Deborah Markus is a founding partner of Columbus Advisors, a boutique retained asset management recruitment firm. Ms. Markus has over a decade of experience in the financial services and executive recruitment industries. Ms. Markus began her search career at Russell Reynolds Associates. As a key member of the Global Financial Services Team, Ms. Markus focused on senior recruitments across both alternative and traditional investments. Leveraging her tenure in asset management, Ms. Markus worked closely with clients to strengthen and expand their investment practices and distribution capabilities. Clients included global asset management organizations, multibillion dollar alternatives firms, and small growing boutiques. Prior to launching Columbus Advisors, Ms. Markus was a founding member of a boutique retained financial services recruitment firm where she was responsible for building the asset management practice.

Ms. Markus spent over seven years with JPMorgan Asset Management in a number of marketing and sales roles and was responsible for generating and maintaining client business across all asset classes. Ms. Markus was actively involved in launching, positioning, and marketing the firms traditional and hedge fund investments to leading institutional accounts. Ms. Markus began her career on the Consumer M&A team at NationsBanc Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. She holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business at New York University with concentrations in finance and marketing and a B.A. in political science, cum laude, from Binghamton University.

Linda Ducruet founded Ducruet & Associates in 2003. Ms.Ducruet has over fifteen years of experience in executive search, starting at Heidrick & Struggles where she was a partner in the Financial Services practice and a founding member of its Wealth Management, Global Banking and Hedge Fund specialty practices. She subsequently joined the Directorship Search Group working with Russell Reynolds, founder of the eponymous search firm, where she was Head of the Wealth Management Practice. Ms. Ducruet founded Ducruet & Associates acting on her belief that a boutique search firm providing a high touch, focused approach was the best way to deliver outstanding executive search to clients in today’s complex markets. Her consultative and research-intensive approach to search forges long term relationships with clients as she helps them build senior leadership teams to support their strategic plans.

Since 2003, Ms. Ducruet’s clients have included asset management firms, hedge funds, investment banks, investment consultants and wealth management organizations for whom she has conducted searches that have included heads of client service, directors of marketing, client advisors, portfolio strategists, senior research analysts, senior investment associates, director of trading and trading strategy, head of trading analytics, chief operating officers, managing directors in investment banking and senior private bankers.

Prior to search, Ms. Ducruet spent ten years in banking working for Bankers Trust in the Media Division, structuring transactions for clients in the cable, broadcasting, motion picture production and theatrical exhibition industries. She was a private banker with Fleet Bank, (formerly Connecticut Bank & Trust). After college Ms. Ducruet worked for IBM’s Data Processing Division as a Marketing Representative serving Wall Street clients. She later joined Memorex in Paris, France as head of IBM-compatible marketing.

Ms. Ducruet graduated from Smith College with an A.B. in Economics. Ms. Ducruet has served as a director of a community bank, Alumni Co-Head of the Greens Farms Academy Capital Campaign and is an “Angel” member of 100 Women in Hedge Funds. She is a graduate of the Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris, France. Ms. Ducruet is fluent in French, decent in Spanish and working on her Italian. She lives in Fairfield, Connecticut with her husband and two children.