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About

Our Story

Gary Megennis and Kelly Fairweather formed One Degree Partners in 2010 after transforming executive teams for emerging tech companies while at Ramsey Beirne and Kindred Partners. From the start, their idea was to run a small, hyper-efficient company where they could focus all their energy on the work they love, as equal partners and the only employees. Over more than 25 years, they’ve helped iconic companies like Google, Stripe, E*Trade, Pure Storage, MuleSoft, and GrubHub hire their first CEOs and direct reports.

HOW WE WORK

Our Experience

•  25+ years building companies, solving problems for

•  high-impact, grade-A companies

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•  Our clients are the best high-growth companies across

•   all sectors of technology

Our Model

•  We execute every action item on every search from •  

•  research to close

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•  We conduct a limited number of annual searches so we

•  can dedicate ourselves to each project

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•  People enjoy working with us (yes, this matters!)

Our Successes

•  We‘ve completed over 500 searches for executive

•  teams and board members

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•  We will happily share case studies — with examples that

•  directly relate to your business

Our Network

•  We can get to executives that others can’t and ensure

•  we hire the absolute best executive every time  

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•  We introduce our companies to additional board

•  members, advisors, CXOs, partners, customers and

•  investors

Our Bios

Gary Megennis Pic

GARY MEGENNIS

Co-Founder and Managing Director

Gary believes in creative persistence: “If you really want to do something, you can figure out a way to make it happen — as long as you combine insight with hard work.”

 

Born in a small mining town in Northern England, he played soccer like any kid would — but became a champion, joining the Premier League’s Newcastle United F.C. at age 14. At 20, he moved to NYC and graduated from Columbia University four years later.  While working at Ramsey Beirne Associates, he met Kelly Fairweather and they were subsequently among the founders of  Kindred Partners in 2001. By this point, he had helped build the early executive teams for Concur and E*TRADE.

 

In 2010, he and Kelly launched One Degree Partners predicated on the simple idea that they can deliver optimal results if they keep the company size and number of annual projects to a minimum.

 

He and his wife have two kids who’ve grown up to be just as competitive and resilient as he is. The older races for McLaren and BMW at the top level of endurance motorsports, while the younger is a rally driver. An innovative motorsports program for tech companies has become a family business.

 

Gary credits his sense of humor — it’s a Northern English thing — with making every day enjoyable: “I love every day and think any client we work with will say that they actually had a good time doing this difficult thing.”

Kelly Fairweather Pic

KELLY FAIRWEATHER

Co-Founder and Managing Director

Kelly doesn’t do things the way other people do. After graduating from Binghamton University in just three years and earning an MBA from the University of Albany, she spent five years with Ford Motor Company. In 1995, she joined Ramsey Beirne Associates, the first executive search firm to focus on building teams for venture capital-backed tech startups, and was among the partners who relaunched it as Kindred Partners in 2001. By the time she and Gary left to start One Degree Partners, she had helped build the early executive teams for Ariba, Audible, Qlik, and Siri, among other companies.

When she’s not working, Kelly appreciates the performing and visual arts, often at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, or in New York City and Boston. She’s pictured here on the Scottish border, enjoying two other things she loves — travel and long-distance hiking — doing it her way: “When you hike through even a small part of a country at ground level and take in the details of its people and culture, you have a completely different experience from the typical tourist.”

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