ON Partners Recruits Chief Product Officer for Intellect

August 9, 2022 – Today’s chief product officer is responsible for all product-related matters, and the role is growing in demand, according to executive recruiters who place them. The position typically includes product conception and development, production, innovation, and project and product management. In many IT/ telecommunications companies, the position includes release management and production. Chief product officers generally work on product strategy based on goals set by the CEO and/ or board members. The high demand for chief product officers is keeping executive search firms busy. ON Partners partner Baillie Parker recently placed Sean Wetherell as the chief product officer of Strattam-backed Intellect, a provider of business applications, workflow management, QMS, and EHS software.

Mr. Wetherell has a decorated history of building enterprise software for Fortune 500 companies in healthcare, education, and financial services. He joins Intellect from RegEd where he served as vice president of product management, creating compliance solutions for the RegTech industry.

Intellect’s software, pre-built applications, and advanced, configurable digital solutions allow business leaders to automate and centralize management of quality control, regulatory compliance, operations, and overall process improvement within departments, services, organizations, and throughout enterprises. The company’s clients range from mid-sized organizations to Fortune 500 companies, and include companies such as Intel, Marriott, Stryker, Thermo Fisher Scientific, and many other enterprise and global companies. Intellect is headquartered in Los Angeles.

With a primary focus on technology, consumer, industrial and the life science sectors, ON Partners recruits C-level and board talent for public and private companies, as well as venture capital and private equity firms. Founded in 2006, the firm’s consultants work from offices in Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Cleveland; Dallas; Menlo Park, CA; Minneapolis. MN; San Francisco; and New York. ON Partners was named one of the fastest growing search firms this year by Hunt Scanlon Media. The firm is now ranked as one of the 20 largest search firms in the nation.

Mr. Parker focuses on board, C-level, and VP-level placements for leading private equity and venture backed companies. His search experience spans over a decade of work across a range of functions and disciplines for both private and multi-billion-dollar public companies. He has completed over 300 searches for C-level, board, and high-level executive leaders across a range of functions.

ON Partners’ Tim Conti and Alex Pelak recently placed Larry Yang as the new chief product officer for Phononic, a Durham, NC-based global provider of solid state cooling technology. “I’m delighted to introduce Larry Yang as Phononic’s first chief product officer,” said Tony Atti, co-founder and CEO of Phononic. “With a decorated career at some of the most recognized technology companies in the world, Larry’s track record speaks for itself. His product leadership at Phononic will help drive greater growth for the company and expand our presence further into Silicon Valley, and his passion for sustainability will help drive a continued focus on the positive environmental impact of our technology and products. We are truly excited to welcome him to the team.”

Finding Chief Products Officers

A number of executive search firms have stepped up to find top chief product officer for top organizations. Here is a sampling from the Hunt Scanlon archives:

ON Partners assisted in the recruitment of former Match Group executive Andy Chen as chief product officer of Glassdoor, a provider of insights about jobs and companies. ON Partners consultants John Morrow and Jeff Hocking led the assignment. “With the future of work evolving, we have the right team in place to help us further innovate and deliver on Glassdoor’s vision of bringing deeper transparency to workplaces everywhere,” said Christian Sutherland-Wong, CEO of Glassdoor.

Riviera Partners, a recruitment provider specializing in C-level engineering, product and design leader placements, assisted in the placement of Stephanie Cuthbertson as executive vice president and chief product officer at HubSpot in Cambridge, MA. Andrew Abramson led the assignment. “Stephanie’s deep experience in product strategy from Google, Amazon and Microsoft makes her well-poised to have a big impact at HubSpot,” said Yamini Rangan, CEO of HubSpot. “She has a strong reputation for leading with humility and empathy, coaching exceptional talent and operating with a customer-centric mindset.”

Accelent recently placed Rahul Lahiri as the new chief product officer for PebblePost, a leading digital to direct mail platform. Mr. Lahiri will head the product division as the company looks to build on the momentum and growth it has experienced in the last year. Leading the assignment were John Boehmer, managing director; Maura McShane, partner; and Jerzy Jung, associate. “This has been a blockbuster year for PebblePost and the brand we work with,” said PebblePost CEO Jacob Ross. “Rahul will play a critical role in evolving the Programmatic Direct Mail platform and the PebblePost Graph to further our mission of enabling brands to reach consumers at home with the most relevant and respectful physical mail.”