Meet Amanda Bonnell, the head of the Women’s Leadership initiative and VP of Client Services for TriSearch, recognized as one of the nation’s top 30 recruiting firms by Forbes.

“A Dynamic Woman is a woman who is ‘of-service’ to her community, family and clientele,” says Bonnell. She describes the key characteristics of her leadership philosophy as service, empathy, visionary, gratitude, resilience, and most of all, listening and knowing that it’s the people that scale businesses. “I excel in understanding the leadership needs of my clients (PE & Family Office portfolio companies), that impact their growth goals, by focusing on aligning middle management to the C-suite and board, who are needed to execute their mission. Bonnell is truly a “talent visionary” in the PE and Family Office space.

Drawing inspiration from influential female leaders in fast-growing companies, Bonnell admires how they foster hyper-growth cultures needed to achieve goals, emphasizing their understanding that it is the “people” that impact the goals. Bonnell admires Elizabeth Browne, the managing director of GCM Grosvenor, for her track record of building entrepreneurial companies, as well as Allison Halpern, the COO and co-founder of TriSearch, for her ability to meticulously lead client projects with a smile. “Halpern is one of the main reasons I joined my firm. I wanted to ‘run’ with the best of the best, and TriSearch continues to be a recruiting industry leader greatly because of Halpern’s impact.” She is also inspired by philanthropy leaders, such as the founder, Sabrina Gracias, of ORTUS Foundation for mental health struggles in youth.

Chicago is the perfect city for her to be based in. “Being in the center of the country makes it easy to travel to my clients from the East to West Coast, South and North within hours,” Bonnell emphasizes. Her local community efforts include supporting St. Ignatius, the Lurie Children’s Hospital and Catholics Charities, serving dinners to those in need.