandez, former secretary and general counsel of the Home Depot; Ann Harlan, former general counsel and corporate secretary of the J. M. Smucker Company; Vince Hatton, former general counsel of Corning Inc.; Mark LeHocky, past general counsel and corporate secretary of Ross Stores; Marla Perskyformer general counsel and corporate secretary of Boehringer Ingelheim USA; Helen Pudlin, former general counsel of PNC Financial Services Group; Tom Smith, former CCO of Oaktree Capital Management; Bill Solomon, former group VP and general counsel of Ally Financial; and Gary Van Graafeiland; past general counsel of Eastman Kodak.

Compliance Recruiting

Finding senior leadership within the compliance function is exceedingly complex today, as companies face intense pressure under the current regulatory environment. It therefore requires leadership who can foster close collaboration between compliance and other corporate functions as well as communicate to a more complex and sophisticated set of stakeholders, internally and externally.


Former McDonalds’s CCO Joins BarkerGilmore
Haydee Ortiz Olinger has joined the advisory and coaching division of BarkerGilmore. Ms. Olinger joins BarkerGilmore’s team of former general counsel and chief compliance officers who provide strategic counsel, leadership development, succession planning and other services.


According to a recent Heidrick & Struggles report, sharply rising demand for compliance talent, the absence of a clear career path in the discipline, and greater need for compliance executives with leadership and influencing skills are creating difficult challenges for organizations seeking to identify and retain talent in a world of increasing regulation. 

“The demand is so great for internal auditor and compliance executives that recruiters are looking outside the financial services industry for candidates,” said Michael P. Kelly, president of New York-based Michael Kelly & Associates, which specializes in financial services. “The skills-sets are transferrable but there is a learning curve to understand the sector they are auditing.”

Maurice Gilbert, managing partner of Dallas-based Conselium, a boutique search firm that specializes in recruiting compliance professionals, has also seen a major uptick in activity, particularly for chief compliance officers.

“About nine years ago companies that were in highly regulated industries like financial services, medical devices and pharmaceuticals saw a critical need to bulk up in the compliance area,” said Mr. Gilbert.

The result: Mr. Gilbert has seen a 20 percent, year-over-year growth rate for compliance professionals as a direct result of ongoing or potential measures being taken by the U.S. government to investigate companies they potentially deem as having behaved improperly or who have not been compliant with new regulatory measures.

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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