Magellan began 25 years ago to focus on better ways to accomplish executive search in Houston, Texas, in the professional services industry.

Human resources manager conducting job interview with applicant in office

Specifically, the firm reframed the search process by addressing two critical needs: completion of search and persistence of fit. Early on we learned our clients make money by keeping and cultivating people, not just by hiring them. We also realized that persistence of fit is improved immeasurably by empowering our candidates to move beyond taking jobs and towards owning their careers, before they interview with our clients.

Human resources manager explaining with applicant in office

To accomplish these goals, Magellan developed what we call a Market Credible Search Process, which is aimed at two outcomes:

Enabling clients to control the growth and excellence of their businesses

Talent Acquisition →

Empowering candidates to get control of their careers

Career Compass →

By acting as a trusted advisor to both clients and candidates, we leverage our deep experience to build long-standing relationships and facilitate strategic placements that are persistent.

Proven results

  • Magellan measures its completion rate based placements per retainer – on average Magellan makes 2.2 placements for every retainer we engage in
  • Our candidates stay on average 5-7 years, as opposed to the industry standard of 22 months
  • We have helped generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for our clients through our strategic placements
  • We have worked with all of the top 40 consulting firms

Why Choose Magellan

Why Magellan Succeeds

Our Results fuel our passion for success:

  • 95% Completion Rate
  • 75% Candidate Promotion Rate
  • 4+ Years Retention
  • 2.2 Candidate Placements per Search
  • Our People are our most important asset. To see our team link

Our process supports our people’s success and our clients’ results. Over the 30 years, we have done retained search, and we have evolved our Market Credible Search Process framework. Each professional we hire or affiliate we work with is trained in this framework. For a fuller description of the Methodologies and Processes that follow along with this Framework, please click here.

We achieve these results with our Market Credible Search Process training for each team member. The following diagram defines our culture:

talent acquisition chart

Meet the Team

Our passion for excellence and growth encompasses the Magellan culture.

Our clients choose us as partners to help them establish and grow practice areas and geographies, and candidates seek our help to navigate their career opportunities. We are headquartered in Houston, Texas with offices in New York and London.

a group of applicant talking

Meet the Team

Our passion for excellence and growth encompasses the Magellan culture.

Our clients choose us as partners to help them establish and grow practice areas and geographies, and candidates seek our help to navigate their career opportunities. We are headquartered in Houston, Texas with offices in New York and London.

Jonathan H. Phillips

Jonathan H. Phillips CEO and Founder

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Jonathan H. Phillips

Jonathan H. Phillips CEO and Founder

Jonathan founded Magellan International, LP in 1993. He works with many diverse clients in the professional services sector including: General Management Consulting, Turnaround Advisory Services, IT Services Firms and building Consulting Services within operating companies. For these clients he has performed searches in multiple industries, such as: Upstream Oil & Gas, Downstream Energy, Chemicals, Pharmaceuticals, Consumer Packaged Goods, High Tech and Retail.

Prior to Magellan, Jonathan worked for Shell Oil Company. During his tenure at Shell Jonathan served in various Engineering, Research & Development, Product Management, and Planning roles. He held positions as a refinery engineer, a research chemist, technical sales professional, a product manager, and a business manager before leaving to build Magellan.

Jonathan is an active member of The Petroleum Club of Houston, The Houston Technology Commission (HTC), The Greater Houston Partnership, and Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC). He was previously a member of Houston Area Association of Personnel Consultants (HAAPC). In 1998 he was honored as CPC of the year for the state of Texas. He served as President of HAAPC for two years and was a past Vice President of Arbitration for HAAPC, and its Director of Education and Certification for four years. He has also served on the Texas State Board (TAPC).

Jonathan holds a B.S in Chemistry and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia. He also holds an M.B.A. from the University of Illinois. In his free time, Jonathan enjoys fly fishing, cycling, skiing, and camping. He is a member of the Krewe of Thoth in New Orleans.

Marlie Merwin

Marlie Merwin Consultant/Recruiter

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Marlie Merwin

Marlie Merwin Consultant

Marlie is a Communications Advisor with cross-functional expertise in public relations and legal analysis.

At Magellan, she is responsible for business development, marketing, and public relations. Marlie is also in charge of planning Magellan’s quarterly charity event. Past events have raised thousands of dollars in kind and monetary donations for: Houston Children’s Charity, Texas Children’s Hospital, and local communities effected by Hurricane Harvey.

Prior to Magellan, Marlie worked at Rubenstein in New York City where she helped clients think through their most pressing challenges to build, advance, and protect their reputations with authenticity and integrity. She designed integrated campaigns that aligned organizational initiatives, personal activities, and communications with business goals to reflect what clients were trying to achieve.

Marlie holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Alabama and a J.D. from the Tulane University School of Law. Marlie an active member of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on the Breeders Greeters committee. She enjoys golfing and spending time with her family.

Jason Sanders

Jason SandersExecutive Director

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Jason Sanders

Jason Sanders Advisor

Jason Sanders has helped numerous consulting firms grow their businesses based on quality talent he has provided. For more than 20 years, companies turn to him when they need to make a critical senior hire or grow a practice.

He focuses on selling your organization and open role by drawing on deep market knowledge and consultative selling capabilities. This combination of skills will allow you to hire the best consulting talent available.

Jason offers two types of recruiting services: a traditional executive recruiting model and a cost-effective multiple hire model. If you are looking to hire more than one experienced consultant, you will want to learn more!

In addition to running his own business for more than 20 years, Jason holds multiple Master’s degrees and loves learning about new cultures and languages. He is fluent in Spanish and spends significant amounts of time in Colombia, South America.

John Furth

John Furth Advisor

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John Furth

John Furth Advisor

johnffurth@gmail.com

John specializes in developing and implementing innovative business models, marketing strategies and business development/sales improvement projects, while taking advantage of licensing, alliance and partnership opportunities to help his clients achieve their goals.

John has spent the past 25 years as an external and internal consultant, holding senior positions as the head of strategy groups at Hitachi Consulting, Discovery Communications, Sony Corporation and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants. He was the President & CEO of the Association of Management Consulting Firms (AMCF) before starting Furth & Associates. In 2015 John became Vistage’s Chair for Brooklyn, a role which allows him to draw on his experience and extensive network to coach and advise CEOs and business owners of NYC-based small and medium-sized companies.

He has spoken at the Harvard Club of New York City, the Waseda Marketing Forum in Tokyo, the National Press Club in Washington D.C., IBM’s Global Innovation Outlook, National Public Radio and in front of various trade groups and has been extensively quoted in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, American Banker, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Industry Standard, etc. John is a regular columnist with New York Daily News and blogs often on topics relating to management, leadership and strategy.

John received his MBA in Finance from the Stern School of Business at NYU and has a B.A. from Harvard College.

Carol Limperos

Carol Limperos Advisor

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Carol Limperos

Carol Limperos Advisor

Carol is fluent in the principles of business and leadership, grounded in 25 years of experience. She was a member of senior leadership teams in two public companies, then founded and managed a multi-million-dollar services firm, and now serves as an advisor and coach to senior executives, leadership teams, and organizations. Clients count on Carol for her business knowledge, intellectual honesty, creative thought partnership, and bias toward action.

Carol focuses on working with leaders to execute strategic change. She and her team bring organizational development, change management, planning, and team building experience to organizations. Her clients include the C-suite, managing partners, division leaders, functional heads, and rising stars across all functional areas. Industries served include management consulting, telecommunications, healthcare, technology, transportation, education, food service and distribution, manufacturing, venture-backed start-ups, not-for-profit, recycling, and financial services. Clients include United Healthcare, Hewlett Packard, Sysco, Bell Helicopter, Tenet Healthcare, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Waste Management, Alcatel-Lucent, Silver Ventures, CYMI, and Bar-S Foods.

Carol received an MBA from Texas A&M University and a BS from the University of Texas. She has completed numerous post-graduate leadership, facilitation, and coaching certifications.

Jim Uschkrat

Jim Uschkrat Advisor

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Jim Uschkrat

Jim Uschkrat Advisor

Jim has recently completed a 44 year career in Sales and Marketing with ABB Inc., and now joins our staff of advisors at Magellan International. Jim specializes in mentoring young sales/relationship management professionals who have gone on to successful and lucrative careers in their respective industries. He brings a wealth of real-world experience and insight to enable clients to reach their fullest potential in their chosen career paths.

He began his career with the Westinghouse Power Marketing organization. Initial assignments involved Account Management for sales of equipment, software and services to energy companies, including major operational projects for the power management.

Later ABB Inc purchased the power operations of Westinghouse, and Jim had several assignments in Houston working with major energy companies the past 30 years. Most recently, Jim led the marketing team to win the contract to provide the Smart Grid system operating the Houston metro area. His specialty was to craft long-term Alliance agreements with key clients to enable advanced technology deployment more quickly, beyond that possible in conventional competitive bid-award cycles. In 2016 Jim won the “Speed and Innovation” award for ABB Inc in North America, based on his work leading the marketing team of a Homeland Security project for CenterPoint Energy in the area of grid resilience technology.

Jim received his B.S. in Industrial/General Engineering at Iowa State University. In his free time, Jim volunteers for the Fort Bend Family Promise. He is also an avid cyclist and participates in a number of charity rides including the Tour Gruen, LBJ 30 and others.

Mike Griffiths

Mike Griffiths Advisor

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Mike Griffiths

Mike Griffiths Advisor

Over the last 30 years Mike has designed and led professional development to over 55,000 professionals in 450 organizations including the top 20 consulting, accounting and law firms and investment banks, 6 of the top engineering firms, most of the major energy firms and 41 of the Fortune 100. He specializes in strategic problem solving, business development and leadership.

Originally a professional violinist and pianist, Mike’s expertise and research focuses on how professionals achieve breakthrough results and create high performance cultures; combining the psychology of individual performance with the science of organizational change. His clients have achieved over $51b of additional profitability in part from Mike and his team’s involvement. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Coaching at Harvard Medical School and on the teaching faculty at Cambridge University’s Executive Education

Mark

Mark DayExecutive Director

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Mark

Mark Advisor

Mark practiced as an auditor with Price Waterhouse early in his career, and then progressed through a series of leadership positions in the firm’s internal recruiting group before joining a boutique retained executive search firm in 1999. He founded Olsen Day in 2011. Originally from upstate New York, Mark graduated cum laude from Notre Dame in 1981, where he overlapped two years with Joe Montana, and zero years with Rudy. He has served on the boards of directors of SouthWest Electronic Energy and SouthWest Electronic Energy Medical Research Institute. He currently serves on the boards of directors of the Norwegian-American Chamber of Commerce and A Child’s Hope.

Jacob

Jacob Beasley Recruiter

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Jacob

Jacob Advisor

Jacob is an Executive Recruiter with expertise in medical and high tech industries. At Magellan, he is responsible for: talent assessment and acquisition, client-candidate liaison, data analysis and management, project management, and business development.

Prior to Magellan, Jacob worked as a Digital Asset Analyst at a tech startup.

Jacob holds a B.S. in Biology with a concentration in Physiology from the University of Houston – Clear Lake and is a current MBA candidate at the University of Houston – Clear Lake. Jacob enjoys hiking and kayaking and competitive gaming with his colleagues.

Blake

Blake Phillips Recruiting Manager

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Blake

BlakeAdvisor

Blake is a Managing Recruiter with expertise in urban agriculture and supply chain. At Magellan, he is responsible for managing retained search projects for global clients. His project management activities include: building search strategies, conducting independent research, multi-channel candidate sourcing, and managing Executive and Partner level candidates through the hiring process.

Prior to Magellan, Blake worked at JSH Hydroponics where he helped with product cultivation, distribution, and supply chain logistics.

Blake holds a B.A. in Martime Studies from Texas A&M University. In his free time, he enjoys onewheeling and hiking. Blake is also in charge of Magellan’s quarterly gaming tournament.

Susie

Susie A. Uschkrat VP of Business Development

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Susie

SusieVice President of Business Development

Susie A. Uschkrat is a seasoned professional currently serving as the Vice President of Business Development at Magellan International, a position she has held since January 2024. In this role, Susan is instrumental in building strategic partnerships with clients, redefining the landscape of retained search, and emphasizing the longevity of professional matches over mere recruitment. Her approach is deeply rooted in nurturing our client’s talent acquisition and empowering our candidate’s careers.

Before her current role, Susan gained extensive experience at BMC Software, where she spent a total of 15 years. Her most recent position at BMC Software was as an Enterprise Account Manager, based in Houston, Texas. In this role, she played a crucial part in driving business development and facilitating the transformation of businesses into Autonomous Digital Enterprises.

Susan has also demonstrated her expertise in sales business development, particularly in workload automation, during her tenure at BMC Software.

Susan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communications with a major in advertising and a minor in Marketing from the University of Houston. She also served as an elected official of the Student Government Association at the University of Houston. Outside of her professional endeavors, Susan has been actively involved in volunteering for various causes, including Fort Bend Family Promise

This Could Be You

This Could Be You Join the Magellan Team

Contact Us →

How We Work

Market Credible Search Process
Framework

What We Stand For

At Magellan, our 25-year legacy in the professional services sector stands testament to our unwavering principles and dedication. Born in Houston, Texas, we transformed the landscape of retained search by prioritizing the longevity of a professional match over mere recruitment. Our ethos, deeply rooted in nurturing talent and empowering candidates, underscores every partnership and placement we foster.

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