OUR HISTORY
The roots of HealthSearch Partners extend all the way back to the formative years of our founders, who started their careers at the former Witt Associates. It was here that they discovered how engaged collaboration and a consultative approach to executive search could deliver exceptional results for clients.
From there, all three men went on to form their own successful recruitment firms. But they continued to embrace the core values and culture they had adopted early on.
Fast-forward to today. HealthSearch Partners reunites the founders while allowing each to retain their individual personalities and styles. Joined by the most talented team of healthcare executive search partners in the industry, the new alliance creates a more powerful network with greater critical mass to serve you better.
OUR TEAM
BARRY CESAFSKY
BARRY R. CESAFSKY, FACHE
CO-FOUNDER
630.645.6501 bcesafsky@healthsearchpartners.com
Barry Cesafsky co-founded HealthSearch Partners and serves on the firm's Board of Directors. He has been privileged to have previously been a partner in two major executive search firms. Now engaged in over 30 years of executive search, Barry has developed and maintained a reputation for getting the job done for an increasingly sophisticated healthcare client. His hands-on approach delivers professional search with a personal touch. Barry's philosophy has resulted in positive searches with very satisfied clients.
Barry's executive search assignments have included CEOs, CMOs, CFOs, CNOs, CIOs, human resource executives, and senior-level positions for hospitals, healthcare systems, senior services organizations & retirement communities, medical group practices, professional service firms, foundations and other large vertically-integrated healthcare organizations. He is a skilled facilitator with Boards and Search Committees, who are looking for their next CEO.
He is a fellow in the American College of Health Care Executives. In 1996, he was appointed to the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners, as the Baldrige Program began considering healthcare organizations for performance excellence. Barry belongs to several other professional organizations including: Healthcare Financial Management Association, Healthcare Information Management Systems Society, American Health Information Management Association, and the Society for Human Resource Management. He is a former Partner with Witt-Kieffer and with TMP Worldwide (formerly LAI Ward Howell).
Barry attended DePauw University and graduated from Loyola University of Chicago with a bachelor's degree. He obtained his master's degree in Hospital and Health Administration from Xavier University, where he was honored with their Distingguished Alumni Service Award. He currently serves on the Advisory Board for Xavier's Program in Health Services Administration. In 2019, he was named a Significant Sig by Sigma Chi Fraternity.
In recent years, Barry has been involved in leadership at the Union League Club of Chicago, where he has twice served on the Club Board. He is currently a member of the ULCC House Committee and the Finance Committee as well as the Diversity and Inclusion Sub-Committee.
He is an avid bike rider and resides in Oak Brook and Fort Myers with his wife, Marcia, who is a Senior Broker in the Construction Services Group of Aon Risk Services, Inc.
ED FRY
ED FRY
CO-FOUNDER
713.304.6870 edfry@healthsearchpartners.com
Ed Fry has successfully assisted healthcare systems, hospital board and executive teams in securing visionary leaders for 30 years. Prior to founding FaithSearch Partners in 2007, he held senior/partner positions with two large, national healthcare and international executive search firms.
To date, he has managed more than 500 searches, including nearly 100 CEO-level searches. His clients have included more than half of the 20 largest healthcare systems in the country.
Ed Co-Founded HealthSearch Partners currently leading the firm's day-to-day operations as well as implementing strategic initiatives.
Ed holds an MBA from Dallas Baptist University and a Bachelor's degree in Communications from Southwestern Adventist University, where he is a member of the institution's board of trustees. He also serves on the board of the Ardmore Institute of Health, a $70 million, faith-based national foundation promoting wellness and healthy living, recently completing a four-year stint as board chair.
NEILL MARSHALL
NEILL MARSHALL, VICE PRESIDENT
972-768-5827 neillm@healthsearchpartners.com
Neill Marshall has over 20 years of experience in healthcare recruiting and has been involved in hundreds of senior level assignments. He’s held leadership roles with major executive search firms and currently serves as a partner and Chief Operating Officer of Southerland Partners. Neill’s expertise includes physician-related consulting, and his early experience includes healthcare supply sales.
Neill holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration/Management from Texas A&M University. He has spoken to professional groups, trustee groups and boards of directors on physician recruiting and other healthcare issues and has authored journal articles and promotional publications.
LAURA CONLEY
LAURA A. CONLEY
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
833.477.3932 Ext. 704 lconley@healthsearchpartners.com
Laura A. Conley is one of six original Managers of the HealthSearch Partners Board of Directors. She is the Chief Operating Officer of the firm and has established a strong operating foundation to help run a successful healthcare executive search firm.
For the past decade, Laura has developed and refined a thriving executive search practice that has served some of the top healthcare organizations in the nation. She has recruited key executives for large faith-inspired health systems as well as for strong, independent regional healthcare provider organizations. Some of her recent clients include: Beth Israel Lahey Health, IU Health, and Trinity Health.
Prior to joining HSP founding menber CES Partners ten years ago. Laura spent the first have of her career with some of the leading pediatric hospitals in the country, such as Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Rush Children's Hospital and Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. She draws upon her healthcare administrative background in change management, Lean and Six Sigma to successfully lead some of the most challenging executive search assignments for HSP clients.
Laura is also an accomplished speaker who has given presentations on career management, and she has regularly co-facilitated a career workshop for healthcare career coaches during he annual ACHE.
Laura graduated from Xavier University in Cincinnati with a degree in Organizational Communications and Business. She also earned her Masters' degree in Health Services Administration from Xavier University. A native of the Windy City area Laura and her family reside in the Chicago suburbs.
IVAN BARTOLOME
IVAN BARTOLOME
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
833.477.3932 Ext. 706 ivan@healthsearchpartners.com
Ivan Bartolome is one of six original Managers of the HealthSearch Partners Board of Directors. Throughout his 30 plus years of leadership, management and executive search, he has devoted much of his service to progressive healthcare organizations who want to transform their C-suites by recruiting high quality, mission-minded senior executives. Ivan has a strong history with healthcare executive search and joined a founding HSP partner, FaithSearch Partners, in 2008. Through his search experience he has honed his executive development skills and partnered with some of the top leaders in the healthcare industry. He has participated in the successful completion of hundreds of executive search assignments for medical centers, health systems and academic programs that has made a difference in the communities they serve.
Prior to his executive search work, he served as an executive leader for Cardiovascular Services at Shawnee Mission Medical Center. Before working as a hospital operations and clinical leader, he served in various marketing leadership roles at several prominent healthcare organizations, including the University of Kansas School of Nursing and three hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This leadership foundation and unique insight enable Ivan to understand a client's needs and align the best possible talent.
Ivan has a Master's in Health Services Administration from the University of Kansas and a Bachelor's in Corporate Communication from Southwestern Adventist University (SWAU). A devoted community leader, Ivan has served as President of the Prestonwood Rotary Club in Dallas, Texas and as President of the Kansas City, Kansas Rotary Club. He also served on the Wyandotte County, Kansas Red Cross Board and as the marketing committee chair for the United Way of Wyandotte County in Kansas. In addition, he served as Head Elder at the New Haven Seventh-day Adventist Church and on the board of Saint Paul's Episcopal Day School in Kansas City, Missouri. He has also served on the boards of Christian academies in Shawnee, Kansas and Richardson, Texas, as President of th Alumni Association as SWAU and as President of the Crowley (Texas) Area Chamber of Commerce.
He is married to Sonja Bartolome, MD, a Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine specialist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Together they have three children.
DOUG DUFFIELD
Doug Duffield
Senior Vice-President
813-469-3066 dduffield@healthsearchpartners.com
Douglas Duffield is a Senior Vice President with more than 25 years of progressive leadership experience in the healthcare industry. He has established a proven track record of successfully identifying and recruiting C-Suite healthcare executives on behalf of hospitals, health systems, physician group practices and other provider not-for-profit organizations. As a former market CEO of a half-billion dollar enterprise, he is skilled at recruiting CEOs, CFOs and other C-Suite executives for hospitals and health systems.
While Doug is now a recognized and respected executive search consultant, he has an impressive earlier career in healthcare leadership and technology. Just prior to joining HealthSearch Partners, Doug was an accomplished regional Market CEO for two large Adventist Health provider organizations in Florida and in California. As the market leader in Bakersfield, California, he experienced, fist-hand, the successful transformation on a single acute care hospital into a comprehensive delivery system with physician network, outpatient centers, multiple hospitals, and post-acute partnerships. He knows what it takes to lead a successful, complex healthcare organization.
His dynamic multicultural background and broad experience with transformational leadership provide HSP clients with unmatched expertise and first-rate counsel. Doug has been able to assist clients in identifying, evaluating and recruiting a new breed of emerging senior executives who can contribute to the ever-changing demands of today's healthcare environment.
In recognition of his leadership, Doug received the Medallion of Honor for Exemplary Service from Kaiser Permanente in 2016 for creating a "One KP" experience for members, improving quality of care, and raising staff and physician engagement. Prior to his experience in healthcare, Doug spent a decade and a half working with Fortune 500 technology companies Intel Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Philips Electronics and Microsoft Corporation. His technology foundation includes Lean Leader certification from Virginia Mason Medical Center and Shingijutsu Global Consulting in Japan.
Doug has a strong sense of "Community" and served on the boards of numerous organizations and hospitals including California Hospital Association, Pasco Economic Development Commission, Bakersfield Economic Development Corporation. Florida Hospital North Pinellas and East Pasco Adventist Academy, and was president of his Rotary Club in Sonora, California. Doug has a heart for international mission and served Syrian and Afghani refugees at the Oinofyta camp near Athens Greece; responded to the major 2010 earthquake in Haiti; and spent a year in Lesotho at the small outpost Maluti Hospital.
Doug holds a bachlor's degree in business from Walla Walla University. He and his wife Melanie have two dughter and reside in the Pacific Northwest.
COURTNEY FRY
Courtney Fry
Vice President
833-477-3932 Ext. 717 cfry@healthsearchpartners.com
Courtney Fry has developed a deep understanding of healthcare executive search from a life long exposure to the business. She is an experienced legacy team member with HealthSearch Partners, and has worked in the industry since 2007. Her professional experience and education have prepared her to take on the most challenging healthcare executive search assignments.
As Vice President, she is one of the company's resident experts on healthcare executive research, having built and led research departments for numerous search firms. With this research background, she has extensive management experience in HealthSearch's Saleforce database management and user interface as well as expertise in external research sources. She combines this research knowledge with an understanding of each client's needs to work with the other HSP team members to produce the most qualified candidates that fit the search.
Courtney also brings a variety of experience with all aspects of executive search including: consulting, operations, marketing, information technology, and finance. With these skills, she excels at navigating the search process and internal operations to get the results for clients as smoothly and effectively as possible. She believes that executive search is both an art and a science and, when done properly, can be incredibly powerful. The diverse assortment of tools and abilities at her disposal help Courtney and the HSP enterprise deliver transformational leaders to our mission-minded clients.
Courtney holds a BBA in Accounting from Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business in Dallas. She recently earned an MBA from Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia.
SARITA GILLIGAN
Sarita Gilligan
Client Support and Accounting Director
833-477-3932 Ext. 718 sgilligan@healthsearchpartners.com
Sarita Gilligan works to ensure that every element in the executive search process is seamless. In her role as Client Support Director, she is deeply committed t ensuring a successful outcome for every search consultant she supports. As Accounting Director, she manages day-to-day bookkeeping, billing, and cash management.
Sarita's background training as a legal secretary in addition to a degree in accounting are only exceeded by her 30 years of experience in the executive search business. She worked for Witt-Kieffer in the early 1990's and then spent 18 years with CES Partners, which later merged to become HealthSearch Partners.
In her support of HSP executive search professionals, Sarita acts as a liaison between HSP and its clients, making sure that the lines of communication remain open. She is directly responsible for client support management including the development of client and candidate presentation materials, candidate interview coordination with the goal of continuously enhancing the client experience. She is a dedicated professional striving to improve customer service and ensure that quality and service exceed customer expectations.
Sarita is a graduate of Northern Illinois University. She is a proud Mom who raised two children, one who is now in college and another in law school.
SCOTT KUHLMAN
SCOTT KUHLMAN
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
833.477.3932 Ext. 714 skuhlman@healthsearchpartners.com
Scott Kuhlman brings an array of experience in healthcare practice management and recruitment, spanning over 30 years. He has gained national recognition for his executive search work, particularly in the Senior Living Industry.
Prior to joining one of the HealthSearch Partners founding organizations over five years ago, Scott served for 16 years as Vice President of Business and Staffing Development and as Chief Operating Officer for Extended Care Physicians, a multi-state Skilled/Long Term Care staffing and practice management company which provided primary medical care to residents of Post-Acute Long Term Care (PA/LTC) Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities and Continuing Care Retirement Communities throughout the Southeast. While there, he was also involved in the formation of the Vision Group, a thin tank composed of leaders of national organizations involved in PA/LTC practice management. The Vision group model served as a platform for PA/LTC practices to analyze "best practices" that were vital to the growth and success of their own companies, and it later eveolved to become the Practice Management Section for AMDA, The Society for Post-Acute and Long Term Care Medicine.
Scott draws from a deep knowledge of the Senior Living Industry to enable him to attract and recruit top talent for key positions at some of the best Long Term Care organizations in the country. In fact, he has successfully placed many of the senior executives for Ohana Pacific Management Company, which is the largest, privately owned skilled nursing healthcare company in the State of Hawaii. He has the unique ability to provide supportive counsel to Long Term Care organizations with their most important executive search needs.
Scott holds a Master of Business Administration from California Coast University. He and his wife, Chloette, have five adult children and reside in Ashville, North Carolina.
POSCHE SCHOOLEY
Porsche Schooley
Client Support Director
833-477-3932 Ext. 719 pschooley@healthsearchpartners.com
Porsche Schooley leads the administrative support team which supports HealthSearch Partners professionals with their work delivering transformational leaders to mission-minded client organizations. She is a capable, determined, confident and well-organized executive assistant who also oversees process improvement, and database/IT infrastructure implementation and management for the firm. She is a highly approachable individual who has a pleasent outlook and a willingness to make a positive mark.
With 20 plus years of experience in professional office executive positions and a track record of strong performance in high-volume, high-pressure executive search environments. Porsche skillfully manages administrative duties and client relations for her HSP colleagues including interfacing with client leadership, executive candidates and providing direct support to the firm's search consultants. She has shared responsibility for oversight of many of the firm's information technology solutions, including administration and support for Microsoft Office 365 applications (Email/Outlook, SharePoint, other Office suite applications). She excels in providing routine user support with other technology applications such as video conferencing, virtual phone system, desktops and devices.
A native Texan, Porsche attended University of Houston before finding a post college entry level position with a multi-industry staffing firm. She worked with healthcare search firm Witt-Kieffer for several years and then joined FaithSearch Partners, one of the HealthSearch Partners founding organizations, in 2007. An ardent vegetable gardener, Porsche and her husband, Chris, are big concert and music festival enthusiasts.
SCOTT SMITH
SCOTT B. SMITH
847-917-2358 ssmith@healthsearchpartners.com
Scott Smith has been serving the not-for-profit healthcare industry since joining one of the founding firms in 2001. With his prior executive search experience, Scott brings over thirty years of knowhow developing, leading and managing executive search assignments for high quality C-Suite executives in the healthcare, senior services, and insurance industries.
Scott is a well-organized, results oriented and tenacious professional committed to providing value added services to organizations. He has participated in hundreds of search assignments, recruiting Chief Executive Officers, Chief Financial Officers, Human Resource Executives, Sales and Marketing Executives, Chief Actuaries and other senior level executives. Scott's specific areas of responsibility include the development and management of client relationships; the development and interviewing of qualified candidates; and the maintaining of search engagement quality standards.
Prior to joining CES Partners, Scott was a Client Manager in the TMP Worldwide Executive Resourcing division in Chicago, and a Principal in the TMP Worldwide Executive Search division in the Chicago & Barrington, Illinois and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin offices. He was a senior member of the global Healthcare, Insurance and Manufacturing practices.
Scott also served as a Principal with Ward Howell International. In a series of acquisitions, Scott maintained high-level assignments with CSG International, Ward Howell International, LAI Worldwide and TMP Worldwide. In previous years he held management positions with several northern Illinois search firms.
A 1978 graduate of the University of Arizona in Tucson, Scott holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Post college engagements included graphic design and photography for numerous corporate clients.
Originally from Rockford, Illinois, Scott resides and works from Huntley, Illinois and Tucson, Arizona, so he has access to HSP west coast clients for much of the year. He is married to Helen and they have two adult daughters.
Scott is a member of the Union League Club of Chicago. A wine enthusiast, Scott went through the rigorous process of becoming a sommelier certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers.
RITA WALL
Rita Wall
Director of Research
833-477-3932 Ext. 716 rwall@healthsearchpartners.com
Rita Wall is an experienced and talented healthcare executive researcher who helps set the search strategy and identify target organizations most likely to yield the absolute best qualified candidates for a HealthSearch Partners search. Rita ensures that the firm's research, database management and systems are all integrated and optimized to support HSPs executive search professionals and client needs. In this position she artfully services clients by performing valuable background information on organizations, healthcare associations, executives, and related source contacts. Because Rita is the first point of contact with prospective candidates and referral sources, she sets the tone for every interaction going forward on a particular search assignment.
Rita joined HealthSearch Partners after the CES Partners integration into HSP several years ago. She has more than 25 years of experience as an independent research and candidate development consultant for several leading execitive search firms. Included in Rita's extensive industry experience is her prior role as Knowledge Manager, Healthcare Practice for TMP Worldwide eResourcing where she utilized her extensive knowledge of the search process and database management into developing and implementing training for the division. Prior to that, Rita served with Witt/Kieffer, where she was Assistant Director of Research.
Rita is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Applied Psychology. She enjoys reading and helping others to read. She also volunteers for JournetCare Hospice. Not only is she an avid sports fan, enthusiastically supporting the Cubbies, she has also been an active participant in local volleyball and softball leagues. In addition to her volunteer activities, Rita enjoys family, friends, movies, theatre, and the Chicago cultural scene.