J. Johnson Executive Search Names HR Division Head
May 10, 2016 – Johnson Executive Search has tapped Carol Crawford (pictured) to lead the firm’s newly established HR division.
Johnson focuses on the placement of marketing, business development and public relations candidates into professional services organizations on a national scale. With Ms. Crawford’s two decades of HR leadership experience, the firm will now expand its service offerings to include human resources, recruiting and talent management positions.
Ms. Crawford spent 17 years as chief human resources officer (CHRO) with McKenna Long & Aldridge, which grew during her tenure from a mid-sized regional firm to an Am Law 100 firm with an international presence. In 2014, she served as vice president of people services at Goodwill Industries of the Southern Rivers, where she provided organizational guidance and oversight of all human resources functions, including strategic human capital support.
“Our law firm clients deserve and demand excellence from the top down,” said J. Johnson founder and president Jennifer Scalzi. “Carol has a deep understanding of both the practice of law and the business of running a law firm, and her background will help provide our clients with an even greater opportunity to bring talented HR professionals into environments that will help them thrive.”
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“I’ve seen this team in action and I want to bring that same level of service, thought leadership and industry expertise to our law firm clients in the arena of HR, recruiting and talent development,” said Ms. Crawford, who worked with J. Johnson Executive Search while serving as CHRO of McKenna Long. “The insight I’ve gained over the last 20-plus years will be put to work as I connect exceptional HR professionals with exceptional firms.”
Hunt Scanlon Media has witnessed a recent trend among top ranking HR executives reestablishing themselves as executive recruiters:
- Executive search firm Salveson Stetson Group added Michael A. Biondolillo as senior vice president in its Radnor, PA office. Most recently, he served as SVP of HR for Henkel Corporation – Americas. During his career, he led other global human resource initiatives for QVC, Inc.; Wyeth Pharmaceuticals; Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company; MG Industries; and General Electric;
- Sheffield Haworth also recently appointed John Budriss as executive director of corporate officers in the firm’s technology practice. He most recently ran all talent acquisition for Bloomberg and was CHRO leading talent and people-related activities for Bloomberg’s enterprise division. He formerly served as global head of talent acquisition at Thomson Reuters;
- Summative Executive Search named George Hotter as an advisor. He previously served as worldwide talent acquisition leader at IBM, where he led the worldwide talent acquisition strategy and execution for the critical strategic growth areas of cloud, analytics, security and sales.
“Executive search can provide the ability to have impact across a variety of companies, industries and geographies,” said Kimberly Shanahan, president and chief executive officer of accelHRate, an executive search firm focused on the senior level HR function. “CHROs are able to take their corporate experiences to understand their clients’ business and individual challenges. Well networked CHROs are able to leverage their relationships from a client and candidate perspective,” she added.
But some who make this career move are surprised at how challenging the work can be. “There are elements of business development that many do not enjoy,” said Ms. Shanahan. Others, she said, have discussed the roller coaster ride that executive search can be, with its extreme highs and lows. “We tend to see more CHROs go into HR consulting rather than executive search as that area tends to be more aligned with their expertise.”
Ms. Shanahan said that as CHROs gain as strategic advisors to their organizations, that increase in stature and importance might itself be preparing these executives to enter the executive search industry.
Contributed by Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor, Hunt Scanlon Media
