About Excelon Associates
Excelon Associates is a retained and contingency executive search and recruitment firm founded in 2007 and headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina. We place leaders in higher education, healthcare, financial services, and government, nationally and internationally, with one mission: exceed your expectations at every stage of the search.
Offices in Asheville, NC · Boca Raton, FL · Delray Beach, FL · Serving clients nationally and internationally
What Is Excelon Associates?
Excelon Associates is a retained and contingency executive search and recruitment firm founded in 2007 by Susan Forman, headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, Florida. The firm places senior leaders at higher education institutions, healthcare organizations, financial services firms, and government agencies across the United States and internationally, and operates an integrated temporary staffing practice across all four sectors.
Our mission is simple: exceed your expectations at every stage of the search. With 45+ combined years of recruiting experience and practical leadership backgrounds in the sectors we serve, we recruit from entry level through the C-suite, and we have built a track record of placing senior leaders who meet or exceed organizational expectations.
Clients today want more than resumes. They want a search partner that acts as a strategic consultant: evaluating leadership teams, advising boards, developing succession plans, and shaping institutional culture. That is the role we play. We do not simply fill roles; we build leadership capacity, and we have been doing it since 2007.
How Did Excelon Associates Begin?
Excelon Associates began in higher education and grew outward, one sector at a time, by applying the same retained search discipline to each new market.
Founded in higher education
Susan Forman founds Excelon Associates with a focus on higher education recruitment, placing academic and administrative leaders at colleges, universities, and career schools. Higher education remains the firm's founding and deepest market, with more than 500 institutions engaged since 2007.
Expansion into healthcare and financial services
The firm builds a healthcare practice staffed with former nurses turned recruiters, and a financial services practice led by active equity and options traders with hands-on digital asset market knowledge.
Expansion into international executive search
Excelon Associates begins placing leaders beyond the United States, building an international search practice that has since completed engagements in the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Expansion into government recruitment
The firm extends its retained search model to the public sector, becoming an approved recruitment vendor for government agencies and building a practice serving public sector organizations nationwide.
Four sectors, five practices, international reach
From offices in Asheville, NC, Boca Raton, FL, and Delray Beach, FL, the firm places candidates across the United States and internationally, with an integrated temporary staffing practice across all four core sectors.
How Does a Retained or Contingency Search Work?
Most of our work is retained: an exclusive, committed engagement in which a client retains us to run a single search end to end. We also take selected searches on a contingency basis for organizations that want us to prove our worth before moving to a retained relationship. Either way the work is the same: our full attention, a dedicated process, and a commitment to your outcome rather than a race to submit volume. We identify and approach high performers in their current roles, because the best candidates are rarely looking, and we investigate every candidate we submit, going back ten years across cognitive, social, business, and strategic dimensions.
Engagements typically produce a candidate slate in three to five weeks. Every active search is fully indexed on Google and proactively marketed online at no extra cost to our clients. To scope an engagement, tell us about your open role and a team member will follow up within one business day.
What Sets Excelon Associates Apart?
Niche Expertise, Not Generalism
We work exclusively in higher education, healthcare, financial services, and government. Our networks and knowledge in these sectors run deep. We are not generalists trying to serve every industry.
Retained First, Contingency Available
We work primarily on a retained, exclusive basis: full attention, a dedicated process, and a commitment to your outcome rather than a race to submit volume. For clients who want us to prove our worth first, we also take selected searches on contingency.
Passive Candidates First
The best candidates are rarely looking. We identify and approach high performers in their current roles, reaching talent that job postings never will.
SEO-Driven Campaign Marketing
We proactively market every search online and ensure full Google indexing of all active campaigns, at no extra cost to our clients. Our candidates find us, and we find them.
Reach Without Borders
Headquartered in Asheville, NC with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, FL, we have placed candidates across the US, UK, Middle East, and South Asia.
Recruiters From the Field
Former nurses recruit our healthcare and nursing program searches, and active equity and options traders lead our financial services practice. Candidates talk to peers, not generalists.
Where Does Excelon Associates Recruit?
Excelon Associates operates five practice areas: four core industry verticals plus an integrated temporary staffing division. Each practice page details the roles we place and how we work in that market.
Higher Education
Presidents, provosts, deans, financial aid, and faculty searches.
Explore → Clinical & AcademicHealthcare
CNOs, CMOs, clinical education, and simulation leadership.
Explore → Finance & Web3Financial Services
CFOs, private equity, portfolio managers, and crypto talent.
Explore → Public SectorGovernment
Agency leadership, program managers, and public sector talent.
Explore → Flexible & InterimTemporary Staffing
Interim, contract, and temp-to-hire roles across all sectors.
Explore →Who Leads Excelon Associates?
Excelon Associates is led by a four-person leadership team with 45+ combined years of recruiting experience and practical backgrounds in the sectors the firm serves.
Susan Forman
Founded Excelon Associates in 2007 with a focus on higher education recruitment. Her instinct for matching the right leader with the right institution has been the foundation of the firm's reputation since day one.
Randie Levine
A master's prepared nurse who practiced neonatal and pediatric critical care nursing in NYC before moving to full-cycle talent acquisition across education and healthcare.
Monica Vered
With over 17 years at Excelon Associates, Monica works across higher education, K-12, healthcare, technology, and operations, with a particular instinct for relationship building and cultural fit.
Read full team profiles on the Meet the Excelon Team page.
See who we have placed
Browse a selection of completed searches across all four markets in our recent campaigns.
Latest From Excelon Associates on LinkedIn
Active searches, placements, and sector insights from our team, updated as they happen. Follow Excelon Associates on LinkedIn for new roles and recruitment news.
Follow Us →Rated 5.0 by clients and candidates across higher education, healthcare, financial services, and government. Read the full set of verified reviews on our Google Business Profile.
Read our Google Reviews →Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to Work With Us?
Whether you are looking to hire a senior leader or exploring your next opportunity, Excelon Associates is here to help. Headquartered in Asheville, NC. Serving clients nationally and internationally since 2007.
Prefer to talk? Call +1 (828) 417-7094