After more than fifteen years of ideation, collaboration, and adjacent partnership—we are thrilled to announce that Jamie Millard has officially joined Ballinger | Leafblad as a Partner.
Jamie brings extensive experience as the founding executive director of Pollen Midwest, where she transformed the organization from a $0 budget to $1.3M and a force for community impact. Under her leadership, Pollen became a vibrant hub for storytelling, connection, and social impact, reaching tens of thousands of civic leaders over the course of a decade. Most recently, she provided strategic communications consulting to Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, the state’s largest private philanthropy.
As a Partner, Jamie supports firm strategy, operations, and creative direction in addition to maintaining a portfolio of search engagements
In her new role, Jamie will support our firm’s growth and evolution as a trusted intermediary to boards, executives and leadership teams investing in highly participatory leadership transition campaigns. This moment represents more than just a new hire for us. It is an investment in the future of Ballinger | Leafblad’s executive search approach and vitality of our client community.
The future of good governance will require executive search partners who have built authentic and deep relationship networks built on transparency and trust in the exploration between candidates and the boards and leader(s) making a key hiring decision.
“Jamie brings outstanding knowledge of the nonprofit sector, reputational excellence, leadership skills, and operations execution. She will help us reimagine new types of search-related services and refine how we see ourselves in the search ecosystem.”
As the founding executive director of Pollen, Jamie’s experience is a rare asset in the executive search field. Her hands-on nonprofit leadership experience gives her a direct understanding of the challenges that come with building, scaling, and running a mission-driven social enterprise —as well as the complexities that surface during a leadership transition. Navigating her own leadership transition gave her deep insights into the necessary ingredients for succession planning and executive transitions. This will help her guide both candidates and clients with empathy and expertise in their own pivotal moments of change.
“Executive search isn’t just about recruiting, it’s about storytelling, network building, and accelerating career serendipity. Jamie’s skills as an entrepreneur, editor, writer, creative, and connector will bring new insights to our clients and candidates we support in our work.””
As we look to the future, we see Jamie—and the innate passions, leadership skills, and hard-won wisdom she brings with her—as a key part of the firm’s next chapter. Her presence on our team is already inspiring us to reimagine what is possible in the world of executive search, and we can’t wait to see what we’ll build together.
“I couldn’t be more thrilled to join Ballinger | Leafblad. Every day I’ll get to work alongside those navigating the liminal spaces between what was and what’s on the horizon as I support leaders, boards, and search committees through these transitory moments. ”
Contact:
Jamie Millard
Partner
jamie@BallingerLeafblad.com