Spano Pratt

Edie (Boatman) Turnbull has served as the The Executive Director of College Possible since 2011. Spano Pratt Executive Search worked with the Minnesota based headquarters of College Possible on this executive search and her placement five years ago. College Possible Milwaukee is making college admission and success possible for low-income students through an intensive curriculum of coaching and support.
“College Possible was the right fit for me – not only because I firmly believe that a college degree is one of the surest pathways out of poverty, but also because the organization is founded on measuring what we do. The ability to use metrics to celebrate when we’re on track and make corrections as we go means more low-income Milwaukee students graduate from college. It makes my position very rewarding.
I’ll always be grateful to Spano Pratt for guiding me to my passion.”
Edie (Boatman) Turnbull

If you need to gain congruity between short term needs and long term strategic aspirations, Spano Pratt is the search firm for you and your organization. Together, Rose and Jamie seamlessly partner to determine how best to not only find a great candidate, but advance the strategic value to the overall organization through their placement process.

They guide you through a step by step process to define talent priorities, given strategic orientation of past present and future. Prepares the client to carefully think through priorities for a great candidate fit.

Provides a consultative framework to ensure effective assimilation, fit and productivity increase as a result of hiring talent they represent and find.

As a former president of Tempo Milwaukee, we were looking to make a change in our leadership after the resignation of our Executive Director. The blueprint that Spano Pratt used set us up for a successful search process, leading us to the most dynamic and transformational leader the organization had ever seen in it’s over 40 year existence. Rose spent time with our current leadership individually and together to ensure we were on the same page as to what we were looking for and then presented us with 5 extremely qualified candidates, based on that feedback. You know your search firm has done a great job, when it is hard to choose one individual. Throughout the process, Rose acted as our voice of reason and kept the search committee on track to ensure that we were respectful of the time we put in, as it is a volunteer board. Both Rose and Jamie have created an enormous network of qualified individuals that they tap into roles that come to them. I would recommend Spano Pratt for any search, profit or non-profit.

Spano Pratt far exceeded expectations in our search for the new Executive Director of the New England Water Works Association.  Rose and Jamie took the time to learn about our culture, interview our membership and staff, and guide our team through the entire process from setting goals, vetting and interviewing candidates, and on-boarding our new Executive.  We valued their communication, professional guidance, and thoughtfulness as we were tasked with replacing a retiring executive that had served for 30 years.

“Working with Spano Pratt to secure a new CEO for our community foundation was a great success”  Chris Woleske said.   “They made the process so easy for us.  Jamie was exceptionally prepared for every meeting, communicated with us flawlessly, and really listened to understand our goals and objectives.  The result is we have a new CEO who is a great fit for the organization.  I mean every word.”

“Rose has been a great advocate for Goodwill in many ways,” Stadler says. “She has helped us recruit multiple executive-level professionals with a keen focus on finding individuals that fit our culture and understand who we are as an organization. In addition, she has facilitated networking opportunities that have enabled Goodwill to expand its mission through the connections she has made for us.”

 Spano Pratt Executive Search firm’s performance is superior. Rose and Jamie are true experts in their industry. They listened to understand our unique needs, and were thorough and efficient in their service delivery to yield the perfect candidate. Their integrity and dedication to the search from the beginning to the end of the process was stellar. My personal experience, and awareness of their numerous other successful placements, has built a high level of trust and respect for them that makes it easy to recommend them with confidence to others.

Rose led the search process to hire the new Executive Director of Lake Valley Camp. She understood the board’s desires for leadership and did a great job identifying and sorting applicants to limit board time. She organized and participated in all interviews and led the on-boarding process. The results were excellent for the camp and the children it serves.

Spano Pratt Executive Search serves a critical need in our community. The opportunity to interact with seasoned professionals, that have their pulse on the needs of employers and those seeking opportunities, adds significant value to the success of talent acquisition and retention. The level of expertise, emotional intelligence and business acumen offered through Spano Pratt serves as a refreshing resource. I appreciate the comprehensive array of services offered by this amazing woman owned business.

Working with Spano Pratt Executive Search firm, and particularly Jamie Pratt has always been a wonderful and successful experience for me as an executive nonprofit leader. The process is customized, efficient, and runs like a well-oiled machine, yielding awesome results! Through the partnership process Jamie leads, she instills great confidence that you will be presented with outstanding candidates that truly fit what you are looking for in the very best and diverse talent in the marketplace.

Spano Pratt is our trusted partner in identifying and securing high quality talent to successfully drive our business growth. They understand our goals, help us define our talent needs and find the best candidates. I confidently and unequivocally recommend them as a partner to improve your company’s talent and performance

I have great appreciation for the work that Rose does with integrity, thoughtfulness and care. I have recommended Rose and her company to several of our clients who have been very pleased with the search and placement Rose and her team have brought to the management ranks in those companies. Rose is thorough in her approach. She takes the time to understand the culture of an organization as well as the talent that the organization needs. The screening that Spano Pratt does of candidates ensures that the match with the client organization will work well. I am honored to have Spano Pratt as a Strategic Partner.

Rose Spano Iannelli served as a keynote speaker for a Marquette University Young Alumni event focusing on branding yourself for the new job market. She was such a positive force; inspiring attendees to manage their careers and expectations in a compelling and useful way. Her presentation style is one of warmth, caring, and engendering trust. She was a great addition to our event.

Spano Pratt is the finest executive placement firm for non-profit professionals in the Midwest region. Last year, our professional association with 300+ members was in need of a new administrative leader. From start to finish, Rose and Jamie made it their mission to find an individual who could help lead our organization to even more success. They listened to our needs and helped guide our search team to determine truly what skill sets we needed. From that point, they yielded a tremendous number of candidates to review. In the end, it was a perfect match thanks to the extensive work from Spano Pratt.

Rose Spano and Jamie Pratt exceeded our expectations. Not only did they come up with a list of seven strong candidates for us to evaluate and interview, but they did it in less than one month. I have worked with executive recruiting firms over a lifetime but this was the fastest delivery of qualified candidates I had ever experienced. I am pleased to publicly thank them and I’m confident BizStarts Milwaukee will benefit immensely from the successful search.

Spano Pratt brings a level of professionalism, preparation, and diligence to the executive search process that is unmatched by its competitors. Jamie gave our search top priority and provided wisdom and guidance to help us navigate through a field of high quality candidates.

Our work culture is critical to our success, and Spano Pratt took the time to understand it and incorporate it into their search for candidates for us to consider. As a result we found the perfect cultural and skill match in the person we hired — it couldn’t have happened without their thoroughness and focused attention to our needs.

We have worked with the Spano Pratt team on several occasions. Their work was timely. They were very professional and each time they delivered candidates with the right skill sets and cultural fit for the job. We highly recommend them. In fact, we have to several of our supporters!

We couldn’t have been happier. Spano/Pratt did a very sensitive yet comprehensive search. The results were excellent. A great combination of business sense and personable attention. Best I have ever used!