Kincannon & Reed Appoints President
January 31, 2020 – Executive recruitment firms have made a number of top leadership appointments in the past year, many focused on strategy, growth, branding efforts and operations. The latest: Waynesboro, VA-based executive search firm Kincannon & Reed named David Turner as its new president.
“Having spent nearly a decade working with our team and processes around the world, we’re confident David has a deep understanding of who we are and how we seek to serve our clients with sound advice and superior search execution,” said Jon Leafstedt, board chair and managing partner of Kincannon & Reed. “More importantly, David shares our vision for how we can advance each of our clients’ agendas by recruiting the right leaders at the right time.”
Prior to his new role, Mr. Turner served grain and food clients in North and South America for eight years, led Kincannon & Reed’s global practice in crop processing and trading, and guided the firm’s Latin America team. In addition, he brought his international expertise to search engagements for NGOs and research-for-development organizations around the world. Each of these experiences has helped shape his vision and prepare him for this next milestone in his career, the firm said.
Before joining Kincannon & Reed, Mr. Turner led PricewaterhouseCooper’s Canadian agribusiness practice. Earlier, he held management positions in Cargill, Inc. in the Americas and Europe where he served in financial, operational and internal consulting roles across Cargill’s animal nutrition, grain milling and meat processing businesses. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.
“Organizations from farm to table are rapidly transforming, and they seek leaders with a keen grasp of the large-scale trends affecting their businesses,” said Mr. Leafstedt. “David Turner has a deep understanding of global food-ag value chain and will effectively lead our firm to expand our client base and continue our commitment to building strong client relationships.”
Kincannon & Reed is a global retained executive search firm focused exclusively on the food and agribusiness sectors. Founded in 1981, the firm serves clients throughout the world from locations in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Last year, Kincannon & Reed appointed Isvaldo Perez as president and CEO. Mr. Perez has more than 30 years of experience in the consumer packaged goods industry in the food and beverage sectors, as well as executive search experience.
Leadership Appointments Rising at Search Firms
Top leadership appointments have been gaining traction at executive search firms over the past year. Here’s a look at several examples taken from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:
CyberSN, a boutique search firm serving talent needs in cybersecurity, appointed Mark Aiello as its new president. “Choosing a president for a firm that has a very special family culture which focuses on productivity and love was easy when I met Mark,” said Deidre Diamond, CEO and founder of CyberSN. “Mark shares the same passion that drives us at CyberSN — the care of the cybersecurity community. Care of the community means building technology to speak their language, using technology to make great matches and providing career support along the way,” she said. “We care about the cyber professional and Mark does too.”
Dubai-headquartered Pedersen & Partners named Gary Williams as its new CEO replacing founder Poul Pedersen who will assume the role of executive chairman. As CEO, Mr. Williams will have full P&L responsibility and lead the firm. As executive chairman, Mr. Pedersen will continue working full-time for Pedersen & Partners.
Global recruiting organization Amrop has appointed Federico Cuneo as CEO and chairman of its executive board. He replaced José I. Leyún as CEO. As an executive board member of the Amrop Partnership, and a partner and director of Amrop Peru, Panama, Costa Rica and Ecuador since 2005, Mr. Cuneo brings organizational experience, entrepreneurial energy and a global perspective to the role.
The RSA Group, which is based in London and focuses on the life sciences sector, has appointed executive chairman Nick Stephens as its CEO. Alex Bennett recently stepped down from the top post. Mr. Stephens has been with RSA since 1986 and leads the firm’s board services practice, handling about five or six C-level assignments each year.
U.K.-headquartered executive search firm VMAGROUP has appointed Andrew Harvey as CEO. He succeeds Julia Meighan, who moves into the role of chair. Mr. Harvey came to the firm in 2013, and for the last two years has been U.K. executive director, responsible for the growth and development of all aspects of the U.K. business.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
