Katie Bouton

Founder & CEO

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Guided by the belief that “the right person in the right place can change the world,” Katie founded Koya Leadership Partners in 2004 to recruit exceptionally talented leaders to mission-driven organizations. Today, Koya has been recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms and by Hunt Scanlon Media as one of the top 50 fastest growing executive search firms. The Koya team numbers 60+ professionals who partner with clients across the country and around the world to place exceptional leaders.

With over 20 years of experience in executive search and organizational development, Katie has built senior leadership teams at leading national and international organizations and partners closely with founders, boards and donors to deepen the impact of today’s most pioneering mission-driven organizations.

In addition to executive search, Katie’s areas of focus include leadership, retention and diversity initiatives. She has developed and executed professional development trainings on a variety of topics from leadership development to recruitment and retention best practices.

Katie’s thought leadership has been widely quoted and published in leading publications such as Harvard Business Review. She was featured by the Boston Business Journal as an Emerging Leader for her success as founder and CEO of Koya. Katie was named as a finalist for EY’s prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year® 2018 New England program, and as a Boston Brava Award Winner by SmartCEO, which recognizes high-impact women business leaders. During the Obama administration, Katie was invited to the White House to attend the United States of Women Summit focused on key gender equality issues.

Katie began her career in the public sector as a human resources generalist at the Institute for Teaching and Research on Women and the Women’s Law Center of Maryland. She then moved to the private sector, working as a human resources manager at Edelman Public Relations and ChildrenFirst.