M&A Team

After serving 10+ years with one of the most successful retained executive search firms in Minnesota. Together, our team includes seasoned search professionals that have over 30 years of executive search experience.

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  Chandler McCoy , President & Founding Partner

Mr. McCoy is the President and a Founding Partner of M&A Executive Search, conducting his national search practice out of his Minneapolis office. He conducts senior executive level and Board of Director searches for profit and non-profit organizations. He has 20 years of executive search experience serving international Fortune 500 clients such as General Mills, ConAgra, Toro, SUPERVALU and Clairol (now a division of Procter & Gamble), as well as small and mid-cap companies such as Blow Mold Specialties, Len Busch Roses, Wilbert, and Fabcon. He has also served non-profits including the University of Minnesota and the city of Blaine, Minnesota – among others.

Prior to founding M&A Executive Search, he spent 11 years in total and 8 years as President of Sathe Executive Search, one of the Midwest’s most respected retained executive search firms. There he consulted in all areas of consumer goods, manufacturing, professional services and non-profits. He started in the search industry in 1994 where he conducted national searches for a variety of consumer-good and related companies. Prior to practicing in executive search he was a General Manager for a division of PEPSICO.

Mr. McCoy was named one of the “Forty under 40" by The Business Journal in 2004 and in January of 2008 was named WCCO’s “Good Neighbor." Mr. McCoy’s commitment to the community has been significant. He is currently a Board member to Bolder Options, President Council with the Northern Star Council/Boy Scouts of America. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, was the President of the Minneapolis Jaycees and Chair of the Board. He served as an Ex- Officio Board Member of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce (now the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce) and has served on several of the area’s largest charity fund raisers.

He holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Business from the University of Wisconsin.

 

  Greg Albrecht, Managing Partner

Greg Albrecht brings over 30 years of executive search and human resource management experience to M&A Executive Search.

Prior to starting M&A Executive search, Mr. Albrecht was a Senior Partner at Sathe Executive Search where he worked with manufacturing companies, professional services, telecomm, construction, city municipalities, and non-profits assisting client companies in recruiting and hiring positions from Senior Manager to President level searches on a retained basis.

Mr. Albrecht’s expertise includes manufacturing operations, procurement, sales and marketing, human resource management, finance, and information technology as well as city government.

Prior to joining Sathe Executive Search, Mr. Albrecht worked as Team Leader for McGladrey & Pullen’s search practice for six years focusing on CFO, finance, technology, non-profit and manufacturing management searches. Prior to McGladrey & Pullen, Mr. Albrecht worked as a Human Resources Director and in other human resource roles for a specialty chemical manufacturer, an electronics manufacturer and the world’s largest manufacturer of picture frames. Mr. Albrecht played a key role in establishing the human resource functions, facilitating company-wide reorganizations, and recruiting management talent in the areas of finance, information technology, and manufacturing operations.

Mr. Albrecht has a Business Administration degree from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and an MBA in Human Resources Management from Dominican University in Chicago.

Albrecht was President of the Rotary Club of Eden Prairie and served on the Board of the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce and several other non-profit Boards including Eden Prairie ABC Foundation and the Eden Prairie Foundation. Additionally, he has served as a mentor for the Carlson School of Management for the past 10 years and won the prestigious “Mentor of the Year Award" for 2003-2004 from the Carlson School of Management.

 

  David Magnani, Managing Partner

Mr. Magnani is Managing Partner for M&A Executive Search and Consulting. He has worked in professional services leadership roles for 25+ years serving a broad number of industries.  Since 2014, Mr Magnani has been focused on providing clients the expertise they need to advance their business either via National Executive Search or Placing Interim Executives or Expert Freelance consultants.

Mr. Magnani joined M&A in 2017 and was primarily responsible for building M&A’s highly successful Interim Executive and Expert Consulting business enabling M&A to be one of the few providers that can offer both executive search and interim executives and consultants enabling clients to flexibly and affordably get the expertise they need to advance their business.  Mr. Magnani is considered an expert in enabling the “Gig Economy” helping effectively bridge freelance consultants that have “been there and done that” into companies and is a frequent speaker on how both employers and professionals can most effectively leverage the “Gig Economy”

Prior to M&A Executive Search and Consulting, he was with Patina Solutions and was a founding member of the Minneapolis office that grew the business from start-up to $2M+. Prior to Patina, he spent 20 years in senior leadership roles, successfully growing several professional service businesses.  Prior to this General Management experience Mr. Magnani spent over 5 years with McKinsey & Co. Throughout his career, Mr. Magnani has been successful in building and growing new professional service businesses from start-up to high value client focused organizations.

He holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin and a Masters in Management in Marketing and Finance from Northwestern’s J.L. Kellogg School of Business.

 

Rick Copeland, Senior Vice President

Mr. Copeland is a Senior Vice President at M&A Executive Search, partnering on senior level retained searches out of the Minneapolis office. He conducts searches for functional leadership roles for both profit and non-profit organizations. He also will serve as a Human Resources practitioner on a project or interim basis and will lead the firms previously established HR roundtables.

Although new to the retained search market, Mr. Copeland has sourced and placed over 100 corporate and field leadership positions during his 30 years as a Human Resources professional. Prior to joining M&A Executive Search, Mr. Copeland spent nearly 20 years in the top HR position at both privately held and publicly traded companies, including Honeywell, G&K Services and Restaurant Technologies. He also spent time as the SVP of Human Resources for a technology start-up business and has experience directly working with private equity investors and/or board members for organizations of all sizes.

Mr. Copeland has served on the board for a non-profit organization and has been on several internal committees (treasury, governance and compensation) that regularly presented to majority shareholders.

He holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Administration from Christopher Newport University and a Masters of Science in Human Resources Management from Villanova University. He is also a certified Senior Human Resources Professional from the Human Capital Institute and certified Six Sigma Green Belt and Functional Project Leader.

 

Dave Pearce, Managing Director

Prior to executive search, Dave spent 27 years as Chief Marketing Officer, EVP Sales, Managing Director, CEO & VP of Consumer and Trade Marketing; At companies such as Pillsbury, Brachs Candy, Glaxo Smith Kline, SimonDelivers.com, Wells Fargo and ChooseLeap.com. Dave brings deep Call Center management (CPP) and board experience within the Twin Cities Non-Profit sector.

In his Executive and Emerging Leader Search work (5 Years at Korn Ferry and 4 at ZRG), he has successfully placed CMO’s, CEO’s CFO’s Directors of Data Analytics, Director Consumer Insights, VP Marketing, VP R&D, VP Digital, Dir. Digital, VP Manufacturing, & VP Trade & Strategy roles within B2B and B2B2C organizations within CPG & Manufacturing, Education, Convenience Store, Brick and Mortar Food, Hospitality, Eye Wear, Confectionary, Medical, Manufacturing, Supply Chain/Logistics and Dental Supply Companies.

Further, Dave is the Co-founder of executiveadvisorygrp.com, a CEO roundtable, and founder of an organization that helps match college students to Minnesota-based companies for internships and full-time jobs. He also serves on the Board for the Be the Match and previously at YMCA and Make-a-Wish.

Prior to M&A Executive Search, Dave helped to rebuild Korn Ferry’s Minneapolis office, and create ZRG’s Minnesota Offices, adding many new clients and successful executive placements in the Northern Mid-West region servicing all sectors.

Dave has B.A. from California State University and an MBA in Marketing from St. Thomas University.   Dave is an avid fly fisherman and world traveler.  His bucket list includes visiting all 195 countries in his lifetime.

 

Bill Wells, Managing Director

Bill Wells is a Managing Director for M&A Executive Search, partnering on senior level retained searches out of the Minneapolis office. Mr. Wells has 30+ years of leadership experience in both the corporate sector and non-profit sectors including comprehensive experience in management consulting with a focus on organizational development. Additionally, Mr. Wells provides expert guidance in the culture change and transformation process with a specialization in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

Mr. Wells brings significant experience in developing enterprise-wide strategic diversity solutions for client organizations including human capital and talent acquisition & retention practices. In this work, Mr. Wells has assisted private, public and non-profit sector organizations with developing approaches focused on becoming recognized as a “Great Place to Work” and/or “Employer of Choice.” Additionally, Mr. Wells has worked with numerous organizations for sourcing executive-level talent during national, regional and local career fairs. Additionally, Mr. Wells has continued to serve as a mentor and career coach as part of a global mentoring program designed to assist high-potential female and diverse business professionals learn how to effectively navigate corporate cultures. Beyond this, Mr. Wells was instrumental in designing and developing an innovative program for the purpose of enhancing the recruitment and retention of diverse business professionals to major corporations in the Twin Cities.

During his career, Mr. Wells held a broad range of leadership roles with A.T.&T, Bell System and St. Paul Companies/Travelers Insurance. In his last corporate role, Mr. Wells served as the Vice President - Global Diversity and Inclusion, Chief Diversity Officer. Throughout his career, Mr. Wells has received various awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award, Chairman’s Leadership & Diversity Champions Torch Award, Corporate Innovation Award, Outstanding Achiever in Business & Industry, Helping Hands Award and Outstanding MBA of the Year.

Mr. Wells has also served on various national and local non-profit boards including the National Black MBA Association, Normandale Community College Foundation and Community Action Program. Currently he serves on the Drake University National Alumni Advisory Board, Minnesota Chiefs of Polic Advisory Board and Minority Business Growth Alliance.

Mr. Wells holds a Bachelors degree, Psychology from Drake University and an MBA degree, Marketing from Long Island University.