Ginny Clarke

Ginny is currently the Founder and CEO of Ginny Clarke, LLC, her own talent and leadership consulting business. She is also an active keynote speaker, and podcast host of Fifth Dimensional Leadership, a forum for leaders, thinkers and future-makers dedicated to creating the conscious workplace of tomorrow.

Ginny was most recently Director, Executive Recruiting at Google from August 2016 until November 2020. In this role, she led the Diversity, Non-tech Recruiting, and the Leadership Internal Mobility teams. Her team of North American recruiters found and hired senior leaders (Directors +) for finance, sales, marketing and other G&A functions across Google.

Before Google, Ginny was a Partner at Spencer Stuart, the global executive search firm, based in Chicago. For 12 years, she worked in the firm’s Financial Services and Financial Officer Practices, and co-founded and led Spencer Stuart’s Global Diversity Practice. She left Spencer Stuart to write a book titled Career Mapping: Charting Your Course in the New World of Work, which was published in 2011. The book provides a framework that empowers individuals to plot and assess their professional competencies, and strategically navigate their careers.

After the book was published, Ginny ran her own executive search and talent management firm for 3 years before becoming a Senior Partner for Executive Search in the U.S. at Knightsbridge, a Canadian human capital solutions firm. She started her career in banking at First National Bank of Chicago (now Chase). After a short stint, she spent the next 10 years in the institutional real estate business with Jones Lang LaSalle and Prudential Real Estate Investors. Her responsibilities included asset management, portfolio management, capital raising and client servicing. She earned her BA from the University of California at Davis in French and Linguistics, and her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School.

Ginny is memorable for many reasons; she is 6 ft. tall, has a wicked wit and caring and inspiring spirit. She is a single mother of an adult son and lives in downtown Chicago. Ginny is also a gourmet cook and admitted "foodie." She enjoys working out, international travel and interior design.