Virginia "Ginny" Clarke

biography

Virginia "Ginny" Clarke is a Partner at Toronto-based Amrop Knightsbridge, located in Chicago. She works with a variety of clients across industries on senior level executive and board searches. Ginny also specializes in customizing diversity recruitment and retention strategies.

Prior to this role Ginny served as the founder and CEO of Talent Optimization Partners, LLC, a talent and career management consulting firm. Prior to forming her own firm in 2009, Ginny was a Partner at the executive search firm, Spencer Stuart working in the firm's Financial Services and Financial Officer Practices. For 12 years, she successfully recruited professionals in a variety of senior-level executive and board positions. While at Spencer Stuart, she also co-founded and led Spencer Stuart's global Diversity Practice. During her leadership of the Diversity Practice,

Starting her career in banking at First National Bank of Chicago (now Chase), Ginny went on to spend a number of years in the real estate investment management business with Jones Lang LaSalle and Prudential Real Estate Investors.

Ginny earned her BA in French and Linguistics from the University of California at Davis, and her MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School.

Ginny is the author of the book "Career Mapping: Charting Your Course in the New World of Work" released August 2011. She is Board Chair of the Chicago Sinfonietta, the nation's most diverse orchestra, and is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago. She was a Director on the Board of Medical Properties Trust (NYSE:MPW), a Birmingham, Alabama based REIT for 7 years. She is the mother of a teenage son and lives in downtown Chicago.