Dora Vell

Dora Vell is CEO of Vell Executive Search, a boutique executive search firm in Boston. Vell has successfully completed numerous board member and C-level executive searches - including CEOs, COOs, CIOs, and Vice Presidents - at both public and VC-funded companies. Vell was a partner in the Heidrick & Struggles technology practice for seven years. Prior to her career as a search professional, she successfully managed both a 100-person development project and a $150 million sales organization at IBM. Her sales and P&L experience at IBM has proven invaluable in sales and marketing searches, as well as with GM, CEO, and COO searches. As the holder of seven worldwide patents, Vell has an unusually technical background for a search executive, and one that helps her better understand the needs of technology companies and technical executive roles, and to probe candidates for the depth of their technical experience and expertise. Vell has published and been quoted in numerous articles including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Agenda Week, MSN, MSNBC, Mass High Tech, the OPUS for the World Economic Forum, Boston Business Journal, Globe and Mail, CIO, and IEEE. She also has been a featured speaker on leadership at numerous conferences and at Columbia University's MBA program. Vell is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, and serves on the board of Framingham State College and the Advisory board of ZoomInfo. She has served on the board of Entrepreneur's Organization, Goodwill, and Mary Centre for developmentally handicapped adults, and the venture firms garage.ca and RBC Capital Partners. Vell received an MBA from the University of Toronto, a Master in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo and a Bachelor in Computer Science from Carleton.