About Us
Management
Team

Larry S. Imely

Larry Imely is a Founder and Managing Partner of both paul-lawrence associates and highbridge associates, and operates out of the organization's corporate headquarters in Hudson (Cleveland), Ohio. With over 14 years of executive search experience, Larry practices across a broad range of industries and functional areas, including manufacturing, retail and consumer goods, financial services, health and life sciences, and engineering and consulting.

Larry started his search career in 1993 as a vice president at Christian & Timbers, among the seven largest retained executive search firms in the country. He initiated C&T's Engineering and Consulting Practice, and in 1996, was recognized by Engineering News Record as one of the leading search consultants in the field. While also involved in the firm's large technology-based practice, Larry helped build C&T's Financial Services and Manufacturing Practice, and was named a partner in 1994.

In 1996, Larry joined the staffing and recruiting firm of AIM Executive as president of The StratfordGroup, an executive search firm he founded with Paul Stefunek. Shortly after joining, the combined entities were acquired by Interim Services (now Spherion Corporation), and Larry went on to build StratfordGroup into a top 15 U.S.-based executive search firm, with 15 offices in the U.S. and one in London, while maintaining his own executive search practice. It was during his tenure at StratfordGroup that he began running HR focus groups and experimenting with "unbundling executive search" into other human capital support services for the various clientele. It was a model that would lead to what is now highbridge associates.

In 2001, he and his two partners formed what is today paul-lawrence associates and highbridge associates, a combined human capital services firm that services a wide variety of clients across more than 12 industry segments with performance-based executive search and unbundled human capital services such as research, competitive analysis, outsourced recruiting, recruiter training and testing and assessment.

In his career before search, Mr. Imely led sales organizations and managed P&L centers in four businesses. He holds a BS in Education from Bowling Green State University and a Masters of Administration from the University of Toledo. He has published several articles in the human capital arena, and he speaks frequently on the evolving world of search/research. He also sits on the Ohio Board of Myasthenia Gravis.

Frank G. Skedel

Mr. Skedel is a Founder and Managing Partner of highbridge associates and paul-lawrence associates. Prior to co-founding highbridge associates, Mr. Skedel, a distinguished businessman, was Senior Vice President and Treasurer of ALLTEL Corporation and, at that time, the youngest corporate treasurer of a Fortune 1000 company. Mr. Skedel later became Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of LDI Corporation as well as President and CEO of LDI's largest operating company. Frank subsequently formed and launched Target Marketing Solutions, Inc., a one-to-one direct marketing Company. As President, CEO and board member, he grew the start-up company in a three year period to over $30 million. He began his career with The B.F. Goodrich Company in Akron, Ohio where he performed strategic and performance analyses of all Goodrich business units.

Frank's executive search experience was gained with the StratfordGroup, one of the country's top 20 retained executive search firms headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, as Executive Vice President and Senior Consultant. 

Mr. Skedel has extensive management experience in mergers and acquisitions, business start-ups and compressions and management of high-growth companies, and has developed and executed business models and strategic plans for a variety of enterprises. His direct executive-level experience includes general management, operations, sales and marketing, finance, and new product development spanning five different industries including small to Fortune 1000-sized companies. On the financial side of the house, Frank has raised more than $1.6 billion of debt and equity capital to finance over 50 acquisitions, domestic and international business expansions and capital asset acquisition.

Mr. Skedel received his Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Ohio University and completed his Master Degree studies at the University of Akron.

Paul C. Stefunek

Paul C. Stefunek is a Founder and Managing Partner of highbridge associates and paul-lawrence associates. Previously he was the co-founder and Vice President at StratfordGroup where Paul led the Technology Practice and executed senior-level searches in the computer hardware, computer software, networking, telecommunications, and interactive media industries with an expertise in the e-Business/Internet industry.

He has conducted searches in the e-Business/Internet industry since 1994 for most disciplines and titles ranging from President & CEO, Vice President, Director, Sales & Marketing, Finance, Engineering, Research & Development, Technology, Advertising Sales, Programming, Content, Editorial, etc.

Paul has over 14 years of experience in recruiting industry leaders with a focused and in-depth knowledge of the e-business/digital industry. A sampling of his clients include America Online, Ameritech, AT&T, CBS SportsLine, CompuServe, Reuters, Ticketmaster Online, Sony, and several others.

Prior to joining StratfordGroup, he was a consultant with Christian & Timbers where he served as director of the company's Interactive Media Division. Before joining the executive search profession, Paul had a progressive career in district sales, sales management, training and national management with Pitney Bowes and Automatic Data Processing. He specialized in the sale and training of computer management systems.

Paul graduated from Pace University with a Bachelor's of Business Administration degree in Marketing, with a concentration in management.

Henry C. Deaver

Hank Deaver is a managing director for highbridge associates in the Chicago office, and participates as a practice lead in the financial services and real estate practices of the firm. Prior to joining highbridge, Mr. Deaver was a partner at Ray & Berndtson in Chicago, again associated with the financial services and real estate practices, and focused on functional roles such as CEO, CFO, treasurer, controller and a variety of roles in the commercial and financial services industries, commercial real estate and their various lines of business. During his term at Ray & Berndtson, Mr. Deaver was a widely sought-after speaker, and addressed the Financial Executives Institute and CFO Magazine.

Prior to his entering the executive search business, Mr. Deaver spent 15 years with Continental Bank (now Bank of America) in Chicago, initially serving both middle market and large corporate clients. His term included nine (9) years in the real estate department as a senior director working with commercial and residential clients, and with a wide variety of investors in a structuring and distribution capacity. Mr. Deaver was responsible for establishing the department's hotel underwriting guidelines and led efforts in the bank's first single asset securitization. Mr. Deaver started his professional banking and finance career with the First National Bank of Atlanta, where he worked as a commercial officer and in the secured lending division.

Mr. Deaver earned his B.A. in management science from Duke University, and his M.B.A. from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. He serves on several industry and non-profit boards.

Eric E. Christ

Eric holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Psychology from Ashland University

Suzanne Conroy

Suzanne Conroy is a director and senior search consultant with highbridge associates, providing IT recruiting and human capital consulting to our client organizations.

Prior to joining highbridge associates, Ms. Conroy was the Senior Recruiting Specialist for Eaton Corporation, a $12B global manufacturing company, where she was responsible for recruiting business leaders into their divisional and corporate headquarters. At Eaton, she led the direct sourcing efforts for the North American recruiting team, completing such searches as Director of Marketing for a $500M high-tech UPS computer start-up division.

Suzanne has more than twelve years experience in executive search, human capital consulting and recruiting. Before joining Eaton, she served as a Partner with a boutique retained search firm specializing in recruiting to the technology and internet services industries. Notable clients include Printcafe, iName and Mondera.com and McGraw Hill. For McGraw Hill Education, Ms. Conroy implemented their Global Technology Transformation program by recruiting senior-level Oracle practitioners, Director, Systems Environment Management and other IT Directors to the company.

As a Human Capital Consultant and Experienced Hire Recruiting Manager for Deloitte Consulting, Suzanne helped build their DC.com practice by recruiting cutting edge technology consultants skilled in web development and CRM. She recruited Deloitte Consulting's Global eBusiness Director and regularly hired senior consultants with expertise in WebMethods, Network Architecture, Websphere, Java, C++, web development, CRM, data warehousing, ePiphany, Siebel, and Vignette. Additionally, Ms. Conroy hired practitioners into Deloitte's ERP practice including Oracle, Peoplesoft and SAP consultants. At Deloitte, Suzanne not only led the recruiting activity for seven consulting offices within the central region, she also provided human capital and recruitment consulting services to clients such as Caterpillar, Inc.

Ms. Conroy began her executive search career with Christian & Timbers, a leading technology based retained search firm. As a Search Director, Ms. Conroy recruited senior-level executives across a wide array of industries, multi-national corporations and start-up businesses. Searches Ms. Conroy personally conducted include, CEO, Imagination Network; CEO, AdOne.com; Vice President of Marketing, PC Docs; Vice President of Technology, About.com; Vice President of Marketing, AutoTrader.com; Vice President of Sales, Talkcity.com; Chief Technology Officer, Checkfree Corporation; and Senior Vice President of Technology, Disney.

Suzanne graduated from John Carroll University with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Allen Esrock

Allen Esrock is Vice President and Managing Director of paul-lawrence associates in our Los Angeles office. He participates as Practice Lead in the Digital Media and is a key member of the Renewable Energy service practice of the firm. Prior to joining paul-lawrence, Mr. Esrock spent seven years as a consultant and entrepreneur at the forefront of the digital media revolution.

During this period, Mr. Esrock founded Jitter Fingers, a safe social networking site for tween girls and their best friends. Common Sense Media, among others, praised the website as a "'safe online social-networking environment for girls' - and follows through on the promise." Additionally, he helped establish Pericles Consulting, the first online political advertising agency.

Prior to his consulting career, Mr. Esrock spent seven years as the principal in charge of executive recruiting practice for the Larkin Group, a diverse professional services organizations serving the new media community. Larkin Group companies included Larkin Associates; LAWNMOWER, a networking company; and Origami New Media & Entertainment, a strategy and consulting company. Allen is a widely quoted new media expert and appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Business Journal and the Downtown News. Additionally, he was featured in a Harvard Business School study regarding the use of stock options vs. cash compensation for digital sales people.
 
Prior to executive recruiting, Mr. Esrock was a television comedy writer. He graduated from Indiana University with a B.A. in English Literature

James J. Kacala

Jim Kacala, Research Director for highbridge associates, serves as the firm's primary point of contact for Research support and information. He has conducted Research for senior-level searches and managed projects within a variety of industries including high-technology, financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, computer hardware, software, networking and telecommunications, non-profit, academia and more.

Prior to joining highbridge associates, Jim served as Associate Research Director for StratfordGroup, at that time, the 13th largest executive search firm in the United States, and Research Scientist and Research Manager with Christian & Timbers. Jim's fifteen years of experience in Research, including eight years at the managerial level, provides highbridge associates with focused, in-depth knowledge of a wide range of industries and disciplines. Before entering the executive search world, Jim worked at Penton Publishing's design engineering magazine, Machine Design, as a Staff Editor.

Jim holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Systems Analysis with a concentration in Management from Miami University of Ohio.

Wendy A. LaLonde

Ms. LaLonde is Director-Administration & Operations of highbridge associates. She is an accomplished professional with 15 years management, marketing, business development, sales and operations. Wendy was Manager of Corporate Administration with the Stratford Group, a major national executive search firm with responsibility for corporate policy administration and corporate reporting. She also interacted with a wide variety of business clients and prospects in a business development capacity. Ms. LaLonde was previously Manager of Corporate Projects for a rapidly growing direct marketing firm where she managed a wide array of initiatives including strategic plan execution, acquisition execution, and debt & equity funding processes. As Corporate Secretary, she administered the stock plans and corporate record keeping functions.

Wendy was also the Merchandise Marketing Manager for the Cleveland Indians Baseball Club where she was responsible for managing all operations and the expansion planning and execution for 33 team stores. She expanded the operation from 3 stores to 33 stores, increasing sales over five-fold during a three-year period. Her interaction with Major League Baseball and the Indians' executive management were key strengths in her executing this extremely rapid and successful expansion program.

Wendy got her initial sales and marketing training with the May Company department store group where she progressed rapidly during her nine-year tenure to Senior Buyer for a 16-store region, responsible for planning, advertising, marketing merchandising and profitability. With an $8 million budget responsibility, Wendy markedly improved sales and profits by over 30% annually over a five-year period, earning numerous recognition awards.

Ms. LaLonde earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Youngstown State University where she graduated magna cum laude.

Mark Little

Mark Little is a Senior Vice President with highbridge associates. He brings over 20 years of human resources/talent acquisition experience to the firm. Mark has earned the reputation as a dynamic recruiting professional focused on delivering strategic, timely recruiting solutions to the client.

Prior to joining highbridge associates, Mark spent two years as director of client services with a Cleveland based career transition firm. During his tenure there, he provided strategic leadership as well as new business development. He incorporated many of the latest recruiting techniques into the career transition process, including assuming the lead role in the design and development of a leading edge, web-based career transition product. Previously, he was manager of executive search and technical recruiting for National City Corporation. Mark has a passionate commitment to both clients and candidates. His numerous accomplishments at National City include the management of many large and critical hiring projects, designing National City's most successful employee referral program and training both staff and management on the latest behavioral interviewing techniques while developing the internal executive search function. Mark successfully recruited a number of key individuals for various disciplines, including the chief economist, manager of asset/liability and securitization, managing director of the asset management group, manager of process improvement, manager of M&A, director of retail brokerage and many others. His experience prior to National City includes TransOhio Savings Bank, American Courts Inc. and Kmart Corporation.

Mark earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Akron. He is an active member in the Society for Human Resource Management (national and local), the Employment Management Association, and the Northern Ohio Human Resource Planning Society, the last two where he serves on several committees.

John Martiniere

John Martiniere is a Director for highbridge associates in the Atlanta, Georgia office and is the Practice Lead for the Consulting and Engineering Practice of the firm.

Prior to entering the executive search business, Mr. Martiniere was active in the environmental remediation construction and consulting engineering industry for over 33 years; a Licensed Professional Engineer. He has extensive experience both as an environmental engineering professional and as an entrepreneur and executive.

John served as a consulting engineer with some of the world's largest and most distinguished engineering/consulting firms. For over 10 years, he managed and performed technical work on engineering projects and served as profit center manager. In addition, he founded, built, managed and sold two successful environmental remediation companies, including recruiting the senior management and key technical personnel for those two companies and molding them into an effective team. He also founded and/or managed several other enterprises in the technology development and human resources arenas.

John created an entity in 1982 known as HAZTECH, which, under his direction as founder and President, grew in five years to be one of the nation's three largest privately-held full-service environmental remediation firms. After researching over one hundred companies, Westinghouse identified HAZTECH as its number one acquisition candidate for entry into the environmental remediation market, and purchased both HAZTECH and its geotechnical engineering parent, Soil & Material Engineers, at a significant multiple of earnings. As President of a venture capital funded biotech startup company, Mr. Martiniere guided the company in commercializing several innovative environmental remediation technologies and initiating revenue generating activities. During that time, he negotiated over twenty-five national/international contracts and strategic alliances, including procuring additional venture partners.

John received a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, where he graduated Magna Com Laude and was a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu. He also received a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. John attended Officer Candidate School and served as an officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, and worked for a period at Proctor & Gamble after his service to the Navy.

Edward E. Richardson

Edward E. (Ned) Richardson is Director of highbridge associates Sarasota, Florida office.

An innovative and decisive financial services executive, Ned has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors. He established, de novo, several highly-effective sales and marketing organizations, created and managed numerous award-winning advertising campaigns, developed and directed strategic plans, and designed numerous innovative products while maintaining a strong focus on customer partnerships and bottom line results.

Prior to joining highbridge associates in 2005, Mr. Richardson was associated with The Federal Reserve Bank where he was Vice President and Senior Sales and Marketing officer for both the Cleveland and St. Louis Districts. In this role, he created and led a market-driven business strategy, integrating this strategy into the districts' culture. Through this leadership, revenues grew to over $110 million and the banks became known throughout the marketplace as payment system leaders. In addition, Ned worked with industry and Federal Reserve System executives throughout the country and represented the System on numerous policy issues.

Ned's private sector experience includes 16 years with the Dun & Bradstreet Companies and several years with Cleveland area financial institutions. At Dun & Bradstreet, Ned worked with business leaders on opportunities for market development, territory deployment and improved asset/liability management. His success earned him increased responsibilities as National Accounts Manager, Division Manager and Regional Sales Manager.

Recruited by a Cleveland area financial institution, Ned launched a unique sales group which brought to the national market the first retail funds consolidation system using electronic drafts, forming the basis for many early cash management systems that are widely used today. Ned also had responsibility as the Senior Marketing and Sales Officer for a major savings institution where he successfully managed M&A activity, advertising, new product development, public relations, and direct sales for asset, liability and fee products.

A native of Kansas City, Ned received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Missouri and did post-graduate studies at The University of Missouri School of Law and Princeton University. He has served several non-profit organizations as Chairman, President and Board Member.