Spotlight: Ginna Ronis on growing the Corporate Development Practice 

Ginna Ronis is an executive recruiter by trade, and she says the most satisfying aspect of her career has been helping build the organizations she’s a part of while developing authentic relationships with her candidates and clients.

Ginna joined Charles Aris Executive Search in 2023 as a senior associate practice leader. She’s spent most of her time in recruiting focused on roles in healthcare and life sciences, and she works remotely from her home in Phoenix. Before Charles Aris, she established the executive search offering with a national healthcare recruitment firm, and she’s excited to join the Charles Aris Corporate Development Practice as it’s poised for growth.

Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Ginna frequented Arizona to visit close family throughout her childhood. She eventually attended the University of Arizona Tucson and graduated with her bachelor’s degree in communication. After college, Ginna wanted to join a growing business with a solid career path, which is how she found her first role as a recruiter.

The healthcare recruitment firm she landed at had fewer than 30 total employees when she started. When she left 15 years later, it had grown to over 1,000. Some of her experiences in this organization included developing new markets and divisions to recruit top talent, including revenue cycle, health IT, ambulatory services and care management. In 2018, Ginna expressed interest to her CEO in building out the company’s executive search capabilities.

Working on more senior-level searches presented a greater challenge for Ginna, which she learned was one of the most enjoyable aspects of the job. According to her, the puzzle of matching the best people with the most opportune positions is the most satisfying part of her day-to-day work life, and the challenge is highly rewarding. Ginna worked in the executive search practice she built out for around five years, but towards the end of her 15-year career, one that she landed right out of college, she craved a new experience.

Ginna left the organization in good standing to join a retained executive search firm. She says joining a retained firm focused exclusively on senior-level roles felt like a natural step forward, and she could continue working in a similar industry, life sciences, while also gaining experience working with private equity and venture-backed organizations.

Recruiting for privately held life sciences organizations at their transformational stage gave Ginna a new perspective on executive search: She loved educating top talent on the vision behind her clients’ organizations. Ginna enjoyed this aspect of her new company because it allowed her to grow client businesses in the same way she helped her prior recruiting firm grow its executive search capabilities. The desire to help upstart something new has always been important to Ginna, which is why she joined the Charles Aris Corporate Development Practice in 2023.

Charles Aris has placed over 1,200 strategy and corporate development professionals since the firm built out this search vertical in 2003. In 2021, the firm officially established its Corporate Development Practice as a standalone entity. Since then, the corporate development recruiting team at Charles Aris has added three new practice leaders. Ginna’s wealth of healthcare and life sciences experience, coupled with her tenure in executive search for private equity and venture-backed businesses, meant she had the perfect combination of experience to join the team. Her dedication to clients and candidates, as well as the authentic relationships she seeks in her work, also made her the perfect cultural fit.

Ginna says she still sends Christmas cards to many of her candidates, and she deeply values all the people she’s met throughout the years. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking and being outdoors (when it’s not summer in Phoenix). The senior associate practice leader will often use her weekends to spend quality time with her family. She also loves to explore new hiking trails around Phoenix or travel to the coast and spend time on the beach. As she looks towards her future at Charles Aris, Ginna says she’s thrilled to help build the Corporate Development Practice as she develops her niche recruiting area in life sciences.

To learn more about the Charles Aris Corporate Development Practice, contact Ginna Ronis at ginna.ronis@charlesaris.com or (336) 217-9180.