Ebbie Parsons, EdD

Dr. Ebbie Parsons, III is the Founder and Managing Partner of Yardstick Management. Ebbie, a seasoned business executive with a passion for education, has been applauded for his strategic thinking, engaging leadership and results orientation throughout his career. After working at Fortune 500 companies including Intel, Medtronic and American Express, Ebbie made the decision to transition from a promising career in business in 2007 to join the prestigious Broad Residency Program in Educational Leadership. The Broad Residency was his first introduction to the inner-workings of America’s public schools where he served as the Chief Operating Officer of Hartford Public Schools. Ebbie championed the overhaul of the district’s school funding methodology, negotiated the state’s first pay-for-performance teacher union contract and led the redistricting of the city to an “All-Choice” system of schools. Following his time in Hartford…
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Kenya Pierre, Esq.

Kenya Pierre is a Partner at Yardstick Management leading Yardstick’s Legal Executive Search practice and also serves as the firm’s General Counsel.  Prior to joining Yardstick, Kenya served as General Counsel for Arauco North America, a $6 Billion leader in composite panel manufacturing, and oversaw the legal operations of 10 mills in the US & Canada with various operations for engineering particleboard, MDF, laminates and other types composite panels.

Kenya is a cum laude graduate in Chemistry/pre-med of Spelman College and a Law Review graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Following graduation, Kenya joined Teach for America and taught high school chemistry and biology in Watts, CA. She first started her law career as a patent attorney with the Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati, Ohio supporting the Beauty Care Division. She then moved to Atlanta to support global juice and nutritional research science with The Coca-Cola Company. While at the Kimberly-Clark Corporation in Roswell, Georgia, Kenya served in a variety of roles supporting corporate research and innovation, litigation, global compliance and as the lead business counsel for Global non-wovens.

Kenya has three daughters who keep the family busy with volleyball tournaments.  In her “spare time”, she is a certified 200 RYT yoga instructor who enjoys leading others in their journey to well being.

Naima Greenwood, MBA

Shannon Hassler, J.D.

Shannon Hassler serves as a Principal Consultant with Yardstick Management where she leads our executive search practice and serves as a key member of our diversity, equity, and inclusion practice. 

Shannon brings 20 years of talent acquisition and advisory service experience. She most recently served as a Principal with Korn Ferry, driving the expansion and application of their Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored Women CEOs Speak research, and furthering the firm’s work with client organizations to realize the full power and potential of their female talent. She is outspoken about covering topics like women in leadership and determining ways bias impacts organizations’ effectiveness in recruiting and optimizing talent.

Shannon spent the early part of her career specializing in financial officer recruitment, then she broadened into talent consulting with a focus on assessment, board effectiveness, and inclusion and diversity with Heidrick & Struggles. She then applied her experience in both recruiting and management consulting to drive internal improvements with two primary objectives: winning in the market and delighting clients. Most recently as Practice Management Director for both the firm’s CFO and CEO & Board Practices, Shannon led change efforts in processes, training, branding, and engagement execution.

What has fiercely driven Shannon for the past ten years in the industry has been a passion for finding ways to do this important work better and  focusing more on the people vs the transaction. Her mission is to find ways to uncover talent too often overlooked or discounted and realizing the power of diverse leadership teams.

Shannon received her J.D. from Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law, and her B.S. from Northern Illinois University. She is an active member and a Class of 2012 alumna of Leadership Sandy Springs, and she is  on the advisory board of The Women’s Collective, bringing C-suite and other executive level women leaders together around a mission of promoting and enhancing leaders focused on the workplace, education, and mentorship.

Kenya Pierre, Esq.

Kenya Pierre is a Partner at Yardstick Management leading Yardstick’s Legal Executive Search practice and also serves as the firm’s General Counsel.  Prior to joining Yardstick, Kenya served as General Counsel for Arauco North America, a $6 Billion leader in composite panel manufacturing, and oversaw the legal operations of 10 mills in the US & Canada with various operations for engineering particleboard, MDF, laminates and other types composite panels.

Kenya is a cum laude graduate in Chemistry/pre-med of Spelman College and a Law Review graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Following graduation, Kenya joined Teach for America and taught high school chemistry and biology in Watts, CA. She first started her law career as a patent attorney with the Procter & Gamble Company in Cincinnati, Ohio supporting the Beauty Care Division. She then moved to Atlanta to support global juice and nutritional research science with The Coca-Cola Company. While at the Kimberly-Clark Corporation in Roswell, Georgia, Kenya served in a variety of roles supporting corporate research and innovation, litigation, global compliance and as the lead business counsel for Global non-wovens.

Kenya has three daughters who keep the family busy with volleyball tournaments.  In her “spare time”, she is a certified 200 RYT yoga instructor who enjoys leading others in their journey to well being.

Naima Greenwood, MBA

Shannon Hassler, J.D.

Shannon Hassler serves as a Principal Consultant with Yardstick Management where she leads our executive search practice and serves as a key member of our diversity, equity, and inclusion practice. 

Shannon brings 20 years of talent acquisition and advisory service experience. She most recently served as a Principal with Korn Ferry, driving the expansion and application of their Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored Women CEOs Speak research, and furthering the firm’s work with client organizations to realize the full power and potential of their female talent. She is outspoken about covering topics like women in leadership and determining ways bias impacts organizations’ effectiveness in recruiting and optimizing talent.

Shannon spent the early part of her career specializing in financial officer recruitment, then she broadened into talent consulting with a focus on assessment, board effectiveness, and inclusion and diversity with Heidrick & Struggles. She then applied her experience in both recruiting and management consulting to drive internal improvements with two primary objectives: winning in the market and delighting clients. Most recently as Practice Management Director for both the firm’s CFO and CEO & Board Practices, Shannon led change efforts in processes, training, branding, and engagement execution.

What has fiercely driven Shannon for the past ten years in the industry has been a passion for finding ways to do this important work better and  focusing more on the people vs the transaction. Her mission is to find ways to uncover talent too often overlooked or discounted and realizing the power of diverse leadership teams.

Shannon received her J.D. from Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law, and her B.S. from Northern Illinois University. She is an active member and a Class of 2012 alumna of Leadership Sandy Springs, and she is  on the advisory board of The Women’s Collective, bringing C-suite and other executive level women leaders together around a mission of promoting and enhancing leaders focused on the workplace, education, and mentorship.

Mansa Bilal Mark King, Ph.D.

Mansa Bilal Mark King currently serves as a Senior Diversity Consultant at Yardstick Management. He is responsible for key project work at Yardstick Management, and for growing the portfolio. Prior to joining Yardstick, Bilal served as an Associate Professor of Sociology at Morehouse College for 14 years, and as an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Middle Tennessee State University for 2 years. Before this, Bilal combined college and graduate school courses with his work on basic and applied social science research projects. In this capacity, he was a research assistant in the Career Opportunities in Research program, at The American Institutes for Research, and on the Three-City Study on Families, Children, and Welfare project. Since finishing school in 2006, he has conducted independent research projects on father-involvement in America’s inner-cities, religious conversion in Ghana, and Black America’s transnationalism. He published chapters/articles on the first two topics, but the third project is ongoing. His other publications, invited lectures, and project work has addressed Black-White racial reconciliation, Africana Muslims in liberal arts education, and diversifying the body of American college students who study abroad. In addition to the introductory sociology course, the classes that Bilal has taught most often are: Men in Society, Classical Social Theory, and Africana Families.

Bilal holds a Ph.D. and M.A in sociology from Johns Hopkins University, and a B.S. in psychology (minor in mathematics) from Howard University. He graduated from Howard Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude.

Bilal resides in Atlanta with his wife Fikira, and their daughters, Sabila, Hafsatu, and Asmaoo. He is familiar with Wolof, Hausa, Kiswahili, Classical Arabic and Spanish. His community work includes educational engagements with local and regional faith organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee in Atlanta, Tayseer Seminary in Knoxville, and the Islamic Networks Group in San Jose. Outside of professional interests, he enjoys exercise, travel, art, and playing monopoly or chess with his children.