We are Norgay Partners
We are Norgay Partners
Managing Partner
Mary Gay Townsend
Managing Partner
Mary Gay is the Founder and Managing Partner at Norgay Partners. She has been in the executive search business for over 20 years and has executed hundreds of searches across secondaries, fundraising, private equity, investment banking, infrastructure, and other subsectors within the financial services industry. Mary Gay has previous experience building out recruitment divisions, and was a cofounder of a technology-based financial recruitment firm. Previously she was Managing Director at FSVS, where she responsible for all aspects of the search process, including new business development, search execution, as well as recruiting and training internal talent. Prior to FSVS, Mary Gay was at Rhodes Associates, a real estate-focused search firm, and Smith Hanley where she helped establish a new division in capital markets. She has actively participated on the boards of Breakthrough NY, a non-profit organization that transforms the lives of children through education, and is part of the Vestry Leadership at St. John’s Episcopal Church Cold Spring Harbor. Mary Gay graduated from The George Washington University and The French Culinary Institute.
LinkedIn Email addressManaging Director
Chandler Holbrook
Managing Director
Chandler is a co-founder and Managing Director at Norgay Partners. She is actively involved in business development, marketing, and search execution across the firm’s fundraising, investor relations, and asset management practice areas. Chandler has been in financial services recruiting since 2010 and has placed candidates across fundraising and investor relations, investment banking, investing, and operations. Throughout her career, she has been intricately involved in all aspects of her team’s growth initiatives, including new business development, marketing, search execution, and operations. Previously, she was a sales consultant for recruiting technology solutions. She graduated with a 4.0 cumulative GPA from The University of Georgia in 2009 and completed a postgraduate fellowship from Princeton University in Hangzhou, China.
LinkedIn Email addressManaging Director
Wendy Norton
Managing Director
Wendy is a Managing Director at Norgay Partners in Los Angeles, where she oversees our West Coast search practice. Wendy works across alternative investments placing candidates in fundraising, investor relations, investing, finance and operations roles. Her clients include public and private real estate companies, private equity firms, and investment banks. Before joining Norgay Partners, Wendy led the talent acquisition team at CIM Group, a real estate and infrastructure fund manager. There, she was involved in all senior level searches for the Investments, Investor Relations, Finance, Development and Asset Management groups. Previously, she worked in recruiting at the Westwood branch of Robert Half International. She graduated from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations with minors in French and Business. She studied at the Sorbonne while completing a semester abroad in Paris, France
LinkedIn Email addressDirector
Kylie Hart
Director
Kylie is a co-founder and Director at Norgay Partners. She helps lead Norgay’s private markets investment practice with a strong expertise in private equity secondaries, private credit, and private equity direct and co-investing. She also works with clients in recruiting investment banking talent across all levels. Kylie has been in executive search since Summer 2013, upon graduating from Hobart and William Smith Colleges with a degree in Latin Language & Literature. Previously, Kylie interned at Pershing, a subsidiary of BNY Mellon and a $1 trillion+ asset manager, in the firm’s Segment Marketing Division. Kylie also interned in Brussels, Belgium as an analyst at Harwood Levitt Consulting, a boutique management consultancy. Throughout her career, Kylie has been an integral part of execution teams and has driven marketing, account management, and research initiatives for multiple businesses.
LinkedIn Email addressSenior Associate
John Major
Senior Associate
John joined Norgay Partners in 2021 as a Senior Associate and is based in New York, supporting search execution across all firm practice areas. His focus areas include investor relations, real estate, accounting, finance and operations and has executed searches with private equity firms, investment banks, private wealth management channels and asset managers. John has worked on searches all across the US and has had the opportunity to work with clients in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas and Denver. Prior to joining Norgay, John oversaw Finance and Accounting searches at Atrium Staffing. John is a graduate of Clemson University with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and a minor in Business Management. John enjoys golfing in his spare time and plays to a +2 handicap.
LinkedIn Email addressCOO and CFO
Jamie Townsend
COO and CFO
Jamie currently oversees Norgay Partners’ Finance and Operations functions and acts as a Senior Advisor to the firm. Prior to joining Norgay, Jamie spent the majority of his career in equity research at SoundView Financial Group. At SoundView, Jamie started out in Institutional Sales and, during his time at the firm, went on to become Head of Sales, President, Portfolio Strategist, and, ultimately, CEO. Jamie left SoundView to relocate to Ketchum, Idaho and launch a small hedge fund. Upon his return to New York, Jamie joined C. E. Unterberg Towbin as Director of Research and Head of Institutional Sales and was later recruited to join Advest Inc. as their Director of Research.
LinkedIn Email addressExecutive Assistant
Meghan Lucas
Executive Assistant
Meghan joined Norgay Partners in 2022 as an Executive Assistant supporting our Senior Management team. Meghan assists in orchestrating the day-to-day operations, facilitates calendar management for client searches, and works closely within our marketing team. Prior to joining Norgay, Meghan was an Executive Assistant at Hunter Point Capital and Churchill Asset Management where she supported for the Head of Product Development & Capital Raising and IR team. As a scholarship athlete, Meghan is a graduate of Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science in Education.
LinkedIn Email addressManaging Director
Simon Nixon
Managing Director
Simon runs Carpenter Farraday our European partner and is responsible for all business development and client engagement with alternatives investments clients in Europe. He heads up the European product and sector coverage, and leads their Alternative Investments Division. He began his career working in the power industry, before shifting gears to work very successfully for other investment banking and technology search agencies. He founded Carpenter Farraday in 2006 to bring his own recruitment vision to life.
LinkedIn Email addressHead of Wealth & Asset Management
Gavin O'Donoghue
Head of Wealth & Asset Management
Gavin is one of Carpenter Farraday’s directors and has been with the firm since 2011. He leads senior appointments for asset management clients across a range of investment strategies. Gavin is also responsible for driving the growth and development of asset management coverage across Europe. Gavin has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Manchester.
LinkedIn Email addressHead of Wealth Management
Tom Upson
Head of Wealth Management
Tom is one of Carpenter Farraday’s directors and heads up the Wealth Management division. He moved across from commercial sector search to join us in 2009. He covers private banking and relationship management in the UK and other European jurisdictions and works closely with us in expanding our wealth, asset management, and alternative investments client offering in the US. He works with a wide range of institutions, including large US banks, traditional private banks through to private investment and family offices.
LinkedIn Email addressVice President
Michael Bergin
Vice President
Mike came onboard at Carpenter Farraday in 2017 to focus on sales, distribution, and investor relations projects across traditional and alternative markets, joining the firm from Alliance Bernstein’s client and consultant relations team. Before that he spent four years at PWC's aviation tax advisory practice. He’s a qualified chartered accountant with a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from University College Dublin.
LinkedIn Email addressIf you are a potential client, a candidate looking for your next role, or just have questions we would love to hear from you.