NorthWind Partners Recruits Chief Growth Officer for Oceus Networks

October 18, 2021 – Reston, VA-headquartered executive search firm NorthWind Partners has assisted in the placement of Paul McQuillan, a strategic partner at Battle Investment Group, as the new chief growth and strategy officer at Oceus Networks. Partner Hunter Murray led the assignment. The company provides hardware and software for government and military command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance operations. “Paul brings the expertise needed to expand our business and will be a great addition to the management team,” said Jeff Harman, president of Oceus Networks.

Mr. McQuillan is an accomplished executive leader with more than 30 years of proven success in delivering tech-enabled services and technology solutions for global companies in highly competitive markets. During his career, he has served in numerous roles, including as a strategist for the development of new markets, providing thought leadership on technology and solutions, and working as a collaborator on empowering and supporting operational support resources.

Mr. McQuillan is a strategic partner at Battle Investment Group, where he analyzes the acquisitions and investment activities of its partner companies and supports the capital market firm’s strategic planning and growth initiatives. His career also includes time serving as president and chief operating officer of Culmen International, chief growth officer of A-T Solutions, now PAE, and federal vice president for government solutions at AT&T.

In his new role, Mr. McQuillan will lead the business development, sales operations, and market communications for Oceus Networks. He is already a strategic advisor to the Battle Investment Group, which acquired Oceus Networks in 2020, and has a long track record of driving accelerated growth for the companies he leads.

Veteran Search Consultants

NorthWind Partners is a global, strategic executive search advisory firm. The prime concentration of its work is with business and professional services, systems, solutions, and product companies spanning the aviation, aerospace and defense, healthcare, industrial and technology sectors. The firm also has deep experience and relationships in the government contracting arena. NorthWind Partners’ success rate on engaged assignments is about 96 percent with 99 percent of executives placed maintaining a minimum tenure of one year.

Over the past two decades, Mr. Murray has had deep interest in all facets of technology. He has broad experience in both commercial and public sectors and is often called upon by clients and industry associations to bridge the gap between these two markets. Mr. Murray has completed searches at the board, C-suite and all tiers of vice presidents for SaaS, data analytics, cloud and cybersecurity companies.

Chief Growth Officer

Chief growth officer is currently a hot C-level role as companies of every stripe navigate in a pandemic environment. And while not every company has one, more of these positions are likely to emerge. According to recruiters, the CGO role itself is expanding and its popularity is rising, especially among professional services firms that understand client needs and who want to be front and center to achieve long-term revenue growth and stay competitive. The CGO, they report, is free to challenge the status quo in order to discover new pathways to growth. But the position holder also leads their organizations to a heightened sense of responsibility and purpose.

Recruiters focused on finding C-suite leadership for their corporate clients say that CEOs have created the position of chief growth officer to drive revenue growth during periods of slowing economic activity. But leaders are now seeing advantages to having growth leaders on board much earlier, when business is booming, or when business is under stress like it is now, to help establish organizational rigor.

An expanding number of search firms have been working with organizations to find top chief growth officers in recent months. Here’s a look at a few recent growth officer searches from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:

Executive recruitment firm Furst Group, which serves the healthcare and insurance industries, has placed Tom Mafale in the newly created role of chief growth officer at Paradigm, an industry leader in solving catastrophic and complex healthcare challenges. Paradigm created the chief growth officer position to focus on delivering new and existing products and services to a wider range of markets as part of the company’s strategic growth plan. Mr. Mafale comes to Paradigm with more than 30 years of experience leading best-in-class health care organizations. His demonstrated leadership in driving rapid growth, while building and developing cross-functional teams, will strengthen Paradigm’s ability to innovate and evolve its products and services across markets, according to the company.

 The Bowdoin Group has placed Kevin McDonald as chief growth officer at SchoolCare, a provider of student health records software in K-12 schools. Partner Sean Walker led the search along with managing director Katelyn Marini. “It was a pleasure working with Kevin and the SchoolCare team throughout this search,” said Mr. Walker. “Kevin is a passionate, successful and mission-driven executive who has a strong track record of scaling high performing sales teams. His knowledge of the payer market and value-based care space, as well as his ability to take companies to the next stage of growth, played a key role in joining the digital health start-up.”

Reston, VA-headquartered executive search firm NorthWind Partners has assisted in the placement of Jean-Francois Blanc as chief growth officer of Akima. He is charged with leading the company’s corporate development efforts, growing revenue, and expanding market share. Partner Hunter Murray led the assignment. “Jean-Francois is a hands-on leader with experience winning large contracts in both the Department of Defense and civilian agencies,” said Bill Monet, president and CEO of Akima. “We are pleased to add him to our leadership team, and we expect his knowledge of the market and his past success winning strategic contracts will serve him well in this growth-focused role.”

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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