With more than a century and a half of executive search and line operations experience to draw on, the five senior principals of BSG Team Ventures bring a cooperative, consultative approach to helping clients address their human capital demands. Our history, value proposition, team, search methodology, and recent track record are described in the Who We Are and What We Do sections of this site.

Since 1997 our principals have been engaged to fill more than 250 senior-management and Board positions at the VP level and above, for a slate of clients that includes venture capitalists and private investors, their portfolio companies, and public companies with a strong commitment to "intrapreneurship" and technology. The majority of these engagements have been in industries and with companies at the cutting edge of innovation -- in software, technology infrastructure and services, for-profit and not-for-profit education (and especially eLearning), life sciences and biotechnology, medical devices, and digital information and media.

Company Bio

All start-ups have to have a story behind them. And we're no different. When the Boston Search Group was conceptualized in 1996, it was done by two founders who were passionate about executive search, and thought there might be a "better way."

After the traditional late nights, weekends, and flurry of to'ing and fro'ing around the core value proposition for the firm, we realized that "headhunting" as it had been practiced was more about the transaction than the result. Even the vocabulary used in the industry --"executing a search," "closing the deal," and the overall sense of the word "hiring" -- all seemed to indicate that a search firm's job was done once the candidate showed up for their first day. We felt there was something more. Longer term candidate fit and retention.

Based on that fundamental principal, BSG Team Ventures was born as most start-ups are, in a back bedroom, with two white-knuckled founders, an idea, and probably an above average dose of concern by spouses, family, and in-laws surrounding the prudence in striking out on one's own rather than remaining with a successful search career under someone else's roof.

Now, hundreds of searches later, a referenceable client base, international partners, and a good measure of evolutionary learning, we feel we are uniquely positioned not just to execute search for entrepreneurs but also to remember what it is to be entrepreneurs ourselves. What our clients will go or have been through are likely paths we've also tread.

Empathy is the first step. But it isn't enough. Methodology
is another critical ingredient.

Ralph Protsik
Managing Partner

Ralph Protsik (BS, Yale) manages BSG Team Venture's Education and Media sectors, working nationally with many of the country's leading online publishers, web service providers, research and consulting firms, interactive agencies, and eLearning and education companies.

Ralph entered the executive search industry in 1994 after more than two decades in educational publishing, eighteen as president of his own company. In three years with Management Recruiters International (MRI), the nation's largest executive search firm, Ralph established his reputation in the fields of new media and educational technology, completing senior assignments for Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Discovery Communications, International Thomson, CondeNast/Advance Publications, and Pearson Education, among others.

Ralph was MRI's National Rookie of the Year in 1994, a Top 20 biller nationally in 1994, 1995, and 1996, and MR Boston Account Executive of the Year in 1995 and 1996.

Since co-founding BSG in July 1997 Ralph has continued to evolve his practice in education and media, including senior management assignments for both large organizations (Sylvan Learning, Discovery Channel, PBS, ITT/ESI, The Princeton Review, ETS, ProQuest, Voyager Expanded Learning, Riverdeep, Thomson Prometric, Fidelity Investments, Inc. Magazine, et al) and smaller, VC-backed firms (Blackboard, 4GL Schools, TetraData, Zoesis Studios, Experience.com). In addition, he has completed search assignments for educational not-for-profits that include the National Education Association (NEA) and the IMS/Global Learning Consortium.

"What began as a feeling that the executive search model could be enhanced has now become a quest for continuous improvement in the processes, tools, and people we leverage to help make our clients more successful."

He includes among his affiliations the Education Industry Association (EIA), Career College Association (CCA), the Greater Boston Education Industry Council (GBEIC), as well as Eduventures. Ralph has been active both as sponsor and panelist for such industry events as EdNET; Eduventures K-12 Markets and Opportunities and Digital Education Marketplace; IIR's Education Investment Forum; eSchoolNews' Business to Education Technology Summit; Fulcrum's Education Industry Finance and Investment Institute; VentureOne Exchange; Springboard Venture Capital Forum; the Nantucket Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and the Ernst & Young Israeli Showcase.

Ralph is a member of the International Association of Corporate and Professional Recruitment (IACPR) and the Pinnacle Society (www.pinnaclesociety.org), an organization committed to excellence in recruiting.