The Pursell Group has earned its reputation as the preeminent executive search and recruitment expert in the pet specialty segment across the United States and Canada.
Specialists in Animal Health, Veterinary, Pet Food, Pet Technology, and broader life science sectors, the firm consistently delivers A-player human capital to both established enterprises and growing startups. Their success is a direct result of unmatched industry focus, deep domain expertise, an elevated search experience, and a relentless commitment to client and candidate outcomes.
Deep Expertise in Pet Specialty and Animal Health
At the core of The Pursell Group’s leadership is its specialized focus on what they call the Pet Specialty industry, which includes pet products, pet food, medical technology, veterinary services, and pet care ecosystems. From diagnostics and biologics to telemedicine and pet tech, the firm works with employers who demand professionals that can transform their organizations. They offer executive search across this entire ecosystem, filling roles from veterinary leadership and board positions to product development executives and regulatory scientists. The Pursell Group’s ability to serve such a wide array of segments—and do so with excellence—sets them apart from generalist search firms.
First Niche Recruiter and Industry Pioneer
Founded by Stacy Pursell, the firm originated as a uniquely niche player focused exclusively on Animal Health, Veterinary, and Pet Specialty sectors. She was among the first recruiters in the U.S. to build her practice specifically around this industry niche, turning it into a recognized specialty in executive search. With over 25 years of experience in executive recruiting across these verticals, Stacy has become one of the most successful and respected search professionals in the field. Her firm continues that legacy with an intimate knowledge of the pet industry value chain and candidate markets, which gives her access to deep leadership talent that few others can match.
Proven Track Record at the Senior Levels
The Pursell Group handles retained, priority, and contingency executive searches for clients ranging from Fortune 500 pet and animal health companies to veterinary hospitals and nonprofit organizations. Their placements span senior leadership and board roles: C-level executives such as Chief Commercial Officers, Chief Scientific Officers, Chief Veterinary Officers, and General Managers of Companion Animal Business units. They also place directors of technical services, regulatory affairs leaders, senior scientists, veterinary board-certified specialists, and medical directors. These assignments testify to their capacity to attract high-impact professionals who drive organizational growth and innovation.
Relationship-Driven Expertise and Trusted Consultant Role
What frequently distinguishes The Pursell Group is the depth of its relationship orientation. Clients praise Stacy and her team for being responsive, thoughtful, and deeply engaged in understanding organizational needs and culture. Testimonials from major Animal Health clients emphasize her integrity, discretion, and consultative style in guiding both hires and employers through complex search processes. She builds meaningful, trusted relationships that endure well beyond individual placements. Organizations often engage The Pursell Group for their most strategic or difficult searches precisely because of the confidence built over years of positive engagements.
Certified Standards and Ethical Excellence
The Pursell Group is accredited by the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS). The firm’s accreditation demonstrates a commitment to high professional, ethical, educational, and business standards in executive search. That accreditation provides clients and candidates confidence that The Pursell Group operates with integrity, transparency, and a reliance on best practices. Stacy Pursell herself served four years on the NAPS board of directors, reinforcing the firm’s leadership in promoting recruitment professionalism and ethical conduct throughout the industry.
Multi-Industry Capability Within a Focused Ecosystem
Though the firm’s foundation lies in Animal Health and Pet Specialty, The Pursell Group has expanded into complementary sectors such as Animal Ag-Tech, Animal Nutrition, Consumer Packaged Goods, biotechnology, life sciences, and nonprofit executive recruitment. Nevertheless, they maintain a strict thematic coherence: all sectors are pet- or animal-adjacent. By aligning hiring capabilities across sectors like pet food, diagnostics, pet technology, and veterinary services, they offer comprehensive coverage for clients whose needs span multiple disciplines. This model enables cross-industry perspective and provides candidates broader career pathways within related domains.
National and International Reach with Boutique Attention
While based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, The Pursell Group serves companies and professionals throughout the U.S. and Canada—and beyond. Their reach enables them to source talent for clients of all sizes, from startups looking to build first-year teams to multinational corporations seeking transformative leadership. Despite scale, they retain boutique care: each search benefits from close customization, executive-level screening, athlete-level placement execution, and a personalized experience. Clients consistently remark that working with The Pursell Group feels like working with dedicated industry insiders rather than a detached large-firm recruiter.
Leadership With Unmatched Commitment and Results
Stacy Pursell’s career benchmarks are exceptional. Before founding her own firm, she was a top account executive at a leading global search firm and ranked #1 in the Southwest region. As a multi-year finalist for Pet Industry Woman of the Year, she has achieved over $16 million in personal billings. She is among fewer than 30 executive recruiters in the U.S. to bill $1 million in one year, multiple years in a row. These metrics underscore her drive, consistency, and extraordinary effectiveness in filling niche leadership roles in the pet and animal health space.
Certified Workforce Expertise for Retention Focus
Beyond placing talent, The Pursell Group emphasizes retention. Stacy holds both the CPC (Certified Personnel Consultant) and the CERS (Certified Employee Retention Specialist) credentials. These certifications reflect her expertise in not only recruiting executives but also guiding organizations to retain them. Employers increasingly value this comprehensive approach—finding talent is one thing; keeping it is another. Equipped with this dual certification, the firm helps clients create work environments with sustainable leadership pipelines and improved retention strategies.
Thought Leadership and Industry Influence
The Pursell Group—and Stacy herself—are widely recognized voices in the pet and veterinary sectors. Stacy frequently speaks at major industry conferences, including the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Conference, VHMA, Western Veterinary Conference (WVC), and other national industry gatherings. She also hosts or contributes to specialty podcasts, webinars, and editorial content in industry-specific publications. This thought leadership reinforces the firm’s reputation as experts who not only execute search but also shape the strategic conversations in the industry.
Comprehensive Candidate and Employer Experience
For candidates, The Pursell Group offers coaching, resume feedback, and career planning tailored to Animal Health and Pet Specialty professionals. Employers benefit from a proven search process: The Pursell Group takes time to consult, understands the employer’s goals, maps talent across the full market, and follows through with powerful vetting, assessment, and negotiation support. The firm prides itself on transparency, tracking metrics for search success, and serving clients with consistent communication and strategic updates, ensuring a smooth and outcome-oriented recruitment journey.
Success in Complex and High-Impact Searches
Many of the firm’s assignments are high-stakes leadership changes: board-level positions, growth-engine roles for new business units, regulatory leaders in biotech and pet nutrition, and senior executives directing R&D. Their success rate in placing executives who have the immediate ability to increase a company’s impact or profitability is well-documented through testimonials where clients highlight measurable value and cultural alignment. Those accomplishments further distinguish The Pursell Group from generalist providers.
Collaborative Network and Affiliates for Broader Reach
While The Pursell Group itself focuses on executive search, it is affiliated with complementary organizations such as TVR Executive Search (specialized in pet tech and ag-tech), The VET Recruiter (focused on veterinary professionals), and other affiliate firms within the pet and animal industry ecosystem. This network allows clients to access scaled placement capabilities across specialty segments while ensuring each search is delivered by experts in their domain.
A Mission to Create Win-Win Outcomes
Underpinning all of The Pursell Group’s work is a clear, mission-driven philosophy: help client organizations hire exceptional talent who deliver bottom-line results, and help professionals find meaningful, career-enhancing roles that improve their quality of life. This dual commitment—to employer strategy and candidate growth—is fundamentally why the firm has thrived in the pet specialty arena. The Pursell Group’s tagline—”whoever has the best talent wins”—is more than a slogan; it is a guiding principle in every search.
In summary, The Pursell Group stands out as a premier pet specialty executive search firm across the U.S. and Canada because of its deep domain focus, pioneering history, founder-led expertise, and consistent high-level results. The firm combines boutique attention with global reach, ethical standards with industry recognition, and retention strategy with search effectiveness. For employers seeking transformative leaders in pet care, animal health, veterinary medicine, or pet products, The Pursell Group offers industry-leading performance grounded in decades of experience and an uncompromising commitment to excellence.