About Us

Drinkwater Associates was founded in 1992 by Wendy Drinkwater after a successful career as Director of Research for the prestigious, global search firm, Korn/Ferry International (KFI). During Wendy’s tenure at KFI, she was responsible for name generation and reported directly to the CEO. Simultaneously, Wendy was accountable for candidate development and assisted the CEO and a number of partners successfully executing searches across a wide range of industries.

Drinkwater Associates conducts executive search engagements for-retained executive search firms, corporations, consulting firms, private equity, venture and start up organizations. Drinkwater’s team is highly experienced and includes expertise in many industries at all levels—manager through CEO, both nationally and internationally. Highly focused on outstanding quality and swift turn around at an attractive, economical price point,, Drinkwater’s services include candidate development, research, name generation, competitive intelligence, reference checking, target list preparation and search strategy. Drinkwater Associates will modify its services to meet the exact specifications required by each client and every client is a reference.

"Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to work with just about every major global search firm. In my experience Drinkwater Assocates has provided as good (if not better) results at a significantly better price point."

Austin Cooke / Head of Global Recruiting, Sapient (Nasdaq : SAPE) Head of HR & Global Recruiting, Vistaprint (Nasdaq : VPRT)

"As someone who is an operator and also active on a number of Boards, I have worked with Drinkwater & Associates to source and hire CEO's along with sales, marketing and technical people within a range of industries including e-learning, software, and medical manufacturing. I have worked with a number of firms, but none better than Drinkwater & Associates. Regardless of the task, they have consistently produced timely results well below the cost of other leading search firms."

Henry White / CEO Intac International

"Drinkwater & Associates was by far the most effective Executive Recruiting firm we have ever used. Wendy and her team were responsible for virtually all our Senior and Executive hires during our very high growth (100%/year) phase. They knew our culture and profile inside and out, lasered in on just the right people (who were happy and not looking) and sold them so effectively they would end up joining us. I can't imagine how we could have grown at the rates we did without Wendy and her team as our secret weapon."

J. Stuart Moore / Co-Founder (and former Co-CEO) Sapient Corporation

"Wendy and her team provided an invaluable service with costs coming in on time and under budget. I will continue to utilize Drinkwater Associates for all of my recruiting needs."

Captain Andrew Hammond / President, Marinerhelp.com

"I have worked with Drinkwater Associates for approximately 15 years. Wendy and her team have conducted at least 15-20 executive searches on a nation basis both for Brook and prior to that for S&H Greenpoints, my prior company. We continue to turn to Drinkwater for c-level search work for several reasons, primarily the quality of the work and the responsiveness to our need for highly targeted, personalized search work. The team at Drinkwater has always taken the time to fully understand the specific nature of the portfolio company in question and the specific attributes we are looking for in an executive. The vast majority of the searches have led to a successful placement. We also feel the pricing model has been effective for us as it allows us to simultaneously pursue a retained search with Drinkwater while continuing to mine our own network for potential candidates. I would whole heartedly recommend Drinkwater to any party with similar c-level search requirements"

Walter Beinecke / Partner, Brook Venture Partners, LLC