John J. Keller specializes in CEO, C-level executive and board recruiting primarily in the technology and communications sectors. A core member of the firm’s global Technology Communications & Media and Private Equity practices, John coordinated the firm’s technology and communications activities for two years. He also led the firm’s telecom business through a period of unprecedented change, including the digital transformation of the global sector, and became a specialist in major management and cultural turnarounds.
John has led and/or directed more than 300 recruitments for companies, ranging from large multinationals to smaller companies and private-equity, venture-backed enterprises. He has recruited CEOs and senior executives for major clients, including WorldCom (now MCI), Tyco, Motorola, NCR and Hewlett-Packard as well as dozens of mid-size and early-stage companies. John also played a founding role in building the firm’s confidential intelligence/management assessment business, Spencer Stuart Strategic Leadership Services®.
Prior to Spencer Stuart, John spent 25 years as an award-winning business and technology industry journalist. For The Wall Street Journal, as a senior writer and news editor, he helped guide science, health and technology coverage of topics ranging from AIDS to advanced technologies and the Internet. For BusinessWeek, he was a writer and ran telecommunications industry coverage. As a journalist, he chronicled the telecommunications industry's competitive transformation and digital revolution, the global industry consolidation, high-stakes boardroom shakeups and the epic commercial battle for China. These stories won the top awards from the American Society of Newspaper Editors and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers. Additionally, John was twice nominated by The Wall Street Journal's editors for the Pulitzer Prize. He is a graduate of Baruch College in New York.