Meet our leadership team
Sinecure.ai, Grace Blue Partnership and Strategy Source have come together to create the only technology-powered talent and leadership advisory on the market.
We fuel the world’s best performing companies.
Executive Team
Joel Wright
CEO of Sinecure, Inc.
Joel Wright brings over 20 years of experience to a variety of entrepreneurial and executive roles in both public and private companies. He is currently CEO and Co-Founder of Sinecure.ai…
Joel Wright
CEO of Sinecure, Inc
Joel Wright brings over 20 years of experience to a variety of entrepreneurial and executive roles in both public and private companies. He is currently CEO and Co-Founder of Sinecure.ai, a Saas software company dedicated to revolutionizing talent discovery through AI and Large Language Model (LLM) innovation. He started the company with a simple premise: to make the process of finding and hiring great talent easy.
Prior to Sinecure Wright was the CEO and co-founder of #HASHOFF, an AI SaaS platform for the creator economy. He was responsible for the strategic vision and development of the industry leading technology and led the organization from inception to successful exit. Earlier in his career, Wright served as Chief Revenue Officer at Travelocity which was acquired by Expedia. He successfully turned the company’s media business around from double digit revenue declines to over 100% growth in two years.
Wright’s start-up experience includes venture backed companies like Marc Andreessen’s Ning (acquired by Glam Media) where he served as Vice President of Business Development. Previous to Ning, Wright was Vice President and Head of Interactive Media at leading Hollywood talent agency Paradigm where his work received numerous awards and recognition including being named to the Hollywood Reporter’s Next Generation – 35 Under 35, Ad Age’s Top Digital Agent in 2008 and TV Weeks Agent of Change. Before Paradigm he was an executive at Yahoo! where he developed the first streaming media advertising product called Yahoo! AdVision, which later won Media Post’s Best of the Net and MarcoMedia’s Max Award.
Wright lives in New York City with his wife and four children. He is a passionate Kansas Jayhawks basketball fan and loves to travel.
Jay Haines
President and Chief Revenue Officer
Jay is President of Sinecure, Inc., an AI-powered talent acquisition and retention platform designed to improve the recruiting process. Prior to Sinecure…
Jay Haines
President and CRO of Sinecure, Inc.
Jay is President of Sinecure, Inc., an AI-powered talent acquisition and retention platform designed to improve the recruiting process.
Prior to Sinecure, Jay was one of the three Founders of Grace Blue and CEO of the Partnership’s US operation.
Following three years of blood, sweat and tears studying Locke and Descartes, Jay put his knowledge of the great philosophers to good use in his first role as a graduate trainee at McCann-Erickson London. During his five years at the agency, he worked in both new business and account management, whilst also running the agency’s graduate recruitment and mentoring programs.
In 2001, Jay left McCann to set up his own business before moving into the world of communications recruitment with Kendall Tarrant. Responsible for leading and growing the European side of the business, Jay worked alongside Gay Haines and Juliet Timms, with whom he set up Grace Blue in 2006. Created to work exclusively with the most senior people in business, the Grace Blue Partnership quickly established itself in the British, European and Asian Markets. As the business continued to scale, Jay moved to New York in 2012 to set up the US operation.
Away from Grace Blue, Jay is kept busy entertaining 3 small people (a girl and two boys), and following Arsenal from afar.
John Zeman
Chief Operating Officer
With years of experience in leadership roles across various industries, John (aka JZ), brings a wealth of experience to his role as COO of Sinecure, Inc….
John Zeman
Chief Operating Officer, Sinecure, Inc
With years of experience in leadership roles across various industries, John (aka JZ), brings a wealth of experience to his role as COO of Sinecure, Inc. He is primarily responsible for driving business growth and reputation, and is a passionate advocate for building a sustainable business through innovation and excellence.
JZ was formerly Global Head of Speaking at Twitter where he oversaw the company’s worldwide efforts to engage targeted audiences through the external speaking channel. Along with strategic planning and management of the internal speaking process, he also managed the Speaker & Media Training program that he created to develop the company’s most important spokespeople. In earlier roles at Twitter he ran operations for the B2B Marketing org, and was the first person hired in Sales Marketing tasked with developing the strategies and tactics to launch, scale, market, and monetize Twitter’s first advertising initiatives.
Prior to joining Twitter, JZ was Senior Director of Marketing at SAY Media (aka VideoEgg), a video and content advertising network, where he led the teams responsible for all aspects of brand and product marketing, as well as content and sales development. Before SAY, he was the Director of Sales Production for Yahoo! Inc.’s horizontal content properties and charged with the monetization of Yahoo! Media, Entertainment, Information and Finance properties. His first three years at Yahoo! JZ ran the Northwest Sales organization for the newly IPO’d Internet icon.
JZ has a BA from the William Allen White School of Journalism at the University of Kansas, where he majored in advertising with a minor in business. Follow him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnzeman/
Julie Crane
Chief Financial Officer
Julie is the CFO of AI-powered talent advisory, Sinecure, Inc. She was previously the Global Chief Operating Officer of the Grace Blue Partnership…
Julie Crane
Chief Financial Officer of Sinecure, Inc
Julie is the CFO of AI-powered talent advisory, Sinecure, Inc. She was previously the Global Chief Operating Officer of the Grace Blue Partnership.
Julie’s career began as a trainee at O&M Direct in 1989, where she spent 10 years before moving to HPT as Finance Director. She played a key role in HPT’s sale to WPP (and its subsequent merger with Wunderman) before becoming Finance Director of the newly-merged business.
In 2007, Julie moved to Craik Jones and in 2007 to Redfin LLP, a specialist finance agency providing SMEs in the marketing sector a part-time FD function including financial, commercial and strategic consultancy.
Julie joined Grace Blue in 2013.
Sarah Skinner
EVP EMEA & Chief Strategy Officer
Sarah leads the Grace Blue EMEA team from London, with a particular focus on C-suite roles. In April 2023 she was promoted to Global Managing Director and is responsible for…
Sarah Skinner
EVP EMEA & Chief Strategy Officer of Sinecure, Inc. and Board Member
Sarah leads the Grace Blue EMEA team from London, with a particular focus on C-suite roles. In April 2023 she was promoted to Global Managing Director and is responsible for Grace Blue’s service quality across its Consumer Brands, Agencies, Media, Entertainment and Sports divisions globally.
After graduating from Edinburgh, Sarah’s career began in the agency space, notably at Y&R/WPP, where she worked on Team Ford and Team Land Rover and an array of other global clients including United Airlines and Dr Pepper.
Before joining Grace Blue in 2010, Sarah ran the UK office for Hyundai and Kia’s in-house agencies at Innocean Worldwide.
Sarah lives in Streatham with her husband and two teenagers. She can be found on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-skinner-95a6851a/
Laura Lasiter
EVP, Sinecure Recruitment Services
Laura is the EVP of Sinecure Recruitment Services where she leads strategic development for the newly formed division of Sinecure, Inc., the technology powered talent advisory that…
Laura Lasiter
Executive Vice President, Sinecure Recruitment Services of Sinecure, Inc. and Board Member
Laura is the EVP of Sinecure Recruitment Services where she leads strategic development for the newly formed division of Sinecure, Inc., the technology powered talent advisory that combines the power of AI with the personal touch of experienced advisors in a full suite of wholly owned products and services.
Laura was formerly CEO of Strategy Source, the recruitment services firm acquired by Sinecure, Inc. to create the new division. Since 2005 she has worked tirelessly to build a reputation for Strategy Source known for its custom search solutions and strategic approach to filling talent gaps since 2005.
Laura began her career in startups and high-performing sales teams including CBS, AOL and others kicking off client relationships with agencies and clients like Verizon, Home Depot, Coca-Cola, AT&T, IHG, Zenith/Moxie 360i and more.
Through these experiences, she developed a passion for helping companies with strategy, team and sales operations growth. She also felt the need to help candidates; she sees recruiting as two-sided, not focused only on the client. It’s all about relationships. After all, people have driven Laura’s success from the beginning — and they’re still driving her today.
Board Members
Wenda Harris Millard
Chairman of the Board & Investor
Wenda Harris Millard is an influential and accomplished leader with an exceptional track record of value creation and innovation that spans four decades and multiple industries. Her present focus is
Wenda Harris Millard
Chairman of the Board & Investor
Wenda Harris Millard is an influential and accomplished leader with an exceptional track record of value creation and innovation that spans four decades and multiple industries. Her present focus is WhoKnew, her strategic advisory that counsels and funds fledgling businesses in the spaces she knows well and where she has been successful – technology, media and advertising.
In line with her current responsibilities, Ms. Millard is Chairman of the Board at Sinecure.ai, a software platform revolutionizing talent discovery through AI and LLM innovation. In addition, she is active on the boards of Caleres, a $1.5 billion publicly-held footwear company, and TOMO Networks, a privately held tech real estate disruptor.
Ms. Millard is the former Vice Chairman of MediaLink, a prominent consultancy and business development firm known for its vital counsel to the media, advertising, and entertainment industries. Before MediaLink she made a major impact on the burgeoning internet industry, first as a founding member of the executive team at DoubleClick, and later as the Chief Sales Officer at Yahoo!,
where she masterminded a revenue turnaround from $700 million to over $6 billion in just six years. Earlier in her career Ms. Millard held leadership positions at some of the most notable companies in the marketing world including Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Ziff Davis, Family Circle and Adweek among them.
Ms. Millard’s contributions to the advertising field have earned her numerous industry recognitions, culminating in her induction in 2022 into the Advertising Hall of Fame, the highest honor bestowed by the ad industry. In addition to the company boards, Ms. Millard is a Trustee Emeritus of the James Beard Foundation, the Vice Chair of the Charleston Literary Festival, and a board member of WINGS for Kids, a social emotional learning organization for at-risk children. She has also served two terms as a Trustee of her alma mater, Trinity College, where she holds a Bachelor of Arts. Ms. Millard also holds a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard University.
Adam Day
Managing Partner, Golden Section Venture Capital & Board Member
Adam Day is a venture investor, and an investment executive for a family office. He currently serves…
Adam Day
Managing Partner at Golden Section Venture Capital and Board Member
Adam Day is a venture investor, and an investment executive for a family office. He currently serves as a Director of Golden Section Venture Capital, a software equity firm.
In addition, Adam was the co-founder and CFO of HLA Data Systems, a lab software company that sold to a publicly traded firm.
Adam received his B.A. with a double major in Philosophy and English from TCU, and his MBA from Texas A&M University.
Steve Farella
Board Member & Investor
Steve is a media agency veteran, entrepreneur and passionate about helping
Steve Farella
Board Member & Investor
Steve is a media agency veteran, entrepreneur and passionate about helping startups.
He was the founding CEO of Havas’ media agency, MPG. He co-founded the fastest growing independent media agency, TargetCast tcm in 2002, which he sold to MDC Partners. Today Steve currently serves as founding Chairman of MDC Media Partners and Assembly Media, a newly launched media agency providing scaled media solutions powered by unique planning and buying technologies.
Before launching media agencies Steve built and managed media groups at several leading national advertising agencies including Jordan McGrath Case & Partners, Young & Rubicam, Wells Rich Greene/BDDP and Ammirati & Puris. He started his career at Benton & Bowles.
