Allyon Financial Advisors

Steve Potter is an entrepreneur and operating executive who has enjoyed a successful career connecting people, ideas and capital. Involved in starting and running half a dozen companies, he founded Allyon Solutions in 2008 to provide integrated operations in venture, finance and real estate to emerging, game changing technology companies in underserved markets. Most recently, Steve established a US based search firm for Odgers Berndtson (a 250 million dollar global search firm) with 13 partners in the US and growing aggresively.

Prior to establishing Allyon, Steve spent over two decades as a founder, CEO and senior executive of a number of financial services executive search firms. Most recently, in 2002, he co-founded Sextant Search Partners, a boutique financial services executive search firm based in New York City. Serving as the firm’s CEO, he grew annual revenues to17 million in five years. He is also a co-founder of Axiom Consulting, a high-end human capital and strategy consulting firm, which has grown since its inception in 2005 to more than 25 professionals and annual revenues of 8 million.

In 1999, Steve was appointed CEO of TMP Worldwide Executive Search following TMP’s acquisition of Highland Search Group, a boutique executive search firm that he had co-founded in 1995. As one of five divisional CEOs for TMP (a seven billion dollar public company and the owner of monster.com), Steve grew revenues from 140 million to 230 million, tripled the revenue per partner, and turned a division losing money into a profit center streaming 15% of revenues to corporate.

This operational acumen and ability to maximize profits had made Highland Search Partners a prime target for TMP Worldwide. At Highland, Steve created a premier executive search boutique specializing in the financial services marketplace. By instituting a team-oriented philosophy, he led Highland to rapid and remarkable success. The firm became the most profitable in the industry with completion rates far above industry standards.

Prior to founding Highland Search Group, Steve spent 14 years at Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc., where he eventually headed the firm’s global banking and merchant banking practices from 1992 to 1994. He also oversaw Russell Reynolds’s Asian operation (Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, Melbourne and Sydney) and served as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and Compensation Committee.

A 1977 graduate of Yale University, Steve is a member of the Board of Trustees for the National History Museum of the Adirondacks and has served on the Board of Taft School. He currently serves on the Boards of Pantheon International, Celdara Medical, DIBIF, LLC, and Immurx, LLC. An avid seaplane pilot and mountaineer, he has climbed in North America, Europe and the Himalayas, including an ascent to just below 24,000 feet on the north face of Mount Everest in 1991.