Skip Kotkins is a Search Consultant with The Search & Consulting Group.

Skip Kotkins’ role at Carney Sandoe is multifaceted. He leads senior executive searches and also provides governance consulting, including designing and leading board retreats, helping schools develop strategic plans, conducting board training, and advising on special governance projects. As Skip likes to say, he works at the intersection of leadership and strategy, and these areas of his work continually inform and strengthen one another. Skip has led countless searches and worked with schools in more than two dozen states and internationally in places as diverse as Vietnam, Jordan, Korea, Mexico City, the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic, and more. He is proud to have worked with schools of every size and type across the country, from some of the largest independent schools—including two searches for Punahou School—to some of the smallest. His experience spans Montessori and Waldorf schools, coeducational and single-gender environments, boarding and day schools, schools serving gifted learners, and schools supporting neurodiverse students. While Skip has worked with Catholic, Episcopal, and other religious schools, he has a particular expertise working with Jewish day schools. Representative consulting projects include: work over two years that led to the successful unification of governance for The St. Paul’s Schools (MD); strategic plans for both Buckley School (NY) and St. Bernard’s School (NY); four projects including the strategic plan for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), the largest accrediting organization in our industry; and strategic plans for two different Catholic schools in Louisville, KY.

Prior to coming to Carney Sandoe, Skip spent a career leading a consumer products company and serving on corporate boards. He was both an Economic Advisor and a Branch Board director in the Federal Reserve System, and he advised the U.S. Government on international trade for 17 years. He has served on dozens of non-profit boards, and chaired eight, including rare extended terms as a board member and officer of both NWAIS and NAIS. He helped write NAIS’ “Principles of Good Practice” and has been a contributor to NAIS’ “Trustee Handbook” and its “Head Search Handbook.” His business background helps him identify with school board members and vice versa and he often helps schools refine their mission statements and how they market themselves. On that note, Skip has presented on a variety of topics at both NAIS and regional conferences, and written articles for NAIS’ Independent School Magazine. His deep familiarity with non-profit governance in general, and school governance specifically, means that even in leadership searches, he often becomes a thought-partner with school boards looking to improve their own functioning.

Skip is a graduate (and former Board Chair) of Lakeside School (WA). He earned a bachelor’s degree from Williams College and he has an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is an avid snow skier and golfer. He was a crew coach for both Williams College and Wellesley College. He and his wife, Jackie, enjoy visiting their daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren in NYC, and they are thrilled that their son, daughter-in-law, grandson, and granddaughter live nearby in Seattle.