Executive Search

“We recently partnered with DeRonda Williams to support a critical finance leadership search, and I couldn’t be more grateful for her expertise and partnership throughout the process. DeRonda sourced and screened an exceptionally high-quality pool of candidates. We ended up with outstanding finalists, all deeply aligned with our values, culture, and organizational needs.

DeRonda was timely, responsive, and a true professional every step of the way. She brought clarity, insight, and efficiency to the process. Her ability to understand and reflect our unique context made all the difference. I highly recommend DGW Group and would jump at the chance to work with DeRonda again.”

“We recently worked with DeRonda in staffing our first Managing Director of Finance & Administration (CFO). DeRonda was such a delight to work with-- she was super knowledgeable, organized, and quickly attuned to our needs and interests in staffing this role. Early on in the search we referred to our ideal candidate as a "unicorn" because of we were looking for someone with knowledge and expertise that matched our unique blend of resources, values, and organizational priorities. DeRonda sourced an excellent pool of candidates that reflected our organizational values and culture, including the person we hired. She found us the unicorn we were looking for. I highly recommend DGW Group and look forward to a future opportunity to work with DeRonda.”

“DeRonda is exceptional, point blank. We have worked on many searches and DeRonda stood out with her deep understanding of the role, the thorough work she did to understand our organization and needs, and bringing high quality candidates to us. Her professional and preparation is bar none and she is not just a search firm, she is a coach, a champion, a steward - it is hard to find anyone in her league.”

“DeRonda managed our search for a new Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer within the past year and she exceeded all expectations by maintaining urgency, professionalism and efficiency. She worked closely with our team throughout the entire search and interview process. She was able to source a pool of qualified and diverse candidates that were the right fit for our organization. I highly recommend DGW Group without reservation and would work with her again if the need arises.”

“Much gratitude to DeRonda for leading and executing three executive team searches for Tides! DeRonda answered the call when we were first reached out to her in 2022 and has continued to help us grow and evolve. She has worked closely with our People team and I to define operational and finance executive roles that align with our mission/vision, justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) principles, and business priorities. All of this to say that DeRonda works well in spaces that are undefined, evolving and future-focused! DeRonda consistently and intentionally delivers a robust pipeline of diverse candidates and ensures that the search(es) is a good experience for the candidate and employer. While recruiting/searches can sometimes be an unpredictable, stressful experience, I am thrilled to say that partnering with DGW has been a pleasure.”

“DeRonda has been such an incredible resource for us at Wend. We are a workplace with unique ways of working, and DeRonda has always found a way to communicate what we do, and how we do it, in a way that makes sense to candidates; in turn, she has always found us candidates of extremely high caliber who were strong values and cultural fits for the organization. DeRonda has impressed me with the diversity of the candidate pool, the way she engaged me and my team through various searches, including the way in which the team was involved, but not "overburdened." She also was able to find us the right candidate when other searches for the same role ended up unsuccessful. I would absolutely work with DeRonda again and highly recommend others do the same.”

“DeRonda Williams was a Game Changer for my organization. Her experience in talent acquisition helped me to identify, hire, and retain top leaders, but her experience and service goes beyond talent acquisition. She helped me build systems for future hiring, redesign our organizational chart, and think through the toughest challenges. Her strength in systems thinking brought a complete overhaul in how we conducted all talent acquisition for our $25M organization. No detail or problem is too big or small for DeRonda to tackle alongside you. Many of the systems developed in collaboration with DeRonda are being used today nearly two years after our work together. In addition to exceeding expectations and contract objectives, she is warm and kind, brings an incredibly sense of humor and truly understands the people side of our work. I highly recommend working with DeRonda”

“We hired DGW Consulting Group to manage our search for a new Director of Finance and Operations and were thoroughly impressed by DeRonda’s approach. She worked with our team directly and created a highly talented, diverse pool of candidates we subsequently interviewed. Best of all, she identified capable professionals who would not otherwise have been on our radar and supported us through every aspect of the interview process and subsequent hire. I have used a range of search firms over the past ten years and DGW Consulting is among the very best. I especially appreciated that our team had full access to DeRonda rather than more junior associates and that she shared our urgency to complete the hire quickly so that we could cross train the new hire before her predecessor left. I recommend DGW without reservation.”

“We engaged DeRonda Williams to help us fill three critical finance positions at KIPP Austin. DeRonda took time on the front end to gain an understanding of our culture and the competencies required for each position. She presented us with a diverse and highly qualified pool of candidates. I would highly recommend DeRonda for her professionalism, sense of urgency, and overall understanding of the core competencies needed in leadership roles within a charter management organization.”

“DeRonda supported the Noble Network in hiring an experienced Chief Financial Officer. DeRonda integrated herself into our hiring process and worked with us at a rapid pace. We hired a strong CFO who has acclimated well to our culture, brought a wise leadership perspective to the table, and has proven to be a great teammate.”

“I would like to commend DeRonda Williams for an excellent job on a recent executive search (Chief Operating Officer) she conducted for Maya Angelou Schools/See Forever Foundation. This was a critical role for us to fill and it required a candidate with a unique combination of skills and experience. We received a great selection of high-caliber candidates who all proved to be very strong contenders in the interview process. DeRonda managed the search process effectively from the beginning to the final close, and closed the search in three months. I would highly recommend DeRonda for her professionalism, response time, and overall outstanding ability to understand and meet client needs.”

“In my role as SVP of Growth, Development & Policy at Rocketship Education, I partnered with DeRonda to help us fill a key leadership role in one of our expansion regions, the Regional Director of Nashville. We struggled to fill the role but DeRonda got it done within a matter of months. She is professional and a pleasure to work with.”

“BRICK engaged DeRonda to help fill a new role on our leadership team, Chief Operating Officer. Throughout the process, she was professional, easy to work with, and managed the search process effectively. DeRonda worked with a sense of urgency and presented us with a diverse and highly qualified pool of candidates. We hired a COO and were able to offer a Chief Strategy Officer role to another candidate from the pool. I've worked with recruiters in the past and SWORE never to work with recruiters again. DeRonda restored my faith in search firms. I only have one recommendation--- HIRE her ASAP!”

“DeRonda would be an asset to any organization - many, many talents.”

“DeRonda was truly amazing... Gradient Learning hired her to lead our COO search, which she led with incredible care and thoughtfulness. She helped us sharpen a vision for this important role, find incredible candidates from all across the sector, and then guided us through a selection process that yielded a fantastic COO. DeRonda made it all seem easy... as she brought her expertise and brilliance to every step of the process. She's now the bar by which I'd evaluate all other executive search firms.DeRonda was truly amazing... Gradient Learning hired her to lead our COO search, which she led with incredible care and thoughtfulness. She helped us sharpen a vision for this important role, find incredible candidates from all across the sector, and then guided us through a selection process that yielded a fantastic COO. DeRonda made it all seem easy... as she brought her expertise and brilliance to every step of the process. She's now the bar by which I'd evaluate all other executive search firms.”

“We partnered with DeRonda on the search for our first Chief Strategy Officer. We already had a few candidates in mind but wanted DeRonda’s help to broaden and deepen our talent pool. DeRonda quickly got up to speed on our needs, priorities, and no-go’s, and in a matter of weeks, she’d identified several excellent candidates we never would have found on our own (including the person we ultimately hired). DeRonda was there for us every step of the way, providing timely updates, excellent interview prep, and helpful advice as we made our way through final offer negotiations. We’re thrilled to welcome our new CSO to the team and we look forward to the next opportunity we have to work with DeRonda!”