Leadership

Mark Robbins, CPA, MA

Financial Advisor, Edward Jones

Mark Mullins, Ed.D.

Executive Search Consultant

As a dynamic and energetic leader with a track record of executive leadership and a keen focus on building critical school systems, Dr. Mullins is proud to have served in Brevard County, FL by bringing stability as a leader in the organization since 2000, and Superintendent since 2018. Brevard Public Schools is the 11th largest school district in the state of Florida and 51^st largest school district in the United States. In his time as Superintendent, Dr. Mullins was able to increase graduation rates from 88.1% in 2018 to 90.6% in 2021. He was also able to increase graduation rates in all subgroups from 2018 to 2021; 5.8% increase for Exceptional Student Education students, 7.2% increase for African American students, 2.7% increase for Hispanic students, & a 4.1% increase from Economically Disadvantaged students. Most impressively, the overall district-wide achievement in 2022 returned to pre-pandemic levels when compared to 2018.

As an Executive Search Consultant for Spirit Consulting, Dr. Mullins is able to positively impact public school systems throughout the U.S., leveraging the wisdom he gained during his 29 year public school administrator career. Dr. Mullins furthered his operational expertise by obtaining a Doctorate and Masters of Education from the University of Central Florida, and a Bachelor’s of Science in Mathematics Education from Florida State University. 

Bryan Esarco, CPA, MST

CEO, AJE Associates

I have worked in public accounting for most of my career. However, I have also worked in private industry for a Fortune 500 company in their tax department and earlier in my career I was involved in cost accounting and software implementation.

In addition to my work as a CPA, I also teach accounting, auditing and tax related courses at the associate, bachelors and MBA level.

Specialties: My specialties are in the area of taxation and taxpayer representation. I often work in all of the various fields of accounting to include financial statement compilations, audit work, business valuations, fraud investigations, expert witness, litigation support, mergers and acquisitions, payroll, tax planning and consulting, preparation of all types of tax returns, business consulting, managerial accounting and finance decisions.

Jenna Haley

Jr. Consultant

Prior to joining the Executive Search industry, Jenna Haley started her career in mortage lending and digital marketing. In these industries she gained experience in management, HR, marketing, and sales. She is passionate about her work as a Jr. Consultant with Spirit Consulting due to the opportunity to network and build relationships with different executives. After graduating Magna Cum Laude from the University of Maryland with a Bachelor’s in Public Relations, she moved to Miami where she enjoys unwinding after long work days by taking long walks on the beach.

Amie Rowe, PHD

I/O Psychologist

In terms of process, Amie believes in starting fast, digging deep and ending strong, so clients gain both immediate impact and long-term sustainability of enhanced leadership abilities and skillsets. She works to build trust and connection quickly and focuses on an individual’s most critical, high-value, and personally meaningful topics. By cultivating self-insight, she helps her clients think practically and strategically about their development. She is known as a leading expert in the use of personality assessments and has an affinity for gaining insight about individuals using multiple assessment tools. This enhances her understanding of the whole person, which grounds her approach to coaching. Utilizing an action/reflection cycle, she supports individuals acquiring and applying new behaviors in novel ways or situations. Then, she extracts maximum learning by facilitating reflection on the effectiveness of those actions, continuing to hone behaviors, and encouraging clients to stretch to the edge of their comfort zones.

Over her career, Dr. Rowe has held leadership positions within several large organizations, has served as a consultant for several management consulting firms, and successfully founded and managed her own independent practice. Her work spans multiple industries, with particular focus in healthcare, energy and utilities, consumer products, retail, financial services, non-profit organizations and state governments. Clients have included the Molson Coors Beverage Company, Walmart, the Henry Ford Health System, ProMedica, Duke Energy, and Deloite.

Shahid Mufti, MBA

Executive Recruiter

Shahid Mufti is an executive recruiter with industry expertise within Healthcare, Higher Education, Non Profit, Logistics and Transportation, Project Management, Sales and Marketing, Accounting, Finance, IT, and Government. Shahid obtained his MBA from Eastern Michigan and lives in the suburbs of Detroit. Outside of work he is a passionate Detroit Lions football fan.

Parker Sanders

Executive Search Consultant

Driven problem-solver and leader that is never satisfied with the status quo. Before joining Spirit Consulting as a Junior Consultant, Parker graduated from Bucknell University as an Economics and Political Science double-major, with an additional minor in English. Now working as an Executive Search Consultant, he is constantly seeking to achieve higher levels of success for himself, Spirit Consulting, our clients, and the talented individuals we seek to place in new and exciting roles.

Jason Haslbeck, MA

Executive Recruiter

Jason Haslbeck is personally invested in every search he conducts. He has over 20-years of executive level business development experience and a strong sourcing background in multiple industries.

Jason graduated from Lynchburg College in 1997 with a degree in Marketing and was an honorable mention All-American athlete. Originally from Baltimore, Jason lives in Southern PA with his wife, Hope and son, Hugh.

Jason and his wife are Co-Founders of LoveGod which is a fully self-funded Christian ministry that provides humanitarian aid and spiritual encouragement to people in their local community.

Rob Klein, MA

CEO, Klein Partners

Russ Pratali

Executive Director, River of Light

Having missed our flight from Rome to Yugoslavia, we assumed we would return to the US with all our young people and adults traveling to this sacred site. My daughter heard that Mother Theresa was approaching our area of the airport, so we had the honor to meet her and asked for her prayers to help us make another connection. She was true to her word and asked us to pray for her journey as she prayed for ours. After her miraculous visit, we were able to make another flight and complete our journey. Meeting Mother Theresa inspired me for the rest
of my life to want to imitate her devotion to the poor.

On our return to Chicago, our Medjugorje pilgrims help establish the John Paul Eucharistic Adoration Chapel for the Missionary Sisters of Charity in Chicago at 18th and Allport Streets. One day, I was asked to help deliver large boxes of cookies to those sisters. As I observed the humility of these Sister serving the poor in the Soup Kitchen, I knew that the needed more than cookies. Soon after that time in 1989, I became certified to delivery fresh meat, produce and other grocery items from generous donors like Mariano’s and Trader Joe’s grocery stores. Using my car and a truck with a volunteer staff we began River of Light, twenty-five years ago, our mission began to serve the soup kitchens, food pantries and Veteran Centers in Chicago with food, furniture and other items they request.

Today, River of Light delivers food six days a week to over 25 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters around the Chicagoland area in the poorest neighborhoods. Mother Theresa gave me a blessing that fateful day in the airport and it transformed my life forever. I have never turned back from the mission to serve the poor. Mother Theresa is our patron saint who blesses the work we do every day while serving those in need.

“Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.”
– Mother Theresa

Julie McDevitt, MA, LCPC

Director, Grace Integrated

What makes my work is effective is my personal journey.  My experiences as a mother of four, and wife of 11 years lends itself to being very relatable. Family life is definitely a journey with a lot of unexpected twists and turns.  Nothing prepares us for the self-sacrifice, continuous demands and busyness that comes with the transition to family life.  As a result, many of us find ourselves running from thing to thing while losing ourselves and our purpose in the shuffle.  You are not alone.  Therapy is a quiet and safe space to reflex on your purpose of life, where it may have got off track, and how to get back to living with intention.  We can work on the past for the purpose of making a wondrous future.  You are worth it!

Angela Chang, MS

Organizational Development Principal

Angela achieved a Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Sciences from UC Irvine and will graduate in December 2021 from Northwestern University with a Master of Science in Learning and Organizational Change Management.

Having worked for organizations such as Hulu and Resources Global Professionals, she is excited to serve as a resource to your organization in assessing and evaluating all-star executive talent.

Margaret Douglas, MBA

Organizational Development Consultant

Margaret is a trusted advisor and results-oriented leader with thirty years experience in talent development, relationship building, management consulting and executive coaching. She provides executive coaching and I/O psychology consulting to Spirit Consulting clients and stakeholders.

To complement her work at Spirit Consulting, Margaret designs and facilitates leadership workshops, courses and retreats for The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She currently directs the Leadership and Effectiveness and Development (LEAD) course for working professionals and previously led their Booth Women Advance program.

Previously, Margaret held Senior Vice President and Managing Consultant and positions at Leo Burnett, Digitas and Gemini Consulting. Her responsibilities included relationship building, business development, service design and results management.

Margaret holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School and an Organizational & Leadership Coaching Certification from Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy.

Colin White, MS, JD

Organizational Development Consultant

Colin began his career as a litigation attorney, representing everyone from police officers to Fortune 100 companies. He decided to pivot careers and earned a Master’s in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University. It was at Northwestern that he coached a team of high potential leaders. He loved the connections he made with his clients and the positive impact each one-hour session had.

Colin then worked at a Fortune 100 company as a lead consultant tasked with helping leaders and teams be more effective. There, he coached leaders, designed workshops and led change management initiatives. He uses a data-driven approach, coupled with pragmatic tools and techniques to help leaders and teams work more effectively together and deliver greater value to their customers.

Colin holds a B.A. in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis and a J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. He is a certified practitioner in Human Centered Design.

Christopher Max Gomez, MBA

CEO & Executive Search Consultant

Christopher Gomez is a consulting professional with fifteen years of industry experience. He currently serves as the leader of the Executive Search service line and leads the firm’s operations as Chief Executive Officer. Christopher has earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Illinois and Master of Business Administration from DePaul University.

Christoper is committed to finding your all-star executive. He understands the value of relationships with his clients; and is timely while staying true to his word. Chris has seen how other consultants don’t follow through with their promises and don’t treat their clients like family. This is why he is determined to serve his clients no matter what it takes.

In recognition of his accomplishments as the CEO of a leading Minority Business Enterprise (MBE), he was honored in 2020 as CEO of the Year by CEO Monthly and a Top 40 under 40 by Negocios Now.

Choosing to work with Christopher will allow you to get back to the work you love while he takes care of your imperative search and finds your all-star executive.

Daphne Smith, PHD

Industrial & Organizational Psychology Practice Lead

Daphne possesses significant experience in talent attraction, recruitment, behavioral and competency-based interviews, talent assessment, and selection. She is also experienced in leadership and management coaching, cultural coaching, onboarding programs, workplace diversity and inclusion, retention, and job analysis, in addition to organizational needs assessment. Additionally, Daphne has an effective mix of organizational effectiveness, organizational cultural audits, change management, workforce engagement, and employee satisfaction.

Daphne has experience working in a multitude of industries, including corporate, higher education, healthcare, nonprofits, and cultural institutions, and she has held various positions from recruiter, human resource business partner, corporate talent acquisition manager, regional talent manager, diversity and inclusion director, and industrial and organizational psychologist.

Daphne’s entrepreneurial experience has provided a strong foundation that allows her to engage and build alliances with management and leadership in change management environments to gain buy-in and commitment to execute on talent management strategies in order to improve organizational effectiveness and performance.

During her time working at DePaul University, Daphne retained DG&A and partnered with Christopher Gomez on various search assignments, and the seed of their relationship was planted. Most recently, that seed has blossomed as Daphne and Christopher have implemented and made progressive improvements in hiring processes through their Executive Search and IO Psychology work at Duke University Health System.

Daphne holds a Master’s of Arts in Industrial Organizational Psychology from Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL. In addition, she has earned a Masters of Jurisprudence & Employment Law from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Since 2016, Daphne has been working to complete her education by obtaining a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Northcentral University.

Jill Geehr, PHD

Work Psychology

As a consultant to both organizations and individuals, Jill has provided a wide variety of human resources services to a range of industries. She has been a human resources executive with a fortune 500 company, an assessment and career consultation firm, and has been the President of her own HR consulting firm. Additionally, she has served as an adjunct professor at Tulane University, University of North Florida, and Flagler College.

Jill has presented several papers at events including: HR Florida, Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and Treasury Management Association. Her knowledge of human resource best practices is sought for group meetings as well as organizational planning retreats. She is constantly looking for opportunities to improve best practices in human resources management.