We understand the value the right individual can bring to a business, but that it takes more than pure talent for great things to happen. An appreciation for team dynamics and personal motivations has always guided our approach, knowing that extraordinary careers aren’t always drawn in a straight line.
Open minds are rewarded.
We begin with an honest (and sometimes challenging) conversation to foster dauntless thinking and reimagine opportunity. It lays the foundation for meaningful and long-lasting connections – a fuel for business success, individual fulfillment, and for Wert&Co. itself.
We pair our broad, deep, and diverse network with rigorous research and a strategic intuition honed over decades. We work nimbly but never hastily, approaching complex assignments with creativity – each search is tailored to the task at hand.
Our Team
We seek partnerships and conversations with individuals who believe, as we do, in the power of creativity and innovation.
Judy Wert
Judy has been working with the leadership of innovative companies for over 25 years. She has earned an international reputation as a pivotal force in executive search. A trusted authority in the world of design and business, Judy is also known for bringing an added dimension to her work—a humanistic approach—fostering deep relationships through empathy, intuition, and curiosity.
Judy regularly speaks on the subjects of work and career, recruitment, and design. She has been profiled by Fast Company, interviewed by Fortune, Reconsidering, High Resolution, and Design Better.
Beginning her career as a graphic designer, holding a BFA from the University of Michigan, Judy is able to approach her work with an intimate understanding of what drives the creative mind.
An individual’s career and a company’s organizational growth are so mutually dependent…
Jeff Wert
A co-founder of Wert&Co., Jeff oversees business strategy and day-to-day operations, including legal, HR, and finance. From this vantage point, he provides crucial support and counsel to clients, candidates, and employees at key inflection points throughout their careers and personal lives.
Prior to Wert&Co., Jeff served as a Resident Chaplain at several hospitals, including Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. His unique background has helped lay a foundation for the company’s signature approach, ensuring Wert&Co.’s organic and collaborative methods are consistent end-to-end.
Jeff holds a BA in Economics from Northwestern and Tufts University and worked at the American Stock Exchange before obtaining a Master’s Degree in Hebrew Literature and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.
Enjoy complexity and embrace ambiguity!
Nadya Karyo
Having joined shortly after its founding, Nadya is the anchor of Wert&Co.’s process and architect of its proprietary systems. Nadya leads the company’s research, business intelligence, and strategy practice, ensuring Wert&Co. is proactively identifying emerging and established talent and trends across sectors.
With over 25 years of experience, Nadya’s sharp, and time-earned instinct adds an invaluable layer to a fluid and holistic discovery process. Her contributions are crucial in helping Wert&Co.’s clients calibrate and refine search objectives.
Before joining Wert&Co. in 1998, she worked on high-profile litigation at the law firm Chadbourne & Park. She holds a BA in Sociology and American Studies from Wesleyan University.
Design and art are not the same things. Designers can be as critical to a business as an MBA or a software engineer.
Daniel Wert
Daniel joined Wert&Co. in the spring of 2021 to expand its offering into new frontiers within the broadening category of Design.
With an intimate understanding of venture-backed start-ups, Daniel has developed expertise in recruiting at scale, executive search, and in the people operations that hold businesses together. He has spent the last decade in-house, building companies, managing cross-functional teams, and coaching executive leaders to better understand the value of both people and design.
Owing to the breadth and depth of his experience and interpersonal approach, Daniel has proven himself a gifted judge of character. He helped Docker grow from an open-source project to an enterprise brand name; and, as the first employee at Anchorage, founded an inclusive culture of recruiting from the start, managing their growth from 0-1, through Series-C, and to over 150 people around the world.
A native of New York City, Daniel now lives in Oakland and holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Colorado.
Empathy, an often misunderstood and underappreciated trait, drives connection and requires a keen ear for listening.
Leigh Kader
Leigh has been responsible for developing and supporting the flow and efficiency of Wert&Co.’s knowledge management and methodologies, its strategy and research, and its culture of information sharing for over a decade.
The breadth of detail requires an exemplary level of care and a nimble touch, which Leigh first earned from her work as a consultant in high-end art framing and conservation, and later as an arts administrator for The Willem de Kooning Foundation. In addition to her long-standing commitment to Wert&Co., Leigh is also an experienced childbirth educator and birth doula.
Leigh holds a BA in Art History from Barnard College and recently relocated back to her home state of New Mexico.
The mess is where the magic is.
Stacy La
Stacy joined Wert&Co. in 2022 to further our core executive search business and expand our mission of coaching entrepreneurs and design leaders.
Stacy has spent the past decade as a product designer and design leader, building products and teams at venture-backed startups, design agencies, and non-profits. Before working at Resolve to Save Lives on the US Covid Response, she was the Founding Designer at Clover Health.
She is also an active angel investor and advisor to early-stage startups. Stacy not only brings to Wert&Co. an intimate understanding of design recruiting, 0-1 product development, and business strategy, but a unique empathy and reverence for the design and creative communities we serve.
A Seattle native, Stacy holds BAs in Journalism & Political Economy and an MS in Human Centered Design & Engineering from the University of Washington.