Blair Search Partners

ABOUT

Every organization’s performance is the sum of its people. As such, our mission is straightforward: source the highest caliber talent from across the nation for our mission-driven clients.

Blair Search Partners is a retained executive search and recruiting firm, serving corporate, nonprofit, and public-sector clients. In particular, we offer unique specialization and unparalleled experience serving not-for-profit organizations of all sizes and sectors. Our clients retain us to manage search engagements at all levels, including c-suite, director, manager, and program/staff levels.

While each search engagement is customized around the needs of the individual client organization, we place equal emphasis on the candidate experience throughout the entire process. Today’s candidate could very well be tomorrow’s customer, volunteer, donor, or board member.

Our work is not finished until the board has a finalist candidate who not only meets the job requirements, but that the board is also excited to work with, and proud to have as the keeper of its legacy.

We don’t think of this as the business of recruiting: to us, this is the business of community building.

Trevor Blair, CEO

Trevor has over 20 years of experience in executive search, recruiting, and workforce development. He began his career with Manpower, a global provider of recruiting and HR solutions, and was initially based in Sydney. After 5 years with the Australian operation, he transferred back to the US for graduate school and then rejoined Manpower in San Diego. After serving for several years as a Business Development Manager, he shifted focus to build the company’s workforce development and executive search practices. During this time, Trevor worked closely with nonprofit organizations to develop training and job placement programs for underserved communities, including youth and veterans. He also helped secure government and private funding to back those programs. On the executive search front, Trevor built a significant practice at Manpower serving a range of clients in the public, nonprofit and private sectors. In 2016, he leveraged this experience to launch a new firm, Blair Search Partners, specializing in search engagements for nonprofit and public-sector clients. Today the firm manages 50+ search engagements annually for clients such as The San Diego Foundation, Rady Children’s Hospital Foundation, City of San Diego, County of San Diego, San Diego Symphony, and the International Community Foundation. Trevor’s community engagement is centered on education and employment issues. Current board and committee positions include LEAD San Diego (chair), zero8hundred (chair), San Diego Rotary, and Catalyst of San Diego & Imperial Counties. Outside of his career, Trevor is an avid endurance athlete, having competed in over 200 triathlons around the world. He is a 10-time Ironman finisher and a 3-time Boston Marathon finisher. He holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania (summa cum laude), and an MBA from the University of Southern California. Trevor and his wife Megan live in Downtown San Diego with their daughter Eleanor and son Julian.

Sarah Thompson, Senior Director,
Executive Search & Recruiting

Working closely with our firm’s CEO, Sarah manages executive search and recruiting engagements for a range of nonprofit clients in the San Diego area, including MAAC, Southwestern Community College District, National University, the San Diego Symphony, the Rady Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the San Diego Housing Commission. Sarah brings 17 years of nonprofit sector experience to the firm, having served in workforce development, technology startups, and youth programs. Prior to joining Blair Search Partners in 2018, she served as the President of the Eric Paredes Save a Life Foundation, an organization providing free heart screenings for teens in San Diego. Sarah’s prior leadership roles include Program Director for Athena San Diego and Director of Community Relations for the San Diego Workforce Partnership. Sarah’s community engagement includes immediate past-Chair of the United Way of San Diego County’s Women’s Leadership Council and LEAD San Diego. She was also a nominee for the San Diego NEXT Top Business Leaders Under 40. A graduate of Oregon State University, Sarah also holds an MA in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the University of San Diego.

Torrey Albertazzi, Director of Operations

Torrey brings over 15 years of experience navigating organizational change in the nonprofit and private sectors. She began her career in the nonprofit sector as an Executive Assistant at Price Charities, where she played a significant role in creating the City Heights Partnership for Children, a cross-sector collective impact initiative. The City Heights Partnership for Children transitioned over to United Way of San Diego County, as did Torrey’s role. Serving in a variety of roles at United Way, Torrey continued to successfully orchestrate cross-sector collaboration as she built strong relationships and strategic partnerships with community, program, policy, and systems leaders – locally, statewide, and nationally. As Director, Strategic Initiatives, Torrey served at the intersection of United Way’s Community Impact, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Resource Development work to align partners and leverage resources to create positive change in the community. Torrey’s earlier professional experience includes administrative and business development roles for one of San Diego’s leading law firms, Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP. After 9 years with United Way, Torrey joined Blair Search Partners in February of 2022 as Director of Operations. Working across every area of the firm, Torrey manages daily operations as well as organizational development and strategic growth initiatives. Torrey is a member of the LEAD San Diego Impact program, Make-A-Wish San Diego’s Emerging Leaders Council, and holds an AA from San Diego Mesa College, a BA from California State University San Marcos, and an MA in Nonprofit Leadership and Management from the University of San Diego.

Shira Jacobs, Director, Executive Search & Recruiting

An experienced nonprofit professional and semi-retired midwife, Shira has spent over 25 years working to serve and strengthen individuals, communities, organizations, and institutions. Her community engagement spans the sector including the San Diego County Perinatal Equity Initiative, the National Midwifery Education Accreditation Council, San Diego Jewish Academy, and serving as an active hospice volunteer. Shira is also deeply engaged in DEIA work in the areas of Restorative Justice leadership training and facilitation and strategic planning and system improvements to support students from underrepresented communities for Bastyr University. Now at Blair Search Partners, Shira leverages her incredibly diverse professional and community background to deliver a holistic, yet highly focused and data-driven approach to every search engagement. Prior to joining BSP, Shira served as Communications & Public Relations Manager for Interfaith Community Services, one of San Diego County’s largest human services agencies. Additional professional experience includes Maternal-Child Health Advising and serving as the Clinical Education Preceptor Coordinator for Bastyr University, as well as running her own clinical healthcare practice and a certified organic farm. Shira is a member of the LEAD San Diego Impact program and holds bachelor’s degrees from both the University of Wisconsin – Madison, and Birthingway College of Midwifery, and an MA in Maternal-Child Health Systems from Bastyr University.

Silvia Linares, Talent Specialist

Working closely with BSP’s team of Directors, Silvia provides full-cycle recruitment support for retained search engagements. Her focus is on creative sourcing and recruiting strategies to identify talented, diverse candidates from across the country. This includes delivering an exceptional candidate experience to help our nonprofit client organizations build valuable brand equity in the talent market. As an undocumented student growing up in Compton, CA, Silvia has a deep passion for, and personal connection to developing leadership opportunities for candidates from communities of color. Her early DEI work included founding a community service club and working to support other undocumented students with college applications and career development. After receiving her degree, Silvia joined Teach for America as a 2016 San Diego Corps Member. During this time, she led a preschool classroom serving a low-income community, where she worked to bring families into the education process. After successfully completing the program, Silvia joined Teach for America as a full-time staff member, serving as an Associate of Program and Regional Operations. In this capacity she assisted with recruiting, interviewing, and selecting incoming teachers, as well as providing coaching and other support to assist them through the onboarding process. Silvia holds a BS from San Diego State University and will complete an MS degree in Human Resources with National University in early 2023.