Christopher W. Hunt, Co-CEO – Hunt Scanlon Ventures

Christopher W. Hunt is Co-CEO of Hunt Scanlon Ventures and is considered a leading authority on business trends across the executive search, talent acquisition and recruitment sectors. Chris leverages his relationships with executive search firm founders and management teams as well as those within the private equity and investment banking sectors to develop effective buy and sell side strategies for firms ranging from the largest human capital providers to specialist boutiques.

With an early background in financial services, Chris works side-by-side in partnership with the firm’s ventures clients to help them scale and grow their businesses. He brings strategic advice covering capital investment, venture capital, and a myriad of acquisition consulting services, all with a singular focus on the human capital markets.

In 1988, Chris co-founded Hunt Scanlon Media, a widely respected news, market intelligence, and public relations firm that has played a major role in establishing today’s global human capital industry. His highly sought-after insights and perspectives have appeared hundreds of times in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Forbes, The Economist and in countless other major business media publications.

Apart from his business accomplishments, Chris is an award-winning journalist, having authored eight books on careers and recruitment trends, including Navigating Your Career, a best-selling business compendium published by John Wiley & Sons. Previously, Chris held senior management level positions with Xerox Credit Corporation, MLC Financial, and Datalease Capital Corporation.

Michael Karran, Managing Director – Mintz Group

Michael Karran is a Managing Director at the Mintz Group, a corporate investigations and risk advisory firm. Michael specializes in providing diligence support to institutional investors and global corporations in a broad range of sectors. He primarily works with private equity and venture capital firms, investment banks, pension funds, corporations, and M&A counsel at various stages of a transaction – from diligencing management teams to vetting new talent. He also provides proactive and strategic consulting support to clients in order to help them mitigate risk.

Since joining the firm in 2007, Michael has overseen and worked on hundreds of projects of varying issues and areas, including consumer and securities fraud, transaction diligence, insider trading investigations, asset traces, and product liability disputes. For several years beginning in 2018, Michael was based in the Mintz Group’s Toronto office, where he focused on accelerating the integration of an acquired company and advising on methods to help facilitate integration of Canadian business.

Justin Pinchback, Managing Director & Chief Revenue Officer – ZRG Partners

Justin Pinchback is managing director & chief revenue officer of ZRG Partners, one of the fastest-growing mid-sized global executive search firms in the industry. His thought leadership and expertise in human capital earned him recognition when he was named to Crain’s Magazine’s list of ‘2020 Notable Leaders in HR’. He has spoken at leading conferences including Linked In’s “Talent Connect” and MIT’s “Sloan Sports Analytics” conferences. His work has been featured in Harvard Business Review and he has been a guest lecturer at Harvard Business School and Princeton University.

Justin most recently served as chief administrative officer at Bluegrace Logistics, a $400M logistics brokerage and digital freight matching platform. While there he successfully led numerous large-scale initiatives including the organization’s COVID-19 response.

Prior to joining Bluegrace Justin focused on finance, technology and data science talent management and hiring. He designed and led Citadel’s global Datathon program, a hiring approach that focuses on ‘talent auditions’ as opposed to interviews. At Datathons professionals in the field of math, statistics, technology, and engineering compete by analyzing data to solve business and social problems.

Immediately following graduate school, Justin joined Bain & Co., where he was a strategy consultant focused on human capital, corporate restructuring, post-merger integration, and private equity. His career in talent started when he began recruiting MBAs to join the firm. Prior to Harvard and Bain, Justin worked in front line roles at top financial institutions including HSBC and Moody’s where he gained foundational training in finance, markets, and credit.

Jeff Rudnicki, Senior Partner – Global Leader M&A Strategy – McKinsey & Company

Jeff has helped clients with M&A work for more than 20 years. His engagements span the entire M&A process, from strategy and deal scan to due diligence and integration. Jeff also leads Synergy Lab, McKinsey’s synergy center of excellence, which helps clients apply best practices and data-driven insights to estimate synergies and capture value. He has a passion for working in the healthcare, technology, and consumer sectors, and for helping clients deepen their M&A capabilities to achieve lasting impact.

Examples of Jeff’s recent client work include the following:

• building an M&A organization from scratch with a company that had grown inorganically, which allowed it to pursue a successful multibillion-dollar transaction
• working closely with the CEO and board of a multibillion-dollar medical-device company to shape an M&A strategy and conduct due diligence for an industry-shaping acquisition
• leading the project management, organizational-design, and talent teams during the integration of a global rare-disease transaction that included several strategic divestments and transformed the performance and focus of the company
• assisting in driving the integration of two luxury brands, which more than quadrupled initial synergy estimates
• designing a new investor-relations model that changed the way organizations prioritized investors, deployed executives, and allowed for a streamlining of the quarterly earnings process
• advising the CEO and board of an academic medical center on its strategy for consolidating systems to build scale and strengthen capabilities as it became a leader in value-based care
• building a new IPO strategy for a leading sports-equipment company

Prior to joining McKinsey, Jeff spent eight years as an antitrust economist, specializing in the regulatory implications of M&A. He previously served as Vice Chair for the board of the March of Dimes in Boston and Manchester.

Todd Safferstone, Global Co-Leader of Strategy and Excellence – Russell Reynolds Associates

Todd Safferstone serves as the Head of Strategy and Excellence for Russell Reynolds Associates. Based in New York, he is responsible for growth strategy, corporate development, and new product development.

Before his current role, Todd led the creation of the firm’s Knowledge Management function, oversaw the global research organization, and served as RRA’s Head of Innovation. Prior to joining RRA, he held a number of global leadership roles in CEB’s human resources practice. He also served in CEB’s London office, where he led the HR practice in EMEA and was a member of the firm’s European leadership team.

Todd is a frequent speaker at client events around the world and regularly contributes to client engagements focused on leadership succession. His research on leadership and talent has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and The Economist.

Todd holds a BA in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Todd Savage, Managing Director, Global Technology Sector – Russell Reynolds Associates

Todd Savage’s experience ranges from small cap growth equity backed companies to working private equity backed, middle-market companies.

Prior to joining RRA, Todd was co-founder and CEO of Savage Partners, a boutique executive search firm serving PE-backed software companies.

Previously, Todd worked for leading executive search firms Heidrick & Struggles and Ramsey Beirne Associates, as well as Time Warner, where he led the creation of the internal recruiting function.

In his career, Todd has successfully completed hundreds of searches for middle market, Private Equity backed technology firms in infrastructure software, SaaS, eCommerce, consumer internet and mobile space.

Todd received a BA from the University of Vermont.

Drew Seaman, Managing Director – Hunt Scanlon Ventures

Drew Seaman is a Managing Director at Hunt Scanlon Ventures. He is responsible for co-managing the firm’s investment portfolio of executive search, talent acquisition, private equity, and investment firms. In addition to sourcing new opportunities and managing the firm’s current investments, Drew leads the technical aspects of client engagements, including valuation and financial analysis and the preparation of investment marketing materials.

Drew began his career in wealth management before joining BMO Capital Markets as an Investment Banking Associate in the Financial Institutions Group. Drew assisted with transaction execution and prepared comprehensive valuation and financial analyses for clients in the specialty finance, asset and wealth management, and insurance sectors.

Drew earned a B.A. in Economics from DePauw University, where he was quarterback on the varsity football team. He earned his M.B.A. with concentrations in Finance and Accounting from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Michelle Stuntz, President, ZRG Consulting Solutions – ZRG Partners

Michelle Stuntz is President of ZRG’s Consulting and Advisory Services practice. She is a global business leader with extensive domestic and international experience spanning multiple industries and topics. Michelle brings a unique perspective to her position, having held leadership positions in Big Five Search, Big Four Consulting, as well as non-profit and international development organizations. She is a leader who is passionate about diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, driving business outcomes, developing strong leaders who truly lead, and the success of working parents, especially mothers.

Prior to joining ZRG, Michelle was the North American Consulting Consumer Industry Leader for Korn Ferry. She stepped into the role to build an effective commercial team, develop relationships for cross-sell, and drive larger account development. Under her leadership, the industry was the fastest growing in the firm. Prior to Korn Ferry, Michelle spent eight years with Deloitte Consulting, most recently as a Senior Manager leading teams of over 100 employees and shaping large, transformation efforts with clients. Before consulting, Michelle worked in the non-profit space for many years including working with at-risk youth in inner city schools with AmeriCorps, non-profit development/fundraising, and working with communities in rural Zambia in the Peace Corps.