The Team

Each partner has extensive industry experience having worked within one of the large global retainer search firms or has held significant line management experience within major international corporations. All are “hands-on” and search execution-oriented, dedicated to 24/7 availability while providing high level consultative value in a personalized manner focused on you.

Meet our Senior Partners

Nick Pierce, President
Nicholas Pierce is president of Nick Pierce & Associates and head of the Financial Services segment. His 35 years of executive search experience consists of serving in senior positions within three top-five global retainer search firms, including functioning as a partner for Heidrick & Struggles, the largest retainer search firm in the world at the time. He has also started two boutique search firms, including Nick Pierce & Associates (2002), a high-end firm focused exclusively on upper-management assignments.

Mr. Pierce has served as the Chairman of the Membership Committee, Southeast Region as well as a member of the National Executive Committee for Business Executives for National Security (BENS), a national non-partisan organization of prominent executives assisting our military and government agencies on national security issues such as Terrorist Funds Tracking and Cyber Security.
Read more of Nick Pierce's bio

Richard Meuris, Partner
Richard Meuris is a partner with Nick Pierce & Associates and heads up the company’s Industrial segment. His retained search experience includes working for Heidrick & Struggles in Chicago and Atlanta as well as a high-end boutique firm. Previously Mr. Meuris served as a senior consultant in Brussels, Belgium for global management consulting company Accenture. Additional experience includes senior business analysis roles for AON Corporation.

Areas of search experience includes assignments for public and private Industrial and Consumer manufacturing companies on a national basis. Mr. Meuris has successful experience with C-level and other senior management positions in various functional assignments, including General Management, Finance, Operations/Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Sales and Information Technology.
Read more of Richard Meuris' bio

Susan McLaughlin, Partner
Susan McLaughlin is a Partner with Nick Pierce & Associates. She possesses more than 30 years of senior management experience as an operating executive of Citibank, Kodak, BellSouth and AGL Resources. Her success in leading numerous businesses in a variety of industries has been attributed, in part, to her ability to attract and develop high performing teams. Over the past several years she has ran a business advisory service focused on providing counsel on operational strategy and execution to small/medium size businesses and to private equity firms.

She currently holds one of two Battery Venture board seats at Prime Revenue, sits on the advisory board of private equity backed Purchasing Power and is a trustee at Mary Baldwin College where she chairs the finance committee. Past board roles have included Target Corporation and Delphi Corporation, Ntelos Telecommunication, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Rochester, The Buffalo branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Spelman College. She is an active member of the Committee of 200, where she is the Treasurer of the Foundation and BENS (Business Executives for National Security). Throughout her career she has played an active role in mentoring, advising and supporting young women leaders.

Her business advisory clients represent a broad base of industries including transaction processing, financial services, media, equipment distribution and energy and several private equity firms.

Ms. McLaughlin began her career at Citibank. She holds a degree in Education from the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and participated in the University of Michigan's Global Leadership program.

Joe Davidson, Partner
Joe Davidson is a Partner with Nick Pierce & Associates. He has been engaged in talent
management for over twenty-five years with global professional services companies,
boutique search firms, and as a human resources executive in the insurance industry. Mr. Davidson specializes in professional services, financial services, health insurance, and other key business sectors. At the c-level, his assignments have focused on consulting, finance and human capital leadership roles along with other senior executive positions..

Mr. Davidson has led executive recruiting functions for major consulting firms, Mercer and PwC, along with health insurers, BlueCross/BlueShield Tennessee and HealthMarkets. This experience gives him a unique perspective on his client’s needs and priorities, along with a keen understanding of the service and results that clients expect. Mr. Davidson’s search and consulting clients include: HealthMarkets; Aflac; Mercer HR Consulting; PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Deloitte & Touche among others.

Mr. Davidson began his search career with Financial Search Corporation, a finance and accounting boutique. He earned a BA from the University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, and an MA in Counseling Psychology from the University of Illinois - Springfield.

Noel Follrath, Partner
Noel Follrath is a partner with Nick Pierce & Associates, having joined the firm in 2003. With over twenty years in executive search combined with a successful career in the financial services industry, he has served a wide variety of clients including investment banks, commercial banks, investment management firms, financial processing companies, venture capital firms and industrial conglomerates. Prior to his association with Nick Pierce & Associates, he was a partner with Ray & Berndtson, an international retainer search firm.

Mr. Follrath’s search experience in the financial transaction sector includes C-level and senior impact professional recruitment.

Prior to his experience in executive search, Mr. Follrath served as Vice President of sales and marketing for Bank South Corporation. He began his career at First Chicago Corporation and received his B.S. degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.