David Kimbro

David Kimbro has been in the executive search business for 25 years, having started with Korn/Ferry in Hong Kong in 1999.  Hired by the Office Managing Director, David worked across five industry practice groups: Technology, Financial Services, Consumer, Non-Profit, and Industrial.  David joined as a Research Associate and worked his way up to Partner level over 7 years in Asia (Hong Kong), Europe (France and Spain) and the US (Seattle). 

After Korn/Ferry, David worked as a Partner at the Laurel Group and a Managing Director at Herd Freed Hartz, two of the top search firms in Seattle, and then as a Partner with   Allen Austin, a national search firm based in Houston.    

In 2015, David founded Spexsearch and his first client was Coupang, the Korean ecommerce giant (NASDAQ:CPNG).  Next he landed Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and became a nationwide Preferred Provider. Since then clients have ranged from startups to large public companies across a range of industries including: Technology, Financial Services, Consumer, Industrial, Start ups, Computer Software, High Performance Computing, Crypto Currencies/Blockchain, Telecommunications, AI, Space, etc.

In 2020 David aligned with NextLevel to provide executive search capabilities.  NextLevel was a Seattle based firm that provided executive and board services on an interim, project and advisory basis.  In 2021, NextLevel was acquired by E78 Partners, a private equity backed national professional services firm based in Chicago.  E78 Partners delivers advisory, talent, and managed services that address the critical finance, technology, and transformation challenges faced by corporate leaders and PE sponsors across the middle market through Fortune 500 companies.
 
David holds a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from Washington College. He studied abroad in Mexico, England, and Spain and was a graduate fellow and the Lamone Entrepreneurship Scholar of his MBA class at the University of Maryland in College Park where he received his MBA degree in International Business.
 

Specialties: V and C level retained executive search and Board Director search

Interests include  technical scuba diving and auto racing.  He is fluent in Spanish.