Dean’s primary focus is creating long-term partnerships with B2B and B2C clients to foster comprehensive executive team build-outs at the Board, CEO, and C-Level. As an organization matures, Dean specializes in placing complementary general management, marketing, customer acquisition, revenue, go-to-market strategy / operations, and customer success leadership (CRO, CMO, COO, CCO); while also recruiting People leadership (CPO, CHRO, VPHR) that define, encourage, and reinforce company-wide behaviors and systems to catalyze growth and achieve scale. Long-term clients include B2B companies Snyk, BetterUp, Juniper Square, Checkr, Front, Lob, ServiceNow, DocuSign, Dynatrace, Collective Health, and Tricentis; and B2C companies NerdWallet, Robinhood, Credit Karma, MyFitnessPal, Outdoorsy, and SoulCycle / Equinox.
Dean was named to the Business Insider’s Top Ten Fintech Recruiters List (2021) and has been operating in executive search for over a decade. Prior to joining SPMB in 2014, Dean spent six years in the cleared public sector working with intelligence agencies in Northern Virginia and Maryland. Holding a clearance himself, he led a team, partnering with government subcontractors, to execute on a variety of projects placing senior technology leaders to support mission-critical, global deployments.
Dean earned his undergraduate degree in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania where he played varsity lacrosse. An active alumnus and member of the Alumni Interviewing Community, he founded and hosts an annual Penn golf outing in Northern California, The Quaker Classic. Dean also supports several Northern California charitable initiatives focused on mental health and youth services by hosting an annual event to raise awareness and contributions (Safe & Sound; The Edgewood Center for Children and Families; and the Hypopara Foundation).
What are you passionate about?
The outdoors — hiking, fly fishing, golfing. I am also an avid acrylic painter and have been since I was nine, my favorite subjects are wilderness landscapes and a variety of wildlife, although my top favorites are native trout.
Where have you traveled and where would you still like to go?
During college I spent six months abroad in Australia, traveling up and down the East Coast, spending the majority of my time in Sydney. It is one of the most diverse and uniquely breathtaking places on the planet and I would love to return to explore the rest of the country.
Who is your favorite author?
Whether it be his entertaining short stories, classical novels, or a biography about his life, Ernest Hemingway is one of a kind.
Which three words would you use to describe yourself?
Self-aware, resolute, and exuberant
What’s the most non traditional job you’ve ever had?
I spent a very long, exhausting summer working at a box cutting factory before college. I was responsible for transporting large amounts of cardboard to and from cutting machines, operating these machines, and creating bales of cardboard for recycling from the scraps. It was there I gained an enormous appreciation for the labors and intricacies of box making.