Altair’s foundations were built on a legacy of excellence in the Minneapolis search market. After beginning his career in professional services and business advisory, Shawn Woessner joined Woessner & Associates in 2005, partnering with his father to build one of the region’s premier boutique firms.
Their reputation for delivering best-in-class C-suite leadership led to the firm’s acquisition by a Top Ten global search firm in 2010. Following the acquisition, Shawn was tapped to lead the firm’s Minneapolis office, eventually spending thirteen years as a senior leader across two of the world’s largest search organizations.
Shawn founded Altair to integrate global sophistication with the high-touch accountability of his boutique roots. While his pedigree includes serving the Fortune 100, he focuses on partnering with small- and mid-market organizations, family-owned businesses, and private equity firms. In these environments, a single leadership hire has a direct and profound impact on enterprise value.
We believe success is not just about finding elite talent; it is about meticulous alignment with your business strategy and culture. At Altair, we have eliminated the structural gap often found in larger firms, where the partner who initiates the search hands the execution off to junior associates.
At Altair, your search is managed with absolute continuity. Shawn remains personally immersed in every phase of the engagement, from the initial strategic intake and original research to the final negotiations. By performing the sourcing and candidate generation directly, we ensure no nuance is lost in translation. This hands-on approach allows us to provide unfiltered market intelligence and a slate of candidates who do not just meet requirements, but embody your strategic vision. When you hire Altair, the expert you meet is the expert doing the work.
In the constellation of Aquila, known as “The Eagle,” the brightest point is the star Altair. Just as it has served as a navigational beacon for centuries, we chose the name to represent our mission: a relentless, precision-focused search for the most luminous leadership talent. In an increasingly complex marketplace, Altair serves as a guide for organizations seeking the clarity and talent necessary to soar.
Mission
At Altair, our mission is to provide high-stakes retained search consulting for organizations that require transformative senior leadership. We emphasize the word consulting because we believe search is a continuous strategic dialogue. We are seasoned business advisors who perform executive recruiting – not recruiters who merely fill roles.
To ensure the highest level of quality and timeliness, we intentionally limit the number of engagements we accept. This allows us to provide each client with the senior-level attention and rigorous execution their search deserves.
Core Values
Our counsel-to-management is governed by a commitment to:
For over twenty years, Shawn Woessner has led and executed senior-level, national search assignments. He has completed numerous Chief Executive Officer and functional head searches across a broad spectrum of disciplines, including engineering, finance, human resources, information technology, legal, operations, and sales & marketing.
Prior to founding Altair Executive Search, Shawn was a Managing Director within two Top Ten global search firms. During this tenure, he served as a strategic partner across the Agribusiness, Consumer, Finance, Industrial, and Private Equity practices. He began his career as a Certified Public Accountant at Arthur Andersen before holding accounting and finance roles within industry.
Shawn received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame and Master’s degrees in Business Administration and Human Resources and Industrial Relations from the University of Minnesota. He resides in Mendota Heights, Minnesota with his wife, Angela, and their two children, Carter and Lauren.
Keri has more than a decade of executive search experience leading C-suite and senior-level recruiting efforts for a variety of executive roles across a multitude of industries. Before becoming an Executive Search Independent Consultant, she led research and recruiting for three top ten global executive search firms with successful executive placements for public, private, and private equity clients, from early-stage startups to multinationals.
Prior to executive search, Keri worked as a recruiting/staffing consultant for Verizon Wireless, a Career Management Consultant for Right Management, and in corporate management positions in sales and operations at Verizon Wireless.
Keri received a Bachelor’s in Communications from the University of Michigan and a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from Eastern Michigan University.
