Jake Englund – Director of Merchandising @ Wild Mikes Ultimate Pizza (S.A. Piazza & Associates)

Paul Freed on October 31, 2024

Our Herd Freed Hartz executive search team was honored to partner with S.A. Piazza & Associates (“Wild Mikes Ultimate Pizza”) on a nationwide retained search to find their new Director of Merchandising.

 S. A. Piazza & Associates, one of the fastest growing frozen food manufacturers in the US located in Clackamas, Oregon. The company has been growing at a 30% annual rate and are investing in building a new state of the art 360K square foot production facility in Redmond, Oregon scaling up capacity and new capabilities to 10x current production.

The family that founded the company in 1967 is on a five-year plan to take the company public in which all their employees have stock options and will get to participate in this event. This new facility will support their financial goal of being a Billion-dollar company. 

Their Wild Mike’s Ultimate Pizza brand is distributed in all 50 states through a network of 67 retail chains. They also have a K-12 food service division, that has 15% of the school market, feeding approximately 50 million school children annually in 48 states. 

Kevin Hartz, Managing Partner shared “We loved working with Wild Mike’s as they scale their team. Collaborating with you was a delightful experience!“

Learn more about Herd Freed Hartz’s track record:
Consumer/Retail industry
Manufacturing industry
Marketing executive leadership roles

Josh Billings – VP Sales & Marketing @ Alldrafts

Paul Freed on October 30, 2024

Our Herd Freed Hartz executive search team was honored to partner with Alldrafts on a nationwide retained search to find their new VP Sales & Marketing.

AllDrafts, founded by seasoned entrepreneur Bob Pritchett, is an innovative player in the legal tech space. Our flagship product, AllDrafts, is a cutting-edge cloud-based editor tailored for contract drafting. Leveraging advanced features like automatic formatting, an extensive clause library, smart redaction, and intuitive templates, AllDrafts simplifies contract creation. Our integrated AI capabilities further enhance productivity by drafting outlines or clauses and streamlining complex paragraphs. Additionally, our platform generates clean Word and PDF files from any draft, making legal document management more efficient than ever. 

Learn more about Herd Freed Hartz’s track record:
Technology industry
VP Sales leadership roles

Ashley Wilson – AVP, Data Architect @ Physicians Insurance

Paul Freed on October 30, 2024

Our Herd Freed Hartz executive search team was honored to partner with Physicians Insurance on a nationwide retained search to find their new AVP, Data Architect.

Physicians Insurance Overview 

We stake our reputation on protecting our Members. Physicians Insurance was founded in 1981 on the idea of protecting, defending, and supporting our Members—all backed by excellent, personalized service. There are other malpractice carriers, but we raise the bar. Being a mutual company ensures that everyone involved shares a common mission to put the interests of our Members first. It’s this single‑minded mission that sets us apart, and that drives our culture of superlative service in support of the full range of medical malpractice coverages, stop‑loss solutions, and other insurance products that we provide. 

It’s one thing to offer insurance, and quite another to see it through. In every communication, every expert opinion, every risk assessment or claim, all our Members experience the impact of our mission. With over 8,500 Members and growing, this experience is in evidence all over the nation. 

Physician’s Insurance has an office in the heart of downtown Seattle and approximately 90 employees, cultivating a caring, learning culture that values employee experience and a work/life balance. 

Learn more about Herd Freed Hartz’s track record:
Healthcare industry
Financial Services industry
Engineering leadership roles

Holly Morgan – Executive Director @ OlyCAP

Paul Freed on October 17, 2024

Our Herd Freed Hartz executive search team was honored to partner with OlyCAP on a nationwide retained search to find their new Executive Director.

 Founded 55 years ago, OlyCAP (Olympic Community Action Programs) has helped people build resilient communities by providing equitable access to solutions and opportunities throughout Clallam and Jefferson counties. The agency today employs 106 dedicated professionals overseeing dozens of programs with a single common thread: service to the community. 

These programs include:

Housing Services and Solutions: Offering 4 shelters, 3 permanent supporting housing locations, and homeless prevention, rapid rehousing and supportive housing services.

Early Childhood Education: Supporting Early Start/Head Start/ECEAP programs.

Economic Empowerment: Facilitating Guaranteed Income Program and FCS Supported Employment.

Home and Energy Resources: Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Weatherization.

Nutrition: Basic food outreach, Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) and a Mobile Food Market

Senior Focused Services: Arts & Minds Memory Wellness Program, Encore! Adult Daycare Center and Americorps Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP)

Brought on in late July, Morgan introduced herself to the Board of Jefferson County Commissioners (read full article here):

“OlyCAP was without leadership for several months,” Morgan said. “That was both at an executive level and at a fiscal lead level. So, there’s quite a few things that just need to be firmed up. I worked immediately to bring in an outsourced organization to manage our fiscal leadership. Our finances are so incredibly complex with all of the different funding sources and reporting requirements, and all of that stuff.“

“To have someone who is really knowledgeable and experienced in dealing with that kind of complexity, I think is important for us. The organization that we went with is CLA. They’re kind of big boys in the accounting world.”

OlyCAP also will be developing its 2025 budget with CLA, Morgan said.

“My priority for the first few months, I think, is going to be to fill all of the key positions that have been vacant for some time,” Morgan said, “and to really dial in on the fiscal side of things, to bring that around.”

Commissioner Heidi Eisenhour noted that, as a first-term commissioner, she has been amazed by how many projects OlyCAP is involved with.

“We have a really wide scope of service. We do,” Morgan said. “Part of my philosophy that I’m trying to bring to the community at large, every time I meet someone to speak with them for the first time, is really to emphasize the partnership side of the work that OlyCAP does. We don’t want to repeat services that are already being done well by someone else, if we can support them.”

“Maybe we as a CAP agency have access to some money that they can’t get. We’re really about partnerships and collaborations and working together. We are here for the community and to help people.”

Learn more about Herd Freed Hartz’s track record:
Non Profit practice
CEO / President practice

Jason Mendenhall – CEO @ CTL

Paul Freed on October 17, 2024

Our Herd Freed Hartz executive search team was honored to partner with CTL, a portfolio company of Columbia River Partners, on a nationwide retained search to find their new CEO in Portland, OR.

CTL is a leading Chromebook distributor offering customized support and technical partnership to meet the needs of K‑12 Education and Enterprise verticals. Since their founding in 1989, CTL has grown to $50M+ in annual revenues and gained a reputation for delivering excellence and key strategic partnerships from Google, Intel, Qualcomm and Verizon for their hardware, software and services solutions. They recently were recognized as a B‑Corporation showing their commitment to social responsibility and giving back.Customers prefer partnering with CTL with their 1:1 customized advice/support, volume order discounts, device rental programs, free shipping, self‑service repair, demo devices, OEM quality repairs and buy back/eco recycling programs.

They sell into two key vertical markets:
K‑12 Education – With 1,000+ K‑12 school district clients nationally and a strong track record ofsuccess, the integration of Chromebooks into regular school workflow is here to stay. In 2024, 12 millionChromebooks were deployed in schools and overall growth continues. Key customers range fromPortland Public Schools, Nevada Ready 21, Maine Learning Technology Initiative, and Digital Promise(Verizon Innovative Learning Schools).

Enterprise/Business – Whether conference room systems, customer support center, digital signage or kiosks – CTL has partnered with businesses to find creative and cost‑effective Chromebooksolutions. Clients include Netflix, Airbnb, Airbus, Coinbase, Twitter/X, Spotify and Yelp.

CTL headquarters is in Beaverton, OR, with their 26K sq ft facility and they were named Fastest Growing Private 100 Companies (2022) by Portland Business Journal. Their success track record and market potential attracted the private equity investment in 2021 by Columbia River Partners to help build on this foundation and get to the next level of growth.

“CTL is growing rapidly, and the expansion of our leadership team will accelerate our scaling efforts,” said Pooneet Goel, Board Member and Partner of Columbia River Partners. ”We’ve assembled a strong team of seasoned leaders, with proven track records in education technology, that will continue CTL’s upward trajectory.”

“This is a pivotal and exciting moment for CTL,” said Stromquist,  co-founder of CTL. “We’re coming off a year of growth with expansion into new markets, the introduction of new products, and our B Corp certification – all of which have positioned CTL for a bright future. With this transition, I’ll now devote time to developing new business strategies and partnerships that will drive our growth. I’m pleased to support Jason in his new role and am looking forward to our next chapter.”  Read full CTL Press Release

Learn more about Herd Freed Hartz’s track record of success:
Technology practice
CEO / President practice
Private Equity practice

Stephen Krauss – President, N. America @ Ooni

Paul Freed on October 17, 2024

Our Herd Freed Hartz executive search team was honored to partner with Ooni, on a nationwide retained search to find their new President, N. America in Austin, TX.

Ooni launched the home pizza cooking revolution more than ten years ago and, today, Ooni is recognized as the global brand leader.

This startup success story began with a spark of an idea ‑ borne of our founders’ frustration in not being able to cook high-quality pizza at home. Launched from a Kickstarter campaign in 2012, Ooni has gone on to achieve global success, with $200M+ global revenues, a category‑leading range of pizza oven products, and a team of skilled, passionate people in different markets around the world.

Ooni customers love being cooking heroes for creating authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas in 60 seconds! You will find their products in top retailers including: Lowe’s, Ace, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Best Buy, Williams Sonoma, Nordstrom, Sur La Table, REI, World Market, Scheels, and Bass Pro Shops.

Ooni is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. Under the direction of co-founders, the husband-and-wife team of Kristian Tapaninaho and Darina Garland, they remain privately-held without any external investment. And, as a B‑Certified Corporation Ooni donates 1% back to the planet, exemplifying our triple bottom line approach. In 2020, they were recognized as the UK’s Entrepreneur of the Year; and received “Best Places to Work” awards in 2022 and 2024.

At Ooni, they have always been driven by huge ambition. Not content with our historic success, Ooni now has their sights on the horizon – trailblazing cooking products that feed both people and planet.

They recognize that in order to achieve this goal, they need to continue to build a stronger base of operations to grow and lead the pizza oven category in Ooni’s #1 market – the US and Canada. 

“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Stephen Krauss to the Ooni family as President of North America,” said Kristian Tapaninaho, Founder and Co-CEO of Ooni. “Stephen’s history of driving growth and his forward-thinking vision fit perfectly with Ooni’s mission to create moments of joy and connection through trailblazing products that elevate the cooking experience. He’s the ideal person to help us strengthen our roots, elevate our innovation, and keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible at Ooni.” Read full Ooni Press Release

Learn more about Herd Freed Hartz’s track record:
Consumer & Retail practice
CEO / President practice
Family Business practice

Olympic Reflections #10: Rosangela’s Tattoo

Paul Freed on August 5, 2024

by Ross Fletcher, Director
Herd Freed Hartz – Executive Search

Olympic Reflections and lessons learned for recruiting

I was fortunate to work at seven Olympic Games (and a few Youth Olympics) during my time in broadcasting. For the duration of Paris 2024 I’m sharing a reflection a day.

I hadn’t set out to stare at somebody’s thigh just five minutes after meeting them – let alone direct a TV camera there – but natural curiosity took us on an unexpected path.

Any guesses what we were all so transfixed by here? Feel free to guess in the comments then read on…

How an Olympic athlete’s thigh became the centerpiece of a globally distributed TV feature

It started out as so many of my Olympic Games TV features did.  Start researching a good story to tell. Find your angle. Interview the subject/s. Turn your material into compelling TV. 

On the face of it, a feature about veteran 100 meter sprinter Rosangela Santos was obvious enough.  Here was one of Brazil’s biggest track and field hopes, about to compete in her home Olympics in Rio de Janeiro – the pinnacle of her career. Yet I knew that alone wasn’t going to be enough to hold the viewer’s attention.

So as we arrived at the Team Brazil training center in a steamy Rio suburb, I made a mental plan to dig deeper. To be as curious as possible about what the occasion meant and the mark it would leave on Rosangela’s storied career.

The thing about interviewing people at such a gigantic event is that you don’t get much time with them to build trust or rapport.  A few hurried minutes of conversation while the camera is setting up is typically the norm.  Before the tape rolled I asked Rosangela the standard “how are you doing?” question and she revealed she was slightly sore, not because of her training routine but because of a tattoo she had just got in time for the Olympics. My natural curiosity kicked in as I asked her to explain and she talked about how she got a tattoo on her thigh at her first Games in Beijing in 2008 to commemorate her achievement of becoming an Olympian. She was determined to add to it as her career progressed and inked London artwork four years later and so a Rio 2016 addition was a must-have.

I knew this would be a great piece of visual storytelling but was faced with an awkward dilemma. With her legs completely covered by her training gear I toyed with the uncomfortable question of asking Rosangela to peel back her clothing for us to film the tattoo. I politely found a way to ask and luckily she was all too willing.  We got the visuals we needed for our story as she explained the indelible legacy of her tattoo and how she would proudly carry the memory of her home Olympics everywhere she went.

It was a solid reminder for me to be curious during every interview and to allow the conversation to branch in an unexpected direction. Also to be prepared to ask something out of your comfort zone – like if it’s ok for us to focus a close-up camera shot on your thigh for a full minute as we get every last detail – because you never know where it might lead.  It could just be the breakthrough you are looking for.

#olympics #storytelling

If you liked this, you can also check out:
Olympic Reflections #1: The People
Olympic Reflections #2: Interviewing
Olympic Reflections #3: Across Sectors
Olympic Reflections #4: Resilience
Olympic Reflections #5: Fun
Olympic Reflections #6: Meeting Matthew
Olympic Reflections #7: Transport
Olympic Reflections #8: Bolt
Olympic Reflections #9: Communications

Olympic Reflections #9: Communications

Paul Freed on August 5, 2024

by Ross Fletcher, Director
Herd Freed Hartz – Executive Search

Olympic Reflections and lessons learned for recruiting

I was fortunate to work at seven Olympic Games (and a few Youth Olympics) during my time in broadcasting. For the duration of Paris 2024 I’m sharing a reflection a day.

Great communication is a vital part of what we do in recruiting. It was the same for every Olympic Games I worked at – even more so when the inevitable language barriers hit. 

As a reporter at the 2010 Singapore Youth Olympics I was paired with a fresh-out-of-college camera operator from Guangzhou, China called Pu Ke. He told me the way to remember his name was by calling him ‘little puke’. He only spoke a few sentences of English, which was still better than the haphazard Mandarin I picked up at the Beijing Games in ‘08. 

After 48 hours of orientation meetings, we set off to news gather. We worked together every day for nearly three weeks and I still can’t quite understand how we managed to make the relationship work so well. I do remember there was quite a bit of gesticulating. It was also a lot of fun embracing our obvious challenges.  

We made films in flea markets, asked the FIFA president questions at a press conference in a swanky hotel, and filmed soccer and 3-on-3 basketball like we were made to work together. We shared a common understanding and a common goal. And through the monsoons, sapping humidity and long days and nights we made sure to laugh at the moments when we came unstuck. 

I often think of that time in Singapore and how with a little persistence and the right attitude, you can break down a lot of barriers. 

#olympics #communication  

If you liked this, you can also check out:
Olympic Reflections #1: The People
Olympic Reflections #2: Interviewing
Olympic Reflections #3: Across Sectors
Olympic Reflections #4: Resilience
Olympic Reflections #5: Fun
Olympic Reflections #6: Meeting Matthew
Olympic Reflections #7: Transport
Olympic Reflections #8: Bolt

Olympic Reflections #8: Bolt

Paul Freed on August 5, 2024

by Ross Fletcher, Director
Herd Freed Hartz – Executive Search

Olympic Reflections and lessons learned for recruiting

I was fortunate to work at seven Olympic Games (and a few Youth Olympics) during my time in broadcasting. For the duration of Paris 2024 I’m sharing a reflection a day.

If you were looking for a great quote at the Olympics, Usain Bolt was a treasure trove. I had the great fortune to interview the fastest man on the planet by the finish line after six of his gold medal successes at the 2012 and 2016 Games. Total thrill. 

Faced with a quote machine like Bolt it should have been easy to get what you needed. But part of the challenge at the Olympics was that you rarely had more than a minute with him, before a media liaison officer tapped you on the shoulder to wrap it up.  And fair enough, when scores of other reporters were waiting to have their bite. So being short, sharp and targeted on your outcome was key. 

While he’s the least shy guy on earth I’m pretty proud of getting him to call himself ‘a legend’, and then four years later describing himself as ‘immortal’. I love the art of the interview and I really enjoy that through recruiting, I still get to work on it every day. 

#olympics #interviewing

If you liked this, you can also check out:
Olympic Reflections #1: The People
Olympic Reflections #2: Interviewing
Olympic Reflections #3: Across Sectors
Olympic Reflections #4: Resilience
Olympic Reflections #5: Fun
Olympic Reflections #6: Meeting Matthew
Olympic Reflections #7: Transport

Olympics Reflections #7: Transport

Paul Freed on August 5, 2024

by Ross Fletcher, Director
Herd Freed Hartz – Executive Search

Olympic Reflections and lessons learned for recruiting

I was fortunate to work at seven Olympic Games (and a few Youth Olympics) during my time in broadcasting. For the duration of Paris 2024 I’m sharing a reflection a day.

Transport headaches.  

At any Olympic event, they’re inevitable. 

Beijing in 2008 was, shall we say, a challenge. Figuring out the subway system (entirely in Mandarin) from the fifth-ring road business district to Tiananmen Square was fun. Less so the return three-hour bus ride at 10mph from the main press center to the Canoe Slalom venue (‘it is for your safety’). 

Rio was an altogether different beast. If our local driver had to use the main city freeway at rush hour they would deliberately turn off early just to keep moving, even if it added an extra 40 minutes to our journey.  They explained it was to avoid the risk of carjacking, as we would be sitting ducks in a brand new, brightly marked ‘Olympics 2016’ car along with our $50k camera equipment. 

But my favorite was Buenos Aires and the 2018 Youth Olympics. We drove ourselves, getting used to the chronic traffic around toll booths. We figured out that if enough impatient drivers honked their horns as loudly as possible, the toll operators would give in and lift the barriers, letting us through for free! We later learned they actually did it for safety reasons but it didn’t burst our bubble, and I prefer my version of the story anyway 😊 

#olympics #honkyourhorn 

If you liked this, you can also check out:
Olympic Reflections #1: The People
Olympic Reflections #2: Interviewing
Olympic Reflections #3: Across Sectors
Olympic Reflections #4: Resilience
Olympic Reflections #5: Fun
Olympic Reflections #6: Meeting Matthew