Martha Janssen
Martha has spent more than thirty years in retained executive search, first in technology and then in manufacturing, before finding the industry she'd make her own. She came to HVAC through a single search; the client referred another, and the work has compounded by referral ever since. She stayed for the people — some of the most down-to-earth, genuine leaders she'd met in three decades of search — and made them her practice.
Before a search begins, she does the homework — learning the business, the leadership's values, and the texture of the team — so the candidates she brings forward match not just the spec, but the culture and the intangibles that decide whether someone lasts. That instinct for fit is trained, not just felt: Martha holds a Master of Science in Organizational Development from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, where the coursework centered on organizational change and emotional intelligence — the discipline of reading people, cultures, and what makes a leader succeed in a particular room.
The people she places tend to hit the ground running and stay. Nearly every search in the last decade has ended the same way — with the right leader placed, and a client who calls again.
She knows the firms, the manufacturers, and the people who move between them — including the leaders who would never answer a job posting. When she calls, they pick up, because the relationship was there long before the search.
Julie Davidson
Julie holds a BS from Georgia Tech, and her first role put that education to work: selling computer systems to SUBLANT, the US Navy's Atlantic submarine force. Her buyers were naval engineers. The preparation-first approach she learned there has run through every role since.
A chapter in finance followed, ending with a firm of her own. Then came retained executive search — where Julie became the person the industry's most prestigious firms retained for their own searches. Korn Ferry, Spencer Stuart, and Christian & Timbers, along with companies like Microsoft and Verizon, brought her in on assignments ranging from the Apple board to Capital One's CIO to Cisco's CMO. When a search demanded more than the usual playbook — a stalled shortlist, a marquee executive who wasn't answering — she was the call.
The craft underneath is research and pursuit. Before Julie ever reaches out, she studies the candidate's world — the industry's currents, the soft spots in the company they're in, the reasons a leader who isn't looking might listen — and builds it into an individualized case, delivered with rich detail across multiple touches, each one worth reading. She earns the right to the conversation. Candidates have told her they finally picked up because ignoring someone that prepared and that persistent began to feel wrong — and strong candidates tend to leave that first conversation wanting the role. Every partnership of her career — there have been three — grew out of that work.
Most recently, she co-built the North America Software & Technology practice at Stanton Chase, one of the largest global search firms. At Talent Inroads, she and Martha share the work; Julie also leads business development, branding, and client relationships.
Off the clock, Julie restores old houses — always one she's fallen in love with, always as if she'll live there forever. It's the same instinct she brings to search: commit completely, and the result takes care of itself.
