Bridge Partners Opens Office in Philadelphia
October 9, 2019 – Executive recruitment firm Bridge Partners has opened a new office in Philadelphia, adding Toya Lawson as partner.
Ms. Lawson has 20 years of experience working in retained and contingent search, corporate human resources/talent acquisition and staffing agency recruitment environments. Bridge Partners said that Ms. Lawson’s “clients view her as a trusted advisor, her relationships with candidates are long-term, and she prides herself on always ensuring that her searches and shortlists are diverse and inclusive.”
Before joining Bridge Partners, Ms. Lawson was a managing director at Philadelphia-based boutique Attolon Partners, focusing on the placement of senior-level accounting and finance professionals. She has completed chief financial officer, chief accounting officer, controller, VP finance and VP of financial planning and analysis searches for clients in the professional services, manufacturing, media, life sciences, financial services and distribution industries within emerging growth and middle market sectors. During her five years with Attolon Partners, she also assisted non-profit organizations with the recruitment of their executive team members. This allowed the opportunity to complete several chief executive officer, HR and IT searches.
Ms. Lawson began her career as a staffing specialist with Contemporary Staffing Solutions. From there, she joined AC Lordi Search (formerly Peopleflex Accounting Professionals) as a senior recruiter. She later moved to the consulting practice of AC Lordi (recently acquired by BDO) as the internal recruiter, senior manager, for which she was responsible for managing the recruitment and onboarding process for the risk management/internal audit and accounting services business lines.
Most recently, Ms. Lawson completed the Leadership Philadelphia Core Program, a prestigious executive leadership program that connects the talent of the private sector to serve the Philadelphia community. She has served on the board of trustees of the Arcadia University for 11 years. She was a member of and chaired various committees of the board. Ms. Lawson is currently a member of the Forum of Executive Women as well as the POWER of Professional Women. She also serves as a mentor with Women of Tomorrow.
Philadelphia is home to major industry sectors, including manufacturing, oil refining, food processing, healthcare, biotechnology, tourism and financial services. Its offerings include the Philadelphia Stock Exchange and some of the area’s largest companies, including cable television and internet provider Comcast; insurance companies Colonial Penn, CIGNA and Independence Blue Cross; energy company Sunoco; food services company Aramark and Crown; chemical makers Rohm and Haas and FMC; pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline; Boeing Rotorcraft Systems; and automotive parts retailer Pep Boys.
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 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.
Tory Clarke and Larry Griffin are co-founders of Bridge Partners. 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.
Mr. Griffin partners with clients on leadership assignments within the private, federal/public and non-profit sectors. He has been in executive search for nearly 30 years and has recruited diverse leaders across multiple functions from CEO/executive directors/presidents, to functional heads including chief financial officer, chief marketing officer, chief information officer, chief strategy officer and their teams.
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
