SARA B. CIKALO

About Sara B. Cikalo

Sara Cikalo is a Partner at Ward Howell International, based in Cleveland, Ohio.

Sara brings over 25 years of talent acquisition and executive search consulting experience to her role. She has led executive and senior-level searches for clients ranging from Fortune 1000 service and manufacturing firms to member-based and other nonprofit organizations. Her clients have included Akron Urban League, American Association of Suicidology, Associated Construction Distributors International, Cleveland Public Market Corporation, Community Fund Ohio, Cuyahoga County Board of Health, Eaton Corporation, Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County, Fairhill Partners, Greeley Area Chamber of Commerce, Hoboken Business Alliance, Humane Society of Summit County, International Soap Box Derby, Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, Lawrence Humane Society, Lucas County, Ohio, Madison Public Market Corporation, Nordson, Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership, Ohio Assisted Living Association, San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, Parker Hannifin, Positive Education Program, Spartronics, University Circle Inc., Virginia Bar Association, and Zekelman Industries.

Before joining Ward Howell International, Sara was Managing Director at Waverly Partners, a national retained executive search firm founded in 2001 with offices in Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Kansas City. In 2022, Waverly Partners was named one of the Top 60 Non-Profit Search Firms in the United States by Hunt-Scanlon Media.

Prior to her tenure at Waverly Partners, Sara operated her own talent acquisition support and search practice for twelve years. She provided full life-cycle search consulting, research, and process improvement to corporate clients, consulting firms, and other executive search firms. Sara’s early career included recruiting roles at KeyCorp, where she supported executive recruitment and onboarding processes, and at StratfordGroup as a Senior Executive Recruiter, executing searches across operations, marketing, business development, and finance. She also worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Andersen, where she established an in-house search research function and managed regional recruiting efforts for various practice verticals.

Sara earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Baldwin Wallace University. She is an active volunteer in her community and local schools.