Bob Murray & Associates

Bob Murray & Associates brings a personal approach to providing quality executive recruitment services. Our clients include cities, counties, special districts, and non-profits – both large and small. We work with our clients to identify their needs, so we can recruit outstanding candidates for their consideration. A significant number of our clients have requested our assistance time and again as a result of the quality of our work. Through many years of experience, we have created an ideal recruitment process by combining our ability to help you to determine the direction of the search and the types of candidates you seek.

Valerie Gaeta Phillips – President and Recruiter

Ms. Gaeta Phillips has over 20 years of recruiting experience, including more than a decade of recent experience in executive search for public, private, and startup companies nationwide. Since joining Bob Murray & Associates, Valerie has completed hundreds of searches in a diverse range of fields, including city and general management, planning, finance, human resources, transportation, communication and public relations, community and economic development, information technology, parks and recreation, high-tech and operations. She has recruited executives for municipal, non-profit, and private organizations, from Directors and Chiefs to Executive Directors and Chief Executive Officers.

Valerie is a Latina business owner who is valued for her passion for finding and retaining the most outstanding candidates for even the most difficult or untraditional assignments, and for her commitment to her clients’ success. She is also active in a variety of industry organizations and in diversity-focused associations. Valerie is called upon often to serve as an expert speaker on topics such as managing one’s online reputation, diversity issues in municipal and non-profit leadership, and how to identify a good “fit” for organizational culture.

Ms. Gaeta Phillips, along with Executive Vice President Gary Phillips, has a passion for helping people, evidenced by fundraising, sponsorship, and involvement in raising awareness for organizations such as Autism Speaks, the UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute, and the Northern California Special Olympics.

Gary Phillips – Executive Vice President and Recruiter

Since joining Bob Murray & Associates, Mr. Phillips has completed over 50 searches for executives and professionals in a wide variety of fields including animal services, city and general management, planning, legal counsel, cyber security, and human resources. Gary’s clients have ranged from municipal government to non-profit and private sector organizations, and he has sourced outstanding candidates for positions from the level of division managers up to City Managers, Executive Directors, and General Managers.

Gary started his career with a New York-based Fortune 100 company and quickly became a Senior Manager, building and running a large customer service organization that eventually expanded to 13 countries in Europe. He proceeded to hold senior leadership positions in several Fortune 500 companies, with noted successes such as building an organization from two to 250 employees worldwide and growing a company from 800 to 1200 employees.

As part of an executive acquisition and recruiting team, Gary helped build a start-up enterprise software company in San Francisco, recruiting top-notch talent and building a world-class organization. He has maintained customer relationships in the public sector and the private sector, including medical and financial institutions. He prides himself on finding key talent and offering the best customer service to his clients.