Bridge Partners Finds New CEO for BlueLabs
February 7, 2019 – Executive recruitment firm Bridge Partners has placed Thomas Gensemer as the new CEO of BlueLabs Analytics, a data science and technology company in Washington, D.C. Partner and co-founder Tory Clarke led the search along with partner Debbie Tang.
“It was such a pleasure to partner with the BlueLabs team – they are a fantastic organization, doing great advocacy work as well as building a robust private-sector business,” said Ms. Clarke. “Recruiting a post-founder CEO is always an exciting challenge for us and Thomas is a great fit for the organization, both professionally and personally.”
“Thomas’s deep experience working with political, corporate, and non-profit campaigns was an exact match with BlueLab’s unique client base,” said Ms. Tang. “His devotion to diversity and social justice, including serving as a board member of the It Gets Better Project, also aligned with BlueLabs, which was founded by members of the Obama For America data analytics team.”
Mr. Gensemer brings a solid track record as an entrepreneur to BlueLabs, having served as longtime managing partner of Blue State Digital, from 2005 until 2013. He led the firm’s period of rapid growth and global expansion and, ultimately, managed its acquisition by WPP in 2011. At WPP, Mr. Gensemer was elevated into his most recent role of chief strategy officer at Burson-Marsteller (now BCW), one of the world’s leading public relations and government affairs networks. There, he led the development of integrated creative, analytics and production services, as well as several large U.S. client relationships.
Mr. Gensemer serves on the board of the Public Good Projects, the Purpose Foundation, and has previously served on the World Economic Forum’s Council(s) on the Future of Government and Future of Technology. He is currently an advisor to the Family Equality Council.
“There are few leaders who have built businesses, led agencies and developed talent like Thomas has,” said BlueLabs co-founder Elan Kriegel. “Leading BlueLabs as CEO, Thomas will be able to draw on his vast experience, deep contacts and natural skills as we continue building a truly world-class firm.”
New Role
In his new position, Mr. Gensemer will lead BlueLabs’ accelerated growth and development of new products, services and partnerships. “BlueLabs has quietly and efficiently built a comprehensive set of proprietary tools and methodologies that are truly leading edge and differentiated from what others are doing,” Mr. Gensemer said. “With an already stellar client roster and a deep bench of diverse talent, I really couldn’t be more excited to be leading them at the start of a new chapter of growth.”
With its origins in the 2012 Obama For America campaign, BlueLabs has helped over 400 clients solve their strategic and marketing challenges through data, predictive modeling, and machine learning.
Veteran Recruiters
Bridge Partners is a certified minority supplier and a minority business enterprise. Based in New York, with offices in Washington, D.C. and Boston, the firm has completed a number of other higher education/academia senior leadership searches for roles such as head of human resources, head of finance, head of audit and deans. Its clients include GE, TIAA-CREF, Colgate, YMCA, Novartis, Starbucks, Habitat for Humanity and the Federal Reserve System.
Wikimedia Foundation Retains Bridge Partners to Find Talent and Culture Chief
Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that hosts and operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects, has tapped Bridge Partners to find a chief of talent and culture. Tory Clarke is leading the search along with partner Janet Albert.
Ms. Clarke supports senior global search assignments for private sector, public sector and international non-profit/social venture clients, across all functions. A 20-year veteran of the executive search industry, she has recruited diverse executives, including CEO/presidents and their leadership teams, at both head office and regional locations around the globe.
Before starting Bridge Partners in 2003, Ms. Clarke was a consultant in Whitehead Mann’s U.S. retail and diversity practices, joining the New York office in 2000. Prior to her move to the U.S., she spent several years with Whitehead Mann’s European consumer practice, headquartered in London. Earlier in her career, Ms. Clarke was with STCP, a boutique London-based search firm, working across a variety of sectors including consumer, pharmaceutical and industrial.
Ms. Tang, who joined Bridge Partners in 2017, leads global executive searches in both the private and public sector, from Fortune 100 companies to universities and government agencies. She recruits diverse senior executives across all functions, including general counsels, chief legal officers and regulatory leaders, in a wide variety of industries. In addition, she is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and often partners with U.S. clients on overseas hiring assignments.
Ms. Tang previously worked for Major, Lindsey & Africa, where she spent more than six years as managing director, in-house practice group. She has also worked as an associate at Reed Smith and in-house counsel for Marriott International. Her background further includes serving as general counsel of a global restaurant chain, and she brings an insider’s view of the legal landscape at both law firms and corporations.
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
