Sam Pettway

Sam Pettway is the founding director of BoardWalk Consulting, a firm committed to Finding leaders that matter for missions that matter. Since 1977, Sam has advised scores of leadership teams in entities ranging from start-ups to mature multinationals, both for-profit and not-for-profit. Since founding BoardWalk in 2002, he has worked with clients as varied as international relief agencies, national foundations, regional trade associations, and local nonprofits of many kinds.

Before launching BoardWalk, Sam spent 25 years in board recruitment and executive search, 21 of them with two global consulting firms: Spencer Stuart, the world leader in board recruitment (1993-2002), and Egon Zehnder International, for which he opened and built the Atlanta office (1981-1993).

A Navy veteran, Sam holds a B.A. from the University of Virginia and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where he is a past member of the global alumni association’s board of trustees. Sam is a member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta and an active alumnus of Leadership Atlanta. Earlier, he was chair of the American Running Association and a board member of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Virginia.