Wheless Associates Becomes Wheless Partners, Announces Firm Expansion

Wheless Associates Executive Search has a new name and web presence, a new President, new partners, and a new Atlanta office.

Since the founding of Wheless Associates Executive Search in 1986, the firm has served to elevate the performance and market position of client enterprises in some 60+ industry sectors across the nation and globally, from Paris to Colombia to Riyadh to Copenhagen and beyond, providing strategic talent acquisition and executive search services to include Board of Directors, CEO and C-suite, and senior management.

Among its many recent successful outcomes, the firm led a comprehensive national Board Director search for Southern Company, resulting in the appointment of Larry D. Thompson, Chief Legal Counsel for PepsiCo, to the company’s board.

Regarding the firm’s strategic growth and plans for 2010 and beyond, Chairman and CEO Mike Wheless shared, “Our central objective continues to be the pursuit of differentiating, world-class, client-centric service. In the course of our planning process, firm partners adopted a fundamental core value, which we call Partnership. Partnership means that our firm’s activities will be relationship-driven, provide value and ROI to our clients, and be characterized by active listening, positive collaboration, servant leadership, and timely and accurate responsiveness to our clients’ needs.”

To advance its commitment to Partnership as a core value, the firm elevated its name to Wheless Partners, enhanced its online presence (www.WhelessPartners.com), and appointed Mabry Smith III as President and Managing Partner of the firm.

Smith has served as Senior Partner with the firm since 2003, developing a global executive search practice with clients in a number of industry sectors. Prior to Wheless Partners, Smith served as an advertising agency Account Executive, followed by a twenty-year career in business management. His additional leadership roles include service as Chairman of the Board of The King’s Ranch/Hannah Home Ministries, Rotary Club President, and Compass Bank Board of Directors.

“I am honored to have been selected President & Managing Partner in this exciting time of advancement for our firm,” Smith said. “Students of our industry are aware that when the executive search industry came into being several decades ago, most firms evolved into one of two types – the oversized firm or the specialty firm. Wheless Partners founded our firm on an entirely better business model to serve in the best interest of our client organizations. Some of our clients call it their ‘significant strategic advantage’ in the marketplace…we simply call it Client-Centric. Our approach is focused on bringing the greatest access to desirable candidates and the best process to make wise decisions, resulting in the most positive outcome by reliably securing for our clients the type of candidates who “fit” well with a client’s culture and consistently deliver returns on investment and long-term economic advantage to the client organization.”

To further evolve the firm’s mission, Wheless Partners announced the addition of new partners to lead various national and international initiatives on behalf of the firm, including:

Bill Joyner, formerly of The Huntsville Times, leads the firm’s Huntsville office and has been appointed as Managing Director for Technology and Defense;

Donna Herrin-Griffith, FACHE, healthcare executive and 2009 President of the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), appointed as Managing Director for Healthcare and Health Sciences;

Barry C. Vines, a marketing, sales and business leader who developed a multi-million dollar revenue base in the IT/IS industry serving Forbes Global 2000 companies, appointed as Managing Director, Global Technology;

Francois Blaudeau, M.D., J.D., FACHE, an OB/GYN and healthcare attorney, appointed as Managing Director for Health Sciences and Law.

The firm also announced the opening of its new Atlanta offices, located in the Southern Company / Allen Plaza building at 30 Ivan Allen, Jr. Blvd. NW, Suite 818, Atlanta, GA 30308 to add to existing operations in Birmingham, New York, Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Naples, and Huntsville.