Renee Whalen

Senior Client Partner, Market Leader

Renee Whalen serves as Senior Client Partner & North America Market Leader for Professional Search at Korn Ferry, overseeing both the Consumer and Healthcare markets across the U.S. and Canada.

In her expanded role, Renee leads a team of specialized consultants focused on identifying and developing emerging executive leaders who drive business transformation. Her team serves clients across:

• Consumer Markets: Consumer Products & Services, Retail, Travel/Hospitality/Leisure, Media & Entertainment, and Consumer Sports
• Healthcare Markets: Non-profit hospitals & health systems, academic medical centers, physician organizations, payers, healthcare technology, and private capital backed/publicly traded healthcare services companies.

Renee partners with clients to translate business strategy into leadership capability, delivering data-driven, high-impact talent solutions that strengthen culture, accelerate growth, and build leadership pipelines for the future.

Drawing on more than three decades in the talent industry, Renee brings a consultative perspective shaped by deep partnerships across Consumer, Healthcare, Private Equity, Manufacturing, and Financial Services. Her guidance has helped organizations navigate market disruption, optimize organizational design, and secure leaders who deliver measurable enterprise value.

Before joining Korn Ferry, Renee held multiple executive leadership roles at a Fortune 500 global talent and consulting firm, where she helped scale the business from $500M to over $6B in revenue, including expanding an enterprise sales operation from $500M to $1.2B.

Renee is deeply committed to leadership development and has dedicated her time to mentoring high-achieving veterans transitioning to civilian careers. She has also served on the board of NGSA, an organization devoted to empowering young athletes.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from Shippensburg University and completed executive education at The Wharton School. Renee is also a certified executive coach, recognized for her expertise in leadership development.