Carlyle & Conlan: Executive Search focused on Life Sciences, Finance, and Manufacturing
Our Associates
Brian McMerty, MBA
Managing Partner
(919) 424-1592
Brian is the Managing Partner of Carlyle Conlan. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, with an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business, Brian has held high level executive officer positions in finance and accounting over the years, including Chief Financial Officer of a large, international public real estate development and management company. While employed as a CPA by a Big 8 accounting firm, Brian helped lead the audits of several public and private companies, including one of the largest corporations in the world.
Before joining Carlyle Conlan, Brian led another search firm and several successful high-tech companies. His dynamic style and ability to form solid business alliances has uniquely qualified him to lead Carlyle Conlan. Brian specializes in placing top-tier senior-level and mid-level professionals in world-class companies.
Brian is very active in serving both the communities of Wilmington, NC and Southern Pines, NC where he lives, and the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina, where Carlyle Conlan is headquartered. Brian is the Founder of the Cape Fear 50 Club, a club consisting of CEOs of significant organizations, and he serves on the Boards of Advisors for the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and Band Together, as well as the boards of many charitable organizations.
Don Alexander, CFP®, CPC
Practice Head and VP Life Sciences
(919) 424-1593
A recruiter with over 16 years of professional and executive search industry experience, Don has spent the last 11 years focusing exclusively on talent acquisition nationwide for mid career to senior level professionals in the Life Sciences sector (Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, Diagnostics and supporting Services and Tools). He has successfully completed hundreds of recruitment projects that have involved senior level individual contributors through C level executives, with particular emphasis on sales, business development, marketing, product development, project management and pre-clinical R&D. In addition, Don has prior experience recruiting in Technology and Engineering.
An enabler of relationships that have resulted in quantifiable goodwill for his constituency, Don is recognized by his clients, candidates and colleagues for routinely creating value with his robust network and deep industry perspective. Throughout his recruiting career, Don has often finished in the top 10% and consistently finished in the top 25% of his peer group, as ranked by revenues.
Prior to the recruiting industry, Don spent several years in the financial services industry and managed several million dollars in assets. He holds the designations of CPC, CFP®, AAMS® as well as a BA in Business Management and Economics from North Carolina State University.
Don serves on the Carolinas area Cystic Fibrosis corporate advisory board and is active in the Boy Scouts of America and with his church, in various capacities. Don’s interests include sports, (NCSU and the ACC, in particular), reading, investing, traveling and playing guitar. He even played “Stairway to Heaven” in his high school band but that was a long time ago.
Kevin Coggins
Practice Leader
(919) 424-5534
Kevin has focused on Agribusiness recruiting since 2011 and has placed many in key roles within the industry. He has had many successes in Agribusiness, in particular Crop Protection. Some of those key placements include Regulatory Leads, Operations Leads, Global Product Development Leader and Managers, VP of Sales, VP of Marketing, Global and NAFTA Regulatory Managers, Global IT Leads, Controllers, Senior Product Managers, Senior Formulations Chemists, Compliance Managers, Accounting Managers and Supply Chain Leaders. He has a unique ability to understand all functions of a business and find the right candidates for the roles.
Kevin has been a business leader in the Raleigh community for many years where he owned a local business for 17 years that was voted, on multiple occasions, ‘Best of the Triangle’. He served as Board President of the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association for a record 3 consecutive terms. During this time, he led the rebranding of the association to “Shop Local Raleigh” which helped grow the organization 3X in the first year. These previous leadership roles have translated well to working with client companies to better understand business cultures and candidate placements.
Prior to his career as a small business owner and executive recruiter Kevin worked in banking where he rose to Department Head and managed a team of 24 exempt and non-exempt staff. In his free time, Kevin is an avid cyclist, cook, and tries to see how many music festivals he can attend in New Orleans each year.
Ceferino (Cef) Gonzalez
Practice Leader
(919) 424-1597
Ceferino (Cef) is heading Carlyle Conlan’s Specialty Chemicals, Polymers, and Advanced Materials Practice. Prior to joining Carlyle Conlan, Cef helped companies fill senior-level roles as a value-add to his management consulting company, with a focus on clients’ needs in general management, senior- and mid-level executive talent.
Cef’s successes in serving clients derives from his over 25 years of successes in corporate profit & loss, general business management, strategic planning, business development, strategic marketing, sales management, product development, branding, and supply chain. He combines corporate and consulting successes with Carlyle Conlan's agile, process-gated search process to exhaustively and accurately deliver top talent to his clients. As the Practice Leader, he and his partners focus in placing general management, sales, marketing, operations, finance, supply chain, business and / or product development, and business process management (BPM) talent. Depending on company size and culture, job titles can be senior manager to CEO / President. Cef also specializes in placing leaders and practitioners of Lean Six Sigma for growth, Lean Six Sigma deployment, continuous improvement, operational excellence, Black Belts and Master Black Belts, including operational, transactional and growth. Through his career, Cef marketed, sold, and served and truly understands the complete value chains in automotive, aerospace, display, energy, electronics, industrial, military / defense, printed circuit board, printed circuit board assembly, printed electronics, telecom, semiconductor (IC chip) fabrication, semiconductor (IC chip) packaging.
Cef volunteers in several Research Triangle Park, NC-based non-profit organizations. He is a Founding Member and Director of North Carolina Executive Roundtable (NCER); mentor at EntreDot®; co-organizer and Director of Product Camp RTP, and co-founder of RTP Business Advisors Connection. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for specialty chemical and materials start-ups.
In his spare time, Cef enjoys traveling with his family and volunteering at the Boy Scouts of America (as Scoutmaster and fundraiser), March of Dimes, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF), Wake County Big Sweep (Raleigh, NC) among many great causes. Cef earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Drexel University Lebow College of Business and Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of New York University. He’s a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt (DMAIC, DFSS) and Innovation Games® Facilitator.
Jonathan Woodham
Practice Manager
919-424-3980
In his spare time, Jonathan enjoys following all things ACC sports, especially his beloved Duke Blue Devils. When he gets the chance, he enjoys traveling to both the mountains and beaches of North Carolina with his wife, Jessica – and currently is looking forward to the birth of their first child, baby boy Nolan!
Cody Hamilton
Business Manager
(919) 424-1499
With over 23 years of business management experience, Cody Hamilton serves Carlyle Conlan in the role of Business Manager. In this capacity, Cody supports the day to day accounting, finance and operations functions of Carlyle Conlan. Further, he carries the responsibilities for human resource administration, facilities maintenance and internal technology project management.
Cody grew up outside of the Charlotte, NC area, later attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Afterwards, he opted to remain in the Raleigh / Durham / Chapel Hill area and has lived and worked in all 3 major local markets during his professional life. Needless to say he enjoys calling NC’s Triangle area his home.
In his spare time, he likes to explore the world and has traveled extensively. After traveling to destinations in Europe, Asia-Minor, Northern Africa, as well as many parts of the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean, it is his dream to be able to say one day that he has set foot on all major inhabited parts of the entire world.
Andrew McMerty
Database Administrator
(919) 474-0771
Andrew supports the Carlyle Conlan team as Database Administrator by ensuring that quality information regarding exceptional candidates is entered every week.
Andrew was raised in Wilmington, North Carolina, earned a Bachelors degree in Psychology from Wake Forest University, and is pursuing a career in film acting when he isn’t keeping things straight for Carlyle Conlan. In his spare time, Andrew enjoys reading, exercising, playing tennis and spending time with his family.