Scott Atkinson

Senior Client Partner, Global CEO & Board, Technology & Sustainability

Scott is a Senior Client Partner in Korn Ferry’s CEO & Board and Financial Officers Practices, where he specializes in finding and developing transformational leaders, and managing succession planning for high-impact clients.

With two decades of executive search experience, Scott advises both Fortune 100 and private equity-backed clients across sectors. He is known for identifying exceptional talent capable of driving performance in today’s rapidly evolving global business environment. Over the course of his career, Scott has worked with clients including Dropbox, Galvanize Climate Solutions, Generation Investment Management, GE Vernova, Google, HP Inc., Intuit, Jane Goodall Institute, Joby Aero, Khosla Ventures, Meta, Instacart, Intuit, Okta, Patagonia, Planet Labs, Prologis, Qualcomm, ServiceNow, Technology Crossover Ventures, Temasek, The Nature Conservancy and Workday, to name a few.

Prior to joining Korn Ferry, Scott was a senior leader within Heidrick & Struggles, where he held multiple firm-wide leadership roles, including Managing Partner of the Global Sustainability Practice and the Global Venture Capital Practice. At the regional and global levels, Scott worked closely with companies to build and develop high performing leadership teams. Over his fifteen years with the firm, Scott placed CEOs, Board Members, CFOs and sustainability leaders for clients that focused on solving critical global challenges related to energy transition, decarbonization, AI, mobility, food and agriculture, industrial tech, software and cybersecurity. Earlier in his career, he held a leadership position at Digital.ai, a TPG Capital–backed digital technology company.

A recognized voice on executive leadership, sustainability and board governance, Scott is frequently quoted in top-tier publications including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Thomson Reuters. He is also a sought-after speaker at industry conferences and leading universities. In 2022, Business Insider named him one of Wall Street’s Top Sustainability Recruiters.

Scott currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Jane Goodall Institute US. Additionally, he is on the board of Save the Waves, an international non-profit that protects surf ecosystems, and Earth League International, an intelligence organization addressing environmental crime.

Scott has a Master of Science in Environmental Science & Policy from Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A. in History from Middlebury College.