The owners of Brookfield-based LAK Group, Michael Grubich (left) and Mike Milsted, are taking over the management of nonprofit executive search firm Spano Pratt. (submitted photo)
Brookfield-based talent development firm LAK Group has acquired Milwaukee-based nonprofit executive search firm Spano Pratt. The merger, which has LAK Group retaining the Spano Pratt name, began in 2023, but the process of intertwining the two firms will continue into 2024, said representatives of the firms. Founded in 2001 by partners Rose Spano Iannelli and
Brookfield-based talent development firm LAK Group has acquired Milwaukee-based nonprofit executive search firm Spano Pratt.
The merger, which has LAK Group retaining the Spano Pratt name, began in 2023, but the process of intertwining the two firms will continue into 2024, said representatives of the firms.
Founded in 2001 by partners Rose Spano Iannelli and Jamie Pratt, Spano Pratt has grown in the last 23 years to become a national executive search firm serving nonprofits across the country, but the business has centered itself on helping Milwaukee-area organizations find strong leaders, Spano said.
The firm has worked with Brewers Community Foundation and The Greater Milwaukee Foundation among others, and recently helped Tim Sheehy, the former president of Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce with his succession plan the new president of the association, Dale Kooyenga.
[caption id="attachment_582276" align="alignleft" width="214"] Rose Spano Iannelli[/caption]
Spano said that while she and Pratt have enjoyed growing the company over the past two decades – providing a service to Milwaukee nonprofits that had not really existed before – the firm needed to either expand and provide new services or change hands.
“We decided that it was time to take the business to another level, but we also recognized that it was time in our lives to have more white space on our calendars,” Spano said.
Spano Pratt had established a relationship with LAK-Group over the years, referring clients to its leadership development and executive assessment services. In those referrals, Spano said she and Pratt recognized that their clients had greater needs, and they either needed to bring the sort of services LAK Group had in house, or they needed to partner with a firm that had such services.
“We talked to firms all over the country, but thought it would be really cool to keep this in Milwaukee,” Spano said.
For Mike Milsted, who owns LAK Group with partner Michael Grubich, merging with Spano Pratt was attractive because of Pratt and Spano's experience – both of whom will be staying on in consultative roles – as well as the opportunity it provided to offer executive search services to its nonprofit clients.
“We are fully taking over the management of Spano Pratt, but it will really fall under our workforce management services,” Milsted said. “I am a former social worker, so doing this kind of work for nonprofits is really rewarding for me. This is always where I wanted to be. We are not making any fundamental changes (to the search service) and will be maintaining that really high-touch model.”
[caption id="attachment_582285" align="alignleft" width="214"] Jamie Pratt[/caption]
Spano stressed that she and Pratt will continue to be available to their clients for consulting, noting that many people that were once position candidates are now clients themselves looking to fil roles within their own organizations.
"Spano Pratt has built strong and authentic relationships regionally and nationally with both our clients and candidates" noted Pratt. "Those strong relationships built our reputation."
The pair will be especially hands-on in the coming months since the firm currently has six active executive searches.
“The average time it takes to do an executive search is about four to six months,” Spano said.
