Leadership
Alice K. Benson
Founder & CEO
Alice brings over 20 years of executive search experience, working tirelessly for organizations going through change. She is known for her close trusting partnerships with clients and candidates, getting a great outcome for both.
Prior to founding Benson Executive Search, Alice was the President & CEO of Gatti & Associates. Alice drove the revitalization of the brand while growing the business and expanding its reach across the US. Before leading Gatti, Alice was with a UK based Life Sciences executive search firm with Alice driving the firm's penetration into the US market. Previous executive search experience included work in the Tech and Professional Services markets with a boutique and then a large multi-national executive search firm.
Her corporate experience included senior HR roles with companies going through significant change including BBN, Lotus, Bank of Boston and PTC. Alice serves as a board member of HRLF (Human Resources Leadership Forum) and the Weston Council on Aging and volunteers for Life Science Cares and Nevins Farm.
Stephanie Keefe
COO & Managing Director
Drawing on over 20 years of operations management experience in the financial services industry, Stephanie is committed to building strong relationships with clients and candidates to achieve value-added-partner solutions.
Before joining Benson Executive Search, Stephanie was an Executive Search Director at Gatti & Associates and was responsible for the search and placement of senior-level professionals across all industries nationally. Her prior financial services experience includes roles at JP Morgan Chase, Fidelity and Investors Bank & Trust in reporting oversight, compliance, product management and client relationships. Stephanie enjoys volunteering with her local Council on Aging.
Our Team
Bob McCarthy
Managing Director
Bob brings 20-plus years of experience in executive recruiting, employee communications, marketing and technology to the Benson team. Leveraging his experience working with HR leadership teams at transformative organizations, Bob joined Benson Executive Search to focus on bringing top human resource talent to the best brands across all industries.
Bob’s career began at Omnicom working with large global brands like General Electric, Honeywell and Biogen, where he led a team that built Biogen’s first career website. Bob was also part of the team that launched the web’s first job site, CareerMosaic — which is known nationally today as CareerBuilder.com.
Bob’s work in communications and technology led to leadership positions at J. Walter Thompson, where he built a national sales organization and Akibia, where he helped create new revenue streams by delivering IT and infrastructure support to growing sales teams at Sepracor (Sunovian) and Verizon. Bob later returned to Omnicom/Hodes to develop employer brands for Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Vanguard, Honeywell and Raytheon. He subsequently was recruited to join former clients at GattiHR.
Laura Gruber
Senior Recruiter
Laura has over 20 years of HR experience across a wide variety of functions including recruiting, performance management, talent planning, employee relations, employee engagement and organizational training and development.
Her unique blend of in-depth Human Resources experience spans the technology, finance, transportation and logistics industries. In a previous role at INTTRA Inc., Laura led a talent acquisition team to implement a comprehensive talent growth strategy.
Susan O’Leary
Senior Recruiter
Susan brings over 20 years of experience providing talent management solutions across a number of verticals, with a focus on human resources for the past three years. Susan joined Benson Executive Search to continue building strong partnerships that result in satisfied clients and candidates.
Susan's career started at Randstad, USA as a Regional Manager, overseeing some of their most successful information technology markets. After building a successful personal training business, Susan returned to the search industry with an HR firm.
In her free time, she enjoys watching her daughters play basketball and tennis and giving back to her community in a variety of ways.
Suzanne Solleder
Senior Recuiter
Suzanne is an experienced Human Resources Business Partner with deep experience in the financial services industry.
Skilled in talent management, compensation strategies, recruiting, HR consulting, and training and development, she brings her relationship management skills to achieve client-driven solutions. Suzanne is a strong HR professional with a masters focused in Human Resources and Organization Development.
When not helping clients find exceptional HR talent and candidates who are advancing their careers, Suzanne loves cheering for her children on the field hockey and lacrosse fields and vacationing at the beach with her extended family.
Vahan DerSimonian
Recruiter
Vahan is passionate about helping clients find top talent and assisting candidates pursue career advancement. He brings over 12 years of experience in talent acquisition solutions, recruiting, and leadership to Benson Executive Search. His recruiting career began with Randstad Technologies after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree in Management from Bentley University.
While at Randstad, Vahan was a multiple presidents club award recipient for his recruiting and leadership achievements. As a Recruiting Director he led a team of recruiters that were responsible for the search and placement of professionals across all industries, both locally and throughout North America. After a successful and rewarding career working in downtown Boston, Vahan recently relocated back to his home state of Maine to be closer to family. When he’s not facilitating a search for a client, or networking with Top-level HR professionals, he is most likely doing something outdoors.
Alice “Lucy” Jreige
Operations Manager, Search Associate
Lucy is the glue on the Benson team. She has jumped into the Office Manager role, providing stellar service to our clients and candidates, organizing us to run efficiently and smoothly and reinforcing the high standards that are expected from Benson Executive Search.
Before joining Benson, Lucy leveraged her MBA in a variety of customer-facing roles, solving complex problems.
In parallel to her on-going work at Benson, Lucy is the mother of three children and enjoys giving back to her community in a variety of ways with meaningful activities for her family.
Chris Winslow
Database Analyst
Christopher Winslow brings diverse experience in management, customer relations, sales, consulting, contracting and leveraging technology in these areas. Christopher excels as a creative solution finder, meeting needs and desires without compromising on quality or efficiency.
With a focus on communication and mediation, Christopher affects and influences his working environment with a calm and collected mind in the face of adversity, complex issues and differing mindsets.