• About Terra Search
• Practice Overview
• Meet Our Team
• Geographic Coverage

Our team is comprised of diverse individuals, united by a desire to do great work and achieve success through the pursuit of a client-centric approach to every assignment. We pride ourselves on forging lasting relationships, not just completing transactions. Each member of our team is an accomplished industry and search veteran, fluent in the real estate and/or nonprofit sectors. This affords each Terra Search professional the ability to confidently and precisely capture the unique characteristics and requirements of each client assignment and to identify and match the right candidates to opportunities based on experience and culture.

Sally Carlson, co-founder, managing partner
Sally’s career, which spans nearly 30 years, is steeped in finance and real estate and infused with philanthropy. At firms such as Wells Fargo, Deloitte & Touche, and Jones Lang LaSalle, Sally managed domestic and international real estate portfolios on behalf of institutional investors. Her areas of expertise: risk and process management, performance analysis, portfolio investment strategy and merger-and-acquisition due diligence. In addition, Sally gained in-depth experience in capital raising and client relations. In the world of recruitment, from Heidrick & Struggles to founding her own firm, her track record includes C-level searches in finance, real estate and nonprofit. Sally graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley, with a minor in political science, specializing in Soviet studies.

Community Commitment: Board member of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF, and the Rockwood Leadership Institute; former board chairperson for the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. Sally is currently a Trustee of Deep Springs College.

Personal Passions: Mountaineering (two of the world’s Seven Summits achieved to date), adventure travel, art and design (favorite museum: Guggenheim, Bilbao), and experiencing other cultures with her children, Daanika, Justin, and Madeleine, and her partner, Karl.
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Matt Slepin, co-founder, managing partner
Prior to starting in search, Matt held leadership, management and functional roles within the real estate industry for more than 20 years. He was founder and executive director of the Multifamily Housing Institute in Washington, DC. Matt has also worked in key development, advocacy and finance positions for the National Housing Partnership (developing and acquiring housing for seniors), National Association of Housing Cooperatives (as a lobbyist) and the Resolution Trust Corporation (helping lead the RTC's affordable housing program). He further rounded out his real estate expertise with NV Commercial, a northern Virginia-based commercial property company, and Reilly Mortgage, one of the country's leading apartment lenders. During 10 years as an executive recruiter, Matt has worked with several firms. He served as a partner at Heidrick and Struggles following its acquisition of Argonaut Search Group, where he was a managing director. Later, at Ferguson Partners, he opened a San Francisco office for the firm and was responsible for leading activities in the multifamily equity and mortgage finance sectors. Matt graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science from Oberlin College.

Community Commitment: Supporter of Seeds of Peace, the Urban School of San Francisco, the Jewish Home of San Francisco, the Urban Land Institute, Mercy Housing, and other charitable organizations. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Home of San Francisco.

Personal Passions: Road biking in Marin County; relaxing with his wife, Diane Olmstead and kids, Sarah and Cali; cooking, playing guitar and tennis.
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Stephanie Pearson, Partner
Over the past 10 years Stephanie’s executive search practice has been dedicated to real estate and related financial services sectors. Her extensive background and experience, including Partner with the global firm of Heidrick & Struggles and Senior Director with the boutique firm of Ferguson Partners, define how she partners with clients in formulating successful strategies for recruiting top-tier leadership talent. Throughout her practice Stephanie has worked with senior and C-level national leadership talent across all sectors of real estate, including the investment management and financial services and across all property types, including residential, commercial, industrial, and retail. She has completed CEO, CFO, and Board level search assignments for multiple clients representing a broad group of public and private real estate companies. Her 15-year tenure as a residential and commercial developer (commercial office, single family, apartments, and senior housing communities) affords her a unique “insider’s” perspective. Stephanie received her B. S. in Business Administration, with a minor in Spanish, from the University of California, Berkeley. She pursued graduate studies in Innovation and Finance at the University of The Pacific.

Community Commitment: The San Francisco-based educational opportunity organizations of Omega Boys Club and Megan Furth Academy and The Urban Land Institute.

Personal Passions: Traveling with extended family in Italy and the perpetual study of the Italian language, hiking the trails of Marin County, skiing the Rockies and cooking family dinners.
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Bill Whitlow, partner
Bill's 25 year tenure in the real estate industry provides Terra with deep insights and industry and functional context across a broad spectrum of areas including finance and capital markets, investment strategy, asset and property management, development and leasing. During his career he has held senior positions at firms such as Venture Corporation, Studley, Arthur Andersen, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Aetna Realty Investors, where he has executed in excess of $3 billion in debt and equity transactions, and has provided capital markets, strategic management consulting to clients on projects and portfolios valued in excess of $6 billion. Bill's experience includes the leadership of three property management companies. He also has deep expertise in capital raising, strategic and operational advice and client relations. Bill holds a Masters of Management from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Masters of Architecture from the University of Illinois.

Community Commitment: Active supporter of Project Open Hand, AIDS Foundation, Sacred Heart Schools, Urban Land Institute and other charitable organizations. Past Board member of the San Francisco Bay Area YMCA, the San Jose Chapter of the American Red Cross, and the Silicon Valley Roundtable Executive Board of the University of Illinois Foundation.

Personal Passions: Travel to other lands and experience new cultures, avid participant in motorcycling, snowboarding, boxing and scuba diving, drummer, self-appointed architectural design critic, and relaxing on the deck with family and good friends to enjoy the sights and sounds of our quiet San Francisco Bay-fed lagoon.
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Deirdre Fogarty-Harris, principal
With a 20-year track record that includes executive search experience in New York, Hong Kong and San Francisco, Deirdre is an accomplished search pro. Focused largely on financial services when she started her career in New York City, Deirdre worked with recruitment firms EJ Lance and A-L Associates, where she supported the growth of their international capital markets practice. Before joining Terra Search Partners, she worked with Ray & Berndtson in New York and TMP Worldwide in San Francisco. Deirdre graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Community Commitment: Active supporter of the arts; fundraiser and marketer for San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater; volunteer for Belleview Hospital Children's Ward and American Cancer Society.

Personal Passions: Singing, playing guitar and songwriting (favorite performing venues: Wetlands and the former CBGBs in New York, and The Red Devil Lounge and Fred’s Columbia Room in San Francisco); performing in musical theater; traveling; literature and film.
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Heidi Holzhauer, principal
Curious and adaptable, Heidi has a broad background that allows her to move easily through diverse worlds, whether working with senators in Washington, DC; assisting with development of regulatory programs for energy in California; or identifying leaders in real estate, finance, affordable housing, technology, healthcare and industry businesses, as well as nonprofit foundations. With nine years of experience in the search industry, she began her recruitment career at Heidrick & Struggles. Heidi graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Puget Sound.

Community Commitment: Board member for Napa-Sonoma chapter of Summer Search, a national youth development nonprofit; volunteer precinct worker for elections; culinary co-chair for the 2007 Napa Valley Wine Auction; and member of the St. Helena auxiliary board for the Community Foundation for the Napa Valley.

Personal Passions: Film (favorite movies: Harold and Maude, The Big Lebowski, Sense and Sensibility, The Best Years of Our Lives); wine (especially Spottswoode sauvignon blanc); relaxing in her wine country home; and cheering on the Oakland A’s.
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Caroline “Linny” Simkin, principal
Linny began her search career at Heidrick & Struggles in Los Angeles before later joining its San Francisco office. As an executive search professional with more than 17 years of experience, she has focused on executive and management positions in real estate investments in the areas of acquisitions, asset management, wealth management, finance and accounting and marketing/capital raising. Linny graduated with a bachelor’s degree in theater from Pomona College.

Community Commitment: Active supporter of Sacajawea Elementary, a small, public, ethnically and socio-economically diverse school in the Maple Leaf neighborhood in Seattle.

Personal Passions: Creating music (proudest piece: “The Reason Why,” written for her kids); watching her children’s talents bloom (Peter, age 13, sings and plays a mean drum and Callie, age 10, studies cello and is the go-to girl when it comes to hamster knowledge); serving as a shining example of a true Seattleite: knowing how to pronounce Puyallup and geoduck and not owning an umbrella.
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Marsha Evans, accounts manager
Detail focused, project minded and creatively inclined, Marsha keeps the Terra Search accounting functions moving forward. Prior to joining Terra Search Partners, she worked at Heidrick and Struggles. In her pre-recruitment days, Marsha served in a variety of project management roles in music, theater, film and television. Marsha studied film and television production at UCLA and earned a bachelor’s degree in communications/public relations from Washington State University.

Community Commitment: Active supporter of Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, St. Anthony’s, NARAL, MoveOn.org, SFSPCA, local dog park groups, and environmental causes.

Personal Passions: Listening to music (Nirvana and all the Seattle bands of the 90s, current alternative, classical, and lounge music); finding new adventures to share with her dog; and attending the theater.
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Karen Kelly, project director
Karen is a Project Director with Terra Search Partners. Her broad, diverse and cultivated work experience began with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and expanded at Cell Genesys, Inc., Robertson Stephens & Company, and the California State Automobile Association. Prior to joining Terra Search, she worked at Heidrick and Struggles where she enjoyed a working relationship with most of her current colleagues. Karen holds a Bachelor of Science degree from San Francisco State University, a California Master Catechist certification from the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and a Master of Theological Studies from the Graduate Theological Union, Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley.

Community Commitment: Previous board experience includes San Francisco YWCA, and San Francisco Hearing and Speech Center. Karen currently works in adult religious education programs for her parish and the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Personal Passions: Art and museums, drinking wine, and dancing with friends.
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