About Us

 Prior to forming this firm, Jim Carpenter had over 20 years of search experience exclusively with Russell Reynolds Associates in their New York office. Over his career, he has conducted more than 1,000 searches building senior executive teams at clients which have included Unilever, Diageo, Digitas, Sara Lee Corporation, Black & Decker and other leading consumer, technology, health care, and industrial companies. With his understanding of marketing and business strategy, Jim quickly built a reputation as a consultant and advisor to CEOs and Boards, and became one of the most productive partners in the history of the firm. During his career at Russell Reynolds Associates he led the Global Consumer sector, the Consumer Products and Services practice, was active in the CEO and Board practice, and founded the Chief Marketing Officer practice. Jim’s clients credit him with a differentiating focus on results, in part deriving from a unique ability to develop deep strategic insights on both clients and candidates and the fit between them. Jim was listed as one of the top 200 executive recruiters in the world in The Global 200 Executive Recruiters, has been quoted in a variety of publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Business Week and has appeared on CNBC. Prior to his career in search Jim was on the Corporate Strategy staff of PepsiCo and started his career in strategy consulting. Jim received his BA in Government from St. Lawrence University and graduated with honors from the MBA program at Columbia University. 

 Mary Ott (Price) is a seasoned business consultant, executive recruiter, and executive coach.  She has over 12 years of experience as a  search consultant working with boards and C-level executives developing organization designs to support their business strategies, performing leadership assessments, and recruiting top talent. This coupled with over 20 years as a technology executive and former CEO, gives Ott the executive insight to help her clients develop cohesive leadership teams that can meet the rapidly changing environments resulting from today’s global digital transformation. 

Ott began her executive search career at Russell Reynolds Associates in NY, where she co-led the Information Officers Practice recruiting CIOs, CTOs and their teams across all industry sectors, including retail, e-commerce, industrial, pharmaceutical, health services and financial services.  She built the Financial Technology Practice in NYC, with its focus on global banks, insurance companies and asset management firms and the "FinTech" companies surrounding the industry.  In 2011, Ott formed her own firm where she continued to recruit top technology executives on a national level.  In 2017, Mary joined J Carpenter & Co where she extends the firms capabilities with her leadership in the technology market segment.

Prior to her career in search, Ott was General Manager IBM Home Networking Business Unit, which she spun out to become CEO of Home Director, Inc.  She has held 2 other CEO positions in early stage software companies.  Ott is an engineering graduate from Duke University and holds a Masters from Stanford University.