Spotlight: Drew Dawson on building a career in executive search

Drew Dawson earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting before choosing a career in executive search. According to him, the highly skilled and growth-minded professionals he met through his search work offered a more appealing atmosphere to grow his career, and he now has over six years of experience in the recruiting industry.

Upon graduating from the College of Saint Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, Drew began working as a recruiter and placed individuals across the finance and accounting industry. Now, he focuses on placing corporate development talent across the chemicals and industrial manufacturing spaces.

Drew grew up in southern Minnesota. Despite attending school in the northeastern region of his home state, the Midwest-native jumped at the chance to move south. After college, he landed in Denver to grow his career in executive search.

On the personal side, living in the southwest offered a myriad of opportunities for outdoor recreation, including golf, which Drew passionately pursued after working hours. But the career recruiter eventually found himself on assignment in Nashville, where he subsequently stayed and still remains after five years. With a solid mix of outdoor recreation, golf courses and city life, Drew is now one of three Charles Aris team members who call Tennessee home.

In fact, Nashville resident and practice leader Diane Fedor initially connected with Drew and brought him into the Charles Aris Corporate Development Practice with the help of Managing Director TJ Deal in 2022. Bolstered by his previous experience as a recruiter, Drew joined Charles Aris as a senior associate practice leader and quickly got to work planning out his focus area in the chemicals and industrials spaces.

Drew says he was excited to join Charles Aris because his new role would allow him to focus on target profiles in a niche industry, as opposed to working on multiple searches for a wide variety of roles and organizations. Previously, Drew completed searches ranging from accountants to general managers across business sectors. Now, the senior associate practice leader is beginning to exclusively focus his recruiting efforts on finding and placing directors, vice presidents and head of corporate development candidates to lead M&A activity in industrial organizations. Having grown up in a blue-collar environment, Drew says he enjoys connecting with industry leaders who have a passion for growing businesses in this sector.

As he grows his own career at Charles Aris, Drew is excited to continue building out his search capabilities and still spends his free time on the golf course. While Nashville hosts a fair amount of golfing options to explore and Drew is happy to live in a warm(er) climate than his home state, he’s always interested in exploring new parts of the country such as Arizona or Florida.

If you’d like to learn more about our search capabilities or talk about your career path, call/email Drew Dawson at (336) 217-9141 / drew.dawson@charlesaris.com.