John McNaught works closely with clients to recruit C-suite executives and provide advice around leadership and succession. Based in San Francisco, John specializes in external affairs recruitment, specifically public and government affairs, leveraging his experience working in the White House under the Obama Administration. As a member of the Corporate Officers Sector at Russell Reynolds Associates, he also advises clients on policy, advocacy and corporate communications roles across a variety of industries. John spent seven years as a political appointee, most recently as the deputy White House liaison at the US Department of the Treasury. In this role, he worked closely with senior officials to develop and manage the cohort of political appointees.
Earlier, John served at the White House in the Presidential Personnel Office, where he worked to recruit more than 1,000 political appointments at economically focused agencies. He also worked in the Administration at the Department of Homeland Security. Earlier in his career, John founded a small data startup and worked on the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign.