David J. Arnold

Dave is the Managing Director of Oak Hill Partners, a retained executive search firm, composed of six prior Senior Partners of the global firm Heidrick and Struggles. Dave has worked in executive search for over fifteen years, and has successfully completed over 250 senior level assignments with a success rate of over 95%. Although his work spans all industries and functions, he has specializations in the Consumer and Home Building industries, as well as the Human Resources function.

He has been retained by Fortune 50 companies as well as smaller organizations and private equity firms. The organizational breadth of his work spans from recruiting a CEO for a $2 billion consumer products company, to a Division Presidents for a $6 billion national homebuilder, to a VP Sales and Marketing for a $100 million specialty chemical company. A list of representative search work is available at www.ohpsearch.com/searches. His senior work in the HR function can be found at www.ohpsearch.com/hr.

Prior to founding Oak Hill Partners, Dave was a Senior Partner with Heidrick & Struggles for over ten years. While there he was a founding Partner of its Consumer Practice and Global Head of its Human Resources Practice. He also ranked in the top 15 consultants globally in client development on a number of occasions. He was profiled as one of 12 top search executives in the book, "Navigating Your Career" published by industry authority Hunt Scanlon in 2004. His marketplace intelligence gained from these searches has taken him into many of the most admired Consumer Fortune 500 Companies and most recently the large national homebuilders.

Before entering the search industry he held senior human resources positions for PepsiCo. Here as the Head of Human Resources for a $2 billion Division of PepsiCo, he worked with the President to drive financial performance through effective management of its human capital, and led its widely acclaimed talent management and succession planning process. Dave earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from Indiana University, and has completed most of his graduate work towards his MA in Organizational Psychology at Purdue University.

Some of his present and past larger clients include Thomson, Hovnanian, Bain Capital, EDS, Bausch and Lomb, Gateway, American Airlines, KKR, Becton Dickinson, Aetna, Putnam Investments, Merrill Lynch, General Mills, Nike, Starwood, Duracell, Time Warner, Putnam Investments, Forstmann Little, and Constellation Brands. The impact on the business of Constellation Brands and in the words of the CEO can be viewed at www.ohpsearch.com/constellation.

Laraine Petersen

Laraine serves as Account Executive and Director of Research for Oak Hill Partners. She is responsible for search strategy and candidate development.

She has 20+ years of experience in executive search, specializing in the Consumer Products and Homebuilding industries, as well as the Human Resources function across industries.

Laraine has successfully undertaken over 230 assignments in her search career. She has a completion rate of over 95%. Much of this work is at the C-level of organizations, for both large and smaller cap companies. She has placed COOs, CFOs, and SVPs of Marketing, Human Resources, IT, Sales and Operations.

Her years of experience provide her with a rich understanding of how to properly position the search on the phone with a potential candidate, to maximize their level of interest.

She understands the nuances of assessing a prospective candidate's true potential and make up. She works closely with the consultant and client, to define how best to the position the assignment, before going to the marketplace.

She holds both an undergraduate and M.S. in business administration.

Among other clients, Laraine has completed searches for Adidas, American Express, Cablevision, GlaxoSmithKline, J.C. Deaux, Moen, HNI, New York Times, Pactiv, Paychex, Pernod Ricard, Pfizer, Rexel, Simonton Windows, Timex, and Yoplait.