Partner Spotlight - Kirsten Settle

Excit­ed to share this recent pro­file of Part­ner Kirsten Set­tle just post­ed by the Wom­en’s Lead­er­ship Ini­tia­tive of the Glob­al Semi­con­duc­tor Alliance, as part of their 2023 Vis­i­bil­i­ty Cam­paign. Kirsten is rec­og­nized as one of the world’s top recruiters serv­ing the semi­con­duc­tor industry.

Keep read­ing below for the pro­file the GSA’s Wom­en’s Lead­er­ship Ini­tia­tive shared with their com­mu­ni­ty on LinkedIn:

​“Despite what I con­sid­er my unique jour­ney to the Sil­i­con Val­ley, I came here for the same rea­son as most: to be a part of the great­est mec­ca of busi­ness, oppor­tu­ni­ty, and inno­va­tion in the world.

I grew up in Michi­gan in a mul­ti-gen­er­a­tional mil­i­tary fam­i­ly. My par­ents instilled in both me and my broth­er edu­ca­tion and dis­ci­pline as inar­guable val­ues. I was raised to have con­fi­dence in myself and my abil­i­ties. They always told us that we could do any­thing in this world that we want, but what­ev­er we chose, we must do it with pas­sion and com­mit­ment. I cred­it these lessons with my suc­cess in a place like Sil­i­con Val­ley — pas­sion and hard work are always the under­ly­ing dri­ve.

I land­ed in Sil­i­con Val­ley in Jan­u­ary 2019 with noth­ing but my spir­it and a car­load of belong­ings. Fast for­ward to now — I am a Part­ner at Lon­er­gan Part­ners, Sil­i­con Val­ley’s most high­ly regard­ed search firm, found­ed by Mark and Susan Lon­er­gan in 2001. There I have the great priv­i­lege of serv­ing the semi­con­duc­tor indus­try, build­ing the exec­u­tive teams that fuel not only the busi­ness of the Val­ley but the glob­al orga­ni­za­tions that char­ter the path for the world­wide econ­o­my. In my work, I place Board direc­tors, CEOs, and C‑suite lead­ers for star­tups and pub­lic com­pa­nies that are cre­at­ing semi­con­duc­tor, high-per­for­mance com­put­ing, and AI/ML sys­tems tech­nolo­gies. It’s an hon­or to join forces with these Founders/​CEOs/​BoDs who are build­ing the next gen­er­a­tions of inno­va­tion.

Like oth­er women in the semi­con­duc­tor indus­try, I’m often the only per­son around the board­room table with XX chro­mo­somes. While some­times that can be daunt­ing, I remind myself of the sac­ri­fices our grand­moth­ers made for America’s progress in busi­ness prac­tices thus far, which allow me to even have a seat at the table in the first place. I have a deep sense of duty to ampli­fy women into the exec­u­tive staff but, I can­not do it alone- I implore ALL peo­ple to lean in and com­mand the respect need­ed to have a seat in the Board room too.

Even dur­ing the most chal­leng­ing days, there is nev­er a moment when I am not full of grat­i­tude to be serv­ing Sil­i­con Val­ley. I feel a deep intrin­sic joy know­ing I helped con­nect amaz­ing peo­ple with inspi­ra­tional lead­ers offer­ing them promis­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in the com­pa­nies solv­ing the tech­no­log­i­cal con­straints of soci­ety. I com­mit to lead­ing with unre­lent­ing pas­sion, ded­i­ca­tion, and integri­ty. As a Part­ner at the firm, I feel the full weight of this unique respon­si­bil­i­ty.“

To learn more about WLI and how to get involved, vis­it the WLI web­site.