Vetted
Interim™
Vetted Interim™
A leadership transition is a pivotal moment. Identifying, hiring, and onboarding the right executive to take over is essential, but so too is sustaining progress—or introducing change—while the search unfolds. Increasingly, boards and CEOs are turning to interim executives, who represent a strategic talent pool tailor made for transition.
While Vetted Solutions excels at executive search, we recognize the critical need for transitional leadership. That’s where Vetted InterimTM comes in. We help associations and other nonprofit organizations identify and hire mission-critical transitional talent. To do that, we draw from our carefully cultivated network of highly experienced executives, such as those we have recently placed, who come equipped to lead, not mark time.
Skilled interim executives, at the CEO or senior executive level, excel at making quick and accurate situational assessments, building stakeholder trust, and where necessary, exacting change. As our Vetted Interim series of articles underscores, interim CEOs and senior executives improve management practices, develop teams, drive revenue, and even reshape business models and management structures—in so doing, setting the stage for the organizational executives who succeed them.
Vetted Interim ™ Insights
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Shepherding Positive Change
Leading association transition: Instilling effective management practices, creating financial transparency, and driving revenue were the top board asks of an interim CEO, Sharon Kneebone. She delivered—in spades.
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Changing the Management Model
Fast assessment goes well beyond evaluating programs, finances, and systems. An interim CEO is well positioned to identify and facilitate impactful changes to the management model—in this case, to an association management company.
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Healing and Building
Listening deeply to understand what the board is saying and why is a critical capacity of successful interim CEOs. At the Solid Waste Association of North America, Richard Yep, FASAE, CAE, translated his quick assessment into the introduction of several leading association management practices—all the while building trust with board and staff.
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Transition Time
Stabilizing priority programs while managing the employment, operational, and other issues that came with an association management transition were critical focuses for interim CEO Michele Warholic. Her advice for interim assignments: Stay focused on three or so top priorities. Backburner the others.
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Charting a Roadmap
Acting as truth teller to the board is a not-uncommon role for an interim CEO. At a large national association, Michele Warholic did just that—reporting opportunities for increasing operational discipline, improving goal setting, and attaining more results in programs and membership. In a lengthy interim CEO engagement, she made headway on those very things.
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Creating Thinking Space
Hiring a new association CEO is one of the most important things a board does, and the gift of time to assess the qualities and experience needed in that person is precious. Enter the interim CEO, in this case Sean Conaton, a professional well-suited to take affirmative steps to position the new CEO to hit the ground running—here, by filling critical staff positions and stabilizing the organization for a post-pandemic world.
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Building a Bridge
Providing stabilizing leadership while a board of directors searches for a new CEO is a frequent interim-engagement imperative. At the Society for Public Health Education, an interim CEO—in this case, Susan Robertson, CAE—did just that, helping SOPHE deliver its mission-critical annual meeting and providing steady leadership to a staff in transition.
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Joining Forces
A merger? An interim CEO such as BK Allen is especially suited to facilitating the combination of one association with another. Not only are interims skilled at shepherding association transition, but their interim status promotes objectivity that can be harder when two CEOs may be candidates for a single position in the merged organization.
Recent Interim Leadership Placements
ANA Enterprise
In 2024, Angela Beddoe served as interim CEO of ANA Enterprise. Angela brought deep corporate and nonprofit leadership experience to the role, in which she will worked in concert with the ANA leadership team, providing direction to the American Nurses Association, the American Nurses Credentialing Center, and the American Nurses Foundation.
The Board for Global EHS Credentialing
The Board for Global EHS Credentialing engaged Vetted’s own Michele Warholic as interim CEO in late 2023. Warholic’s extensive association management expertise and credentialing background made her a perfect match.
The Solid Waste Association
of North America
The Solid Waste Association of North America hired Richard Yep, FASAE, CAE, as its interim executive director. While helping guide the association through its transitional period, Yep, an association professional with deep CEO experience, integrated several effective management practices. SWANA subsequently hired Amy Lestition Burke, FASAE, CAE, who joined as its executive director in November 2024. Vetted Solutions is proud to have supported SWANA’s board in both the interim CEO and permanent CEO searches.
The Southern California
Contractors Association
John Koehr served as interim executive director of the Southern California Contractors Association until SCCA’s new executive director started work in August 2023. Koehr’s extensive C-level experience includes serving as the executive director of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists and fulfilling a variety of roles at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. SCCA worked with Vetted Solutions on the search.
The American Academy of Pain Medicine
The American Academy of Pain Medicine selected Sharon Kneebone, FASAE, CAE, as its interim executive director. In that role, Kneebone delivered enhanced management practices, among other terrific results. AAPM subsequently hired Kneebone as its permanent executive director, beginning January 2024. Vetted is pleased to have helped AAPM find talent to advance the organization.
Read more about the interim engagement here.
The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors
Vetted Vice President Leslie M. Stokes served as interim CEO from late 2022 into 2023, while the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors conducted a search for the organization’s permanent CEO. Vetted facilitated the interim engagement and supported NAPFA in its search.
