Kevin Kernan

Kevin Kernan is a Partner at JM Search and brings 25 years of operational leadership experience within the technology sector to the firm. As a CEO and senior executive, he has built management teams, raised capital from top-tier venture firms, and led companies through successful exits. His operational background, combined with nearly an additional decade in recruiting, makes Kevin a go-to executive search partner for private equity and venture capital investors, board directors, and CEOs of SaaS, Cybersecurity, and Analytics companies.​

He joined JM Search as a Partner in 2016 after six years as a Managing Director at ChampionScott, a technology-focused executive search firm. Before pivoting into recruiting in 2009, Kevin spent 25 years in go-to-market leadership roles for software and cybersecurity companies.​

As CEO of Secure Software, he raised multiple rounds of venture funding, built the entire leadership team, and successfully sold the business within four years. As a testament to Kevin, each venture firm that invested in Secure has since hired him to recruit for their portfolio companies. For the 17 years prior to Secure, he held a number of senior leadership roles at Rational Software Corporation and was instrumental in the company scaling its revenue to over $700 million before IBM acquired it in 2003 for more than $2 billion.​

Kevin earned his Bachelor’s Degree from St. Michael’s College and is a 2004 graduate of the DC-based Mindshare CEO program. He devotes much of his free time to his family. He is also an aficionado of good wine and great restaurants; enjoys the outdoors and has been active in motorsports for many years.