How Christina Greenberg Built an Elite Executive Search Firm Serving the Nation's Most Innovative Schools and Nonprofits
When Christina Greenberg, Forbes Business Council member, looked at the executive search landscape serving nonprofits and schools, she saw a field defined by extremes: solo practitioners on one end and sprawling multinational firms covering a wide range of sectors on the other. Neither model adequately served the specific organizations she cared most about: innovative nonprofits and schools working to transform educational and economic opportunity for youth, families, and communities across the country.
So she built something in between.
As CEO of Edgility Search, a full-service executive search and leadership advisory firm, Greenberg has carved out a distinctive position in a competitive industry. Her firm, dedicated exclusively to the niche of mission-driven nonprofits and schools, is larger and more specialized than a solopreneur operation, yet more focused than the generalist giants.
From Recruiter to Founder
Greenberg's path to entrepreneurship was grounded in direct experience on the front lines of educational talent development. Before launching Edgility Search, she led recruitment efforts for two organizations dedicated to identifying talented educators; first, teachers, then school leaders for schools serving low-income youth. Since 2010, she has extended that expertise to nonprofit executives as well. That hands-on work gave her a deep appreciation for what it takes to find exceptional leaders in this space and a clear-eyed view of what the market was missing.
Armed with that knowledge, she made the leap and built Edgility Search to serve an array of clients in communities across the United States. Today, the firm helps organizations find the executive talent they need to drive lasting impact.
Staying Ahead of a Shifting Talent Landscape
"This is an exciting moment in the world of work and talent," Greenberg says. "Organizations are changing in terms of the kinds of people they need, the skills they will require, and the ways they organize their teams. "For Edgility Search, that means constantly evolving. The firm uses cutting-edge systems to recruit diverse, high-caliber candidate pools and screen them through rigorous, competency-based processes designed to be both expert and efficient. Greenberg is also committed to producing thought leadership that “addresses the key issues in our sector and voices some of the things people say privately but are hesitant to express out loud to a broader audience.”
It's a posture that reflects something central to how she leads: a willingness to lean into what her experience and instincts tell her.
The Lesson That Reshaped Her Leadership
That instinct wasn't always the default. Reflecting on her growth as a business leader, Greenberg points to a hard-won insight that now anchors every choice she makes.
"Set a vision and mission for your company, and personal/professional goals for yourself, and make sure that the decisions you make do not take you too far off those paths," she advises. "Earlier in my business journey, I made decisions at times that seemed to be the right thing for others in the organization, or a generalized sense of what outside individuals told me made sense but when I stepped back, really honed in on what my experience, instincts, and the data told me, I was much better off — and my people and company were better for it as well.
Expanding Reach Through Forbes Councils
Forbes Councils has played a role in Greenberg's evolution as a voice in her field. As a small business owner operating in a specialized niche, she had fewer natural touchpoints with the broader business community; a gap that Forbes Councils has helped close.
"The opportunity to share thought leadership with a much larger group of people has been invaluable," she says, "increasing our reach exponentially and getting our message out to a whole new audience that hasn’t met us yet. "Beyond visibility, the experience has carried personal weight too. "I have greatly benefitted from the support and confidence boost of having my articles accepted by your expert reviewers and shared with a much broader audience," she reflects.
Looking Ahead
As the future of work continues to shift, Christina Greenberg and Edgility Search are well-placed to guide mission-driven organizations through the organizational transformation ahead. For the leaders and communities her clients serve, that positioning matters enormously. And for executives navigating their own journeys, her advice offers a steady compass: stay true to your vision, trust your data, and don't let outside noise drown out what you know to be right.
Forbes Councils is an invitation-only organization where top executives and entrepreneurs like you build professional skills and gain connections and visibility on Forbes.com.