Company Bios

Search Team

CAROLYNE P. CONNOR
President

Carolyne founded MatchStar in early February 1999 with partner, Heidi Harrison. Carolyne and Heidi have worked together since 1986. Carolyne is trained in behavioral interviewing and is focused on building successful management teams for fast growth, technology companies.  She refined a unique process for profiling, recruiting, interviewing, and benchmarking candidates that has increased the ROI for executive placement.  She is a serial entrepreneur who put herself through college by starting a property management company.   After winning the Deloitte & Touche Human Resource Management Award in 1995, Carolyne decided to sell her property management company in order to focus on building other companies. From 1995-1998, she was a Manager for Temps & Company where she helped the company revenues grow from $20 million to $42 million. She launched the first Job Store in 1997 which was featured in Inc. Magazine within 6 months of opening. During that time period, she helped build teams at companies such as: Microstrategy, LCCI, Teligent, AOL, Booz-Allen, EDS, Discovery Channel, US Airways, ARC, Jones Day, World Bank, Boeing, Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Marasco Newton, Friedman Billings Ramsey, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Conservation Fund, March of Dimes, and United Way. In 1998, she decided to launch a new business strictly focused on building the management teams of fast growing, venture-backed technology clients.

In 1995, Carolyne received a B.A. in Business Administration (New and Small Business) from Georgetown University.  During college, she won 1st Place in the Women's Kumite, Eastern Regional Karate Championships for 3 years in a row.  When not spending time with her husband and three children, Carolyne enjoys refurbishing Victorian homes and apartment buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area.

HEIDI HARRISON
Senior Vice President of Operations & Research

Heidi co-founded Matchstar in February 1999. She currently oversees the development and maintenance of MatchStar’s proprietary database and is credited with sourcing over 2,000 new executive candidates into the Matchstar network. Heidi is also responsible for the operation and management of recruiters and research personnel. These staff members enable MatchStar to “flex up” in high capacity periods and meet the demand requirements of clients with highly tailored industry needs.

Carolyne and Heidi have worked together since 1986, when she originally assisted Carolyne with her property management company. In 1997, Heidi worked with Carolyne to launch the first Job Store, where she was responsible for the account management and development of over 50 new clients in her first year. Heidi recruited, interviewed, trained, and placed candidates in the environmental, banking, media, government contract, non-profit, high tech, and communications industries. This experience led to the development of a new process for recruiting, interviewing, and training teams, which served as the platform for Matchstar’s current placement services. She began her industry career in Human Resources at First Union National Bank and is certified in Targeted Selection © behavioral interview training by Development Dimensions International (DDI).

Heidi earned a B.S. in Business Management with a Finance concentration from Clemson University. She enjoys hiking, bicycling, and refinishing antique furniture and lives with her husband and two children in Maryland.

ANNA BROWN
Director of Research

Anna joined Matchstar in June 2006 to oversee our growing research group. She has a history of project management in various research areas, as well as production and marketing experience with several early stage technology companies. Anna and her team’s focus is on identifying key candidates for target select headhunting and managing Matchstar’s growing database and referral network. Additionally, she plays a key role in our marketing/communications of available job positions, compensation statistics, and industry segment news.

Prior to joining Matchstar, Anna spent four years working for the RTC Group, where she was in charge of European ad sales and management of the company’s EMEA dynamic client database. Additionally, she played an integral role in the launching of two European technology based publications and the production and marketing of a number of worldwide computer conferences, including a custom tour of events for Microsoft. Anna was the founding member and assistant producer of the Telluride Technology festival from 2000-2005, and has held positions with other technology related services companies Powerware Global Services, the Tech Coast Corporation, and web design firm Grafix. She graduated from the University of Arizona with an emphasis in Political Sciences and Psychology.

TIMOTHY J. TONELLA
Board Member and Advisor

Tim is the former CEO of Matchstar Venture Search and serves as a strategic advisor and active board member to the firm. He current leads the Financial Advisory practice in the San Francisco Bay Area for the Tax & Financial Group, a privately held, 40 year old wealth management company. He specializes in the accumulation and preservation of wealth for entrepreneurs/business owners, high net worth families, corporate executives, and high income professionals. Tim has a long history in the venture capital and private equity community and has been involved in the development of early stage technology and financial services businesses.

Previously, Tim was the Western SVP/GM for Merrill Corporation, a billion dollar privately held technology company that provides content delivery solutions for the financial and legal marketplace. His responsibilities included overseeing all business operations, strategic initiatives, and sales development in the areas of M&A due diligence, electronic content distribution, and document life-cycle management. Tim and his team worked primarily with private equity and venture capital firms, investment banks, attorneys in the securities, corporate finance, and restructuring areas, public company finance and legal departments, and Big Four accounting firms.

Prior to joining Merrill, Tim was a Vice President for Bowne Financial and the General Manager of a manufacturing and product licensing company. Additionally, he held a variety of business development positions with RR Donnelley in their international, telecom, and information services business units. Tim is the former Chairman of the San Francisco Business Forum (the leading Bay Area networking organization for financial intermediaries) and a former member/sponsor of the Life Science Angels. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.