James M. Citrin is one of the world's leading executive search consultants and an expert on leadership, career success and corporate governance. He is a member of the worldwide board of directors of Spencer Stuart where, over the past 15 years, he has completed more than 400 executive and board searches. Citrin is also a best-selling business author with five books published including The Dynamic Path — Access the Secrets of Champions; Lessons from the Top; The Five Patterns of Extraordinary Careers; and You’re in Charge, Now What? These, plus his popular Yahoo! Finance column, Leadership by Example, have cemented his place as one of the most-original thinkers on leadership in the world today. Thanks to The Dynamic Path, Citrin was honored to receive an adjunct professorship from the United States Olympic Committee at its newly created Olympic University, a groundbreaking program of leadership development based on the principles of the Olympic Movement.
Since joining Spencer Stuart in January of 1994, Citrin has led such notable placements as the CEOs of The Oprah Winfrey Network, MySpace, Major League Baseball's MLB Network, Hulu.com, AMC Entertainment, Unisys, Carrefour, Bloomberg Multimedia, Fox Mobile/Jamba, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Nielsen (formerly VNU), Motorola, Univision Communications, Yahoo!, AOL, Eastman Kodak, Hertz, Motion Picture Association of America, BSkyB, Gartner, Kinko’s (now FedEx Office), Global Hyatt Corporation, Morgan's Hotel Group, Idearc Media, Endemol and the Green Bay Packers, among many more.
Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, Citrin was director of corporate planning at The Reader’s Digest Association. Before that, he spent five years with McKinsey & Company in the United States and France, serving as a senior engagement manager. Earlier, he was an associate with Goldman, Sachs & Company and spent three years as a financial analyst with Morgan Stanley & Company.
A 1981 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar College with a B.A. in economics, Citrin has served as a member of the Vassar Board of Trustees since 1999, where he is a member of the Executive Committee and co-chair of the Nominations Committee. He earned an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, graduating with distinction in 1986.