TEAM
JEFF LEOPOLD
MANAGING PARTNER
Jeff has over 17 years of experience in retained executive search. His practice is focused on serving private equity-backed enterprise software, tech-enabled services providers, and Health IT companies and his placements include board directors, CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and other direct reports to the CEO who head critical functions.
Before launching Burnham Root, Jeff held leadership positions at True, The Lancer Group, Cook Associates and CTPartners (formerly Christian & Timbers). Prior to his career in executive search, Jeff was a Partner at a Boston-based venture capital firm where he worked on deal sourcing and investing in early-stage enterprise technology and consumer internet deals. Early on, Jeff worked at Microsoft, where he helped launch Microsoft’s widely-used database product, Access.
Jeff earned his MBA at the University of Michigan. His long-time interest in human capital issues stems from a study he led during his second year at Michigan, which focused on how corporate culture serves as a growth engine in the Fortune 1000.
ASHLEY IRELAND
PRINCIPAL
For the last five years, Ashley’s professional focus has been on supporting private equity-backed technology firms to secure leadership talent. This came after a successful career in enterprise software sales.
Prior to search, Ashley spent more than 10 years in various Inside Sales and Field Sales roles selling software and related solutions. Her last sales role prior to search was at ExactTarget, a SaaS-based, omni-channel marketing solution, which was acquired by Salesforce in 2013. Prior to that role, Ashley spent several years working at Oracle and within the Oracle ecosystem, selling both infrastructure and applications software.
Ashley earned a Bachelor's degree in English Literature from Miami University. Over the course of her career, she has worked in San Francisco, Chicago, and NYC. For the last few years, she has been based in the Research Triangle Park area.