Mark HuYoung Receives ExecutiveBiz’s 2017 Top 10 GovCon Executive Recruiter Award

ExecutiveBiz is pleased to name Mark HuYoung, Managing Partner and Practice Leader – Investor, Board & C-Suite at NorthWind Partners, as a recipient of its 2017 Top 10 GovCon Executive Recruiters Award.

ExecutiveBiz spoke to senior leaders at some of the GovCon sector’s most notable firms to find out whom they turn to when they need to fill an executive position. In our conversations, those GovCon leaders offered us the names of 10 executive recruiters they believe “you need to know.”

Mark is focused on the global growth of NorthWind Partners and advises clients on critical human capital issues at the board and enterprise level. Mark is largely focused on partnering with private equity sponsors to build the board, c-suite, and senior leadership team in portfolio companies ranging from small business investment to large buyout. He has successfully led and completed over 475 engagements during his career. Mark provides counsel on pre-acquisition support, succession planning, leadership development, and organizational assessment/ integration/ restructuring. Mark is an active limited partner within technology, healthcare and real estate investments.

Prior to NorthWind, Mark was a Founding Principal of a top-ten retained search advisory in the healthcare industry. He also helped establish the technology and industrial practices for the southeastern office of a global executive search firm where he developed twelve Fortune 50 clients in an 18 month timeframe. Prior to this, Mark held management roles in corporate strategy and business development with a publicly traded media company, where he became the youngest director in the 50-year history of the company’s operations, and corporate development with a start-up software company. 

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ExecutiveBiz had the opportunity to catch up with HuYoung and ask for his perspective on the items candidates ought to consider when accepting a new position.

ExecutiveBiz: What are the top three items candidates take into consideration when accepting a new position?

Mark HuYoung: Familiar axioms regarding what fundamentally motivates one to make a career change often lean towards topics such as professional advancement or development, personal/familial/cultural equilibrium, or remuneration. These are indeed important and ever-present issues that factor into the decision to engage new opportunities. That said, after suitable compensation thresholds are overcome, especially from what I have experienced at the enterprise level and in board scenarios, the top three factors often shift to a set of motivators, for which I cannot take credit (that goes to Daniel Pink, bestselling author and former chief speechwriter for Al Gore), but earnestly concur. Pink argued in his non-fiction book, Drive, that to increase performance and satisfaction in individuals who work beyond basic mechanical tasks, these are the primary drivers that must be addressed:

• Autonomy: The desire to have control over one’s work and decisions that affect this work, which increases genuine engagement over compliance
• Mastery: The desire to get better at what one does and demonstrate these abilities in the professional environment.
• Purpose: The desire to do something that has meaning and is perceived as important. Entities that focus solely on profitability without valuing purpose will produce highly dissatisfied employees.

If investors, boards, and organizations can craft meaningful narratives around these motivators and demonstrate commitment that aligns appropriately and transcends rhetoric, the probability of attracting leading talent will increase considerably.