Team

Hillary built Flatiron Health from 30 to 1000 employees in five years, working directly with the founders, leading all executive searches herself and building all hiring processes and operations along the way. She’s also spent time at top hedge funds, including Bridgewater and most recently Citadel, as MD, Global Head of Technical Recruiting. Search has and always will be where her heart is and she started this company because she wanted a search firm to exist that would serve the needs that were most pressing for her as an in-house recruiter.

Before joining Sterling Strand, Emily led Creative & Product recruiting at Squarespace, post series B to IPO, scaling those teams from ~20 to 200 in 3 years as the company grew from 650 – 1,350 FTEs. Earlier in her career, Emily led talent acquisition at rag & bone and joined as recruiter #1 where she scaled their HQ teams from ~100 to ~350 FTEs. Emily began her career in executive search placing VP through C-level leaders in global retail, luxury, and fashion businesses.

Chris has spent the last 10 years of her career hiring engineering talent in the San Francisco Bay Area. She started her career at Aerotek where she placed Software and System Engineers building communication systems for the DoD. She later went on to work for Tesla hiring a variety of hardware and software engineers building everything from the coolant systems in the battery back to the firmware in the door handles. Most recently she spent seven years at Netflix leading Engineering hiring, overseeing hiring for virtually every engineering organization at the company including Security, Platform, Content, Product, Data Science, CDN  and UI Engineering.

Chrissy began her career on the client side, working in the fashion, retail and lifestyle industries. She transitioned into executive search where she has nearly a decade of experience across full-cycle recruitment, research and agency operations. Prior to joining Sterling Strand Chrissy contributed to the growth of several boutique executive search firms where she was responsible for internal administration including hiring, training, workflow, research and strategy and planning initiatives.

Before joining Sterling Strand, Sarah was an Engagement Manager at Heidrick & Struggles where she worked with private equity firms to recruit senior investment professionals. Prior to executive search, Sarah spent 8 years in the finance industry, starting in investment banking at Goldman Sachs and then in private equity as an investor relations/fundraising product specialist at KKR & Co. and Apollo Global Management. Sarah earned her BA from Brown University with a double concentration in Economics and Political Science.

Tori Miller is an Executive Recruiter at Sterling Strand. Before joining the firm, she spent four years at Daversa Partners, most recently as a Senior Associate, where she placed executives across VP and C-level functions for clients including Saks, Aledade, A&E, Kira Learning, and CAA, spanning industries such as SaaS, Consumer, FinTech, Healthcare, and EdTech. She most recently served as a Senior Associate on the Product, Data, and Technology practice at True Search. Tori earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business.

Kelsey began her career in recruiting at Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, before joining AppNexus, a global ad-tech company, where she recruited for product and engineering teams in New York and later led hiring across EMEA and APAC from London. 

In 2019, she joined Jetty, a financial platform focused on making renting more affordable and flexible, when the company was just 40 people. Over the next seven years, Kelsey helped scale Jetty to 150 employees, building teams across product, engineering, go-to-market, finance, operations, and HR. She grew from Senior Technical Recruiter to VP of People, ultimately leading the entire People function and helping guide the company through a successful acquisition. 

Kelsey joined Sterling Strand to focus on the part of HR she enjoys most: building exceptional executive teams. She holds a BA in History from Boston College.

Julie is a Search Operations Manager at Sterling Strand, where she helps shape the strategy and research that underpin complex executive searches. Her work spans talent mapping, market intelligence, and developing thoughtful, targeted approaches to identifying exceptional leaders. Julie previously spent several years at Riviera Partners, supporting executive searches across the technology sector and developing deep expertise in talent markets and competitive intelligence. 

She brings a highly analytical and research-driven perspective to executive search, translating complex talent markets into clear, actionable search strategies. Julie earned an M.S. in Arts Administration and a B.A. in History of Art and Architecture from Boston University.

Jess has built her career at the intersection of in-house talent acquisition and retained executive search. She was Glossier’s first in-house recruiter dedicated to Creative and Marketing talent, building out those functions from Series B through D. 

She then spent five years in executive search at Flatiron Search Partners, a boutique retained search and talent advisory firm partnering with modern, high-growth, and PE-backed consumer businesses. 

Today, her focus and passion are identifying top GTM leadership talent across a range of industries

Sara Roberts is an executive recruiter specializing in leadership hiring for venture-backed technology companies. Before joining Sterling Strand, she founded Bayview Talent, completing 75+ placements across 21 startups in functions spanning customer success, sales, operations, marketing, product, and executive leadership. Notable clients include Gorgias, Rippling, HockeyStack, Owner, and strongDM. Sara brings an operator’s perspective on scaling companies alongside deep expertise in role definition, executive assessment, and hiring strategy.

Before joining Sterling Strand as an Executive Recruiter, Zane served as an Associate at True Search, where he successfully placed executives in VP and C-level roles across diverse set of industries (SaaS, AI, FinTech, Consumer, Hardtech, Energy, Defense, etc.)  He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Human & Organizational Development and Political Science from Vanderbilt University.

Before joining Sterling Strand as an Executive Recruiter, Julia was a Senior Consultant at Daversa Partners, a boutique executive search firm, where she placed executives across VP and C-level functions for a variety of industries (SaaS, Consumer, InsurTech, FinTech, Robotics, Frontier Technology, Defense Technology, etc.) She previously attained her Master’s Degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Sacred Heart University.

Lindsee began her career as an executive assistant in the government sector, where she supported officials through fast-paced, detail-driven work. She later launched her own virtual assistant business, partnering with small business owners and high-level executives to provide reliable, high-touch support. With a focus on building trust and easing day-to-day demands, she now works on the operations team, driving efficient search execution and managing the admin team that supports it.

Before joining Sterling Strand, Alicia spent over 6 years providing executive support and managing virtual assistant operations for multiple organizations. She specialized in becoming the trusted right-hand for overwhelmed executives, expertly managing complex calendars, confidential communications, and operational workflows that allowed leadership to focus on strategic initiatives. Her extensive experience includes partnering with C-suite executives and high-level entrepreneurs to streamline their operations and enhance productivity.

Kica has experience in sourcing for technical and non-technical roles. He started his sourcing & recruiting career more than five years ago, and has worked successfully with numerous companies in the EU and US.

Vasilika began her career as a Tax Consultant at PwC, before transitioning into executive search as a researcher in an agency environment. She later moved in-house to Slice, supporting hiring across the US and European markets. Prior to joining Sterling Strand, Vasilika has been working as an independent research and recruitment consultant, supporting global tech companies with talent mapping, sourcing strategy, and leadership hiring projects. Vasilika holds an LL.M. in Finance & Financial Law, as well as an MSc in Energy.

Maya is a seasoned search consultant with over a decade of experience in technical and executive recruitment. She specializes in sourcing top-tier talent across tech, product, sales, etc, supporting clients ranging from early-stage startups to enterprise companies across Europe and the US.

Caryl was a former full-stack software engineer who turned into talent researcher after discovering she had a keen interest in the field of recruitment and startups. She now has over four years of experience in identifying top engineering talent for reputable startups in the Bay Area and across US.