Deerfield Associates celebrates starting its 22nd year in business!

October 1, 2022

Dear Clients, Colleagues & Friends:

This fall DEERFIELD ASSOCIATES is starting year 22!  We would like to take this opportunity to say “thank you” for all of your support and encouragement.

At DEERFIELD ASSOCIATES, we are known for our strategic, proactive, and disciplined approach to solve complex hiring needs. Since starting the firm, we have successfully conducted and completed 550+ searches over the past two decades to become a true national search firm working with 151 highly satisfied clients, recruiting and placing top tier professionals at the nation’s best colleges, universities, and independent schools, both boarding and day.

We take great pride in that 92% of our clients in education have returned to us for additional search work. In some cases, repeat business from hiring clients has been significant: Yale University (27), Dartmouth College (14), The Taft School (9), Bowdoin College (8), The Spence School (7), Deerfield Academy (7), The Nightingale-Bamford School (6), Milton Academy (6), The Elisabeth Morrow School (6), Mount Holyoke College (6), and Ethical Culture Fieldston School (6). Repeat business from hiring clients is the best measure of high-quality search work. Here is what our hiring clients and candidates placed say about us: Deerfield Associates Testimonials 2022

Now in our 22nd year, DEERFIELD ASSOCIATES welcomed eleven (11) new clients including George School (Newtown, PA), The Haverford School (Haverford, PA), The Pennington School (Pennington, NJ), St. Andrew’s School (Middletown, DE), Trinity School (NY, NY), University School (Greater Cleveland, OH), Viewpoint School (Calabasas, CA), Boston College (Chestnut Hill, MA), Marist College (Poughkeepsie, NY), Smith College (Northampton, MA) and the University of Vermont (Burlington, VT). A personal note: I grew up a block from Smith College and my son graduated from the University of Vermont, so these two searches have special meaning for me. Here is the roster of 23 searches completed thus far in 2022.

Position Institution Person Hired
Regional Director, Major Gifts NE Boston College Catherine Bail
Director, Parent Development Boston College Ali Bane Hammond
Chief Advancement Officer Dalton School L.J. Mitchell
Executive Director Development/Thayer Dartmouth College Mark Dorgan
Director Corporate & Foundations Dartmouth College Yvonne Devineni
Chief Financial Officer Ethical Culture Fieldston School Keiko Sonoda Reid
Senior Director Planned Giving Fairfield University Emma Penick
Chief Financial Officer The Haverford School Peter Maas
Director of Marketing & Communications George School Patricia O’Neill
Director of Development King School Barbara Drayer
Director of Advancement Moses Brown School Elizabeth Breidinger
Chief Financial Officer Pennington School Brenda Cole
Director of Finance & Comptroller Phillips Academy Andrew Gagnon
Director of Sponsored Research/Grants Smith College Lisa Stoffer
Director of Finance & Operations Spence School Bruce Orem
Chief Advancement Officer St. Andrew’s School Ann Wardwell
Chief Financial Officer Trinity School Tom Stanton
AVP Corporate & Foundation Relations University of Vermont Jay Caporale
Chief Financial Officer Vermont Academy Matt Emsley
Senior Director of Major Gifts Viewpoint School CA Olivia Powell
Chief Operating Officer Wheeler School Ian Moorhouse
Regional Director, Major Gifts, Metro NY Yale University Sarah Nikkel
Director, Parent Gifts Yale University Anne Bergen

We continue to focus on long-term relationships with established hiring clients and talented candidates. Our search firm enjoys relationships collectively built over the years with heads of schools, college presidents, and trustees. At the same time, we continue to adapt to a new, very complex business climate to hire the right talent for key leadership positions. Our ability to adapt to such changing needs in the marketplace, for both hiring clients and candidates, is essential to our core values.

Over the past five years, DEERFIELD ASSOCIATES has teamed up with 53 new clients, along with institutions from our long-term client base. We continue to change and offer strategic hiring value and knowledge to our clients during these times of rapid social change.

In closing, I want to congratulate all of my professional colleagues at DEERFIELD ASSOCIATES for their perseverance, grit, and guts. We made it through the past two years successfully and on course. For me, that’s proof we can make it through anything.

With admiration and gratitude,

Doug Cooney
Executive Search Consultant

PS. For a review of our current searches, please click here: https://deerfieldassociates.com/current-searches/