Shawn Cole

Shawn Cole is president and co-founder of Cowen Partners, a retained executive search firm that recruits chief executives, finance chiefs and other senior leaders for boards, CEOs and investors. The firm has offices in New York City, Chicago, Illinois, and Lake Oswego, Oregon, and says it has completed more than 500 executive placements.

Joining a Local Fire Department at 16

At 16, Cole became a volunteer firefighter and emergency medical technician. When he saw that the local fire department was short of money for life-saving equipment, he founded and ran a half marathon to raise it, according to his Cowen Partners biography, which says the race has since drawn thousands of runners and raised millions of dollars for the department and community.

Studying Entrepreneurship at Oregon State

He attended the Austin Entrepreneurship Program at Oregon State University's College of Business, a live-in program for student entrepreneurs at Weatherford Hall, and was a founding member and president of the university's Students in Free Enterprise chapter. Before he became a recruiter he led a series of businesses in personal services and hospitality, according to a 2017 release on the firm's launch.

Launching Cowen Partners With Ash Wendt

Cole and Ash Wendt left jobs at established regional recruiting firms to launch Cowen Partners, which they announced in September 2017 from Portland, Oregon. Their aim was to shorten executive searches. "The industry average time-to-fill right now is 52 days," Cole said at the time. "It doesn't matter what kind of business you are, that's a long time to have a hole in your org chart." The firm now says it delivers qualified candidate slates within 21 days of kickoff.

Cole also co-chairs the Cowen Partners Venture Fund, which makes seed and early-stage investments in niche market disruptors, community businesses and minority entrepreneurs.

Warning About the Leadership Pipeline

In a 2025 Q&A with ExitUp, the Hunt Scanlon Ventures blog, Cole said executive search was heading into a revenue boom driven by price per engagement rather than volume, as baby boomer executives retire and candidate slates shrink. "For too long, our industry has relied on a 'who you know' model," he said. He told aspiring recruiters that AI will increasingly automate research and sourcing: "If you want a future in this industry, you need to be client-facing." As a member of the Forbes Business Council, he writes about succession, governance and hiring, including a column on why companies struggle to define the AI executive they want.