Two generations of Leopard leadership

By Madeline Marriott ’24

Jordan Brugg ’03 and Tom Neff ’59 | Submitted photos

In just over two decades, Jordan Brugg ’03 went from a summer intern to the CEO of Spencer Stuart, one of the world’s leading global executive search and leadership consulting firms. 

His journey to the top leadership role in the company began in the summer of 2002 with a Lafayette connection. While a student at Lafayette, Brugg served in several leadership roles, including as president of Zeta Psi fraternity and a student representative on the Board of Trustees, among others. Through the student representative role, he met trustee Tom Neff ’59, chairman of Spencer Stuart and global CEO.

“Tom was an iconic leader as a trustee at Lafayette and CEO of Spencer Stuart, and an inspiring role model and mentor,” Brugg says. “Seeing him in action really sparked my interest in the profession.” 

Neff himself has a longstanding Lafayette connection. His father and three older brothers graduated from the College. During his time as a student, he served as president of his class and president of DKE fraternity. He served on the Board of Trustees for 12 years and chaired the Alumni & Development Committee. After graduating from Lafayette, Neff served in the U.S. Army as a lieutenant and aide de camp, and after discharge, he worked with consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Subsequently, he became a pioneer in the executive search industry, expanding the reach and reputation of Spencer Stuart for over 30 years. The first year the firm offered a summer internship was in 2002. When Neff came across Brugg’s application, the Lafayette connection made him stand out. 

“At the time, Spencer Stuart was growing, and we needed talent,” Neff says. “We recruited experienced external talent, but we also wanted to build our own to grow the next generation of leadership. We knew the type of student that succeeds at Lafayette and the experience they’ve had, and that’s generally the kind of person we wanted to bring in.” 

Brugg was hired full time at the conclusion of his internship and spent his first few years learning the business by joining client meetings, shadowing firm leaders like Neff, and doing the work alongside tenured colleagues.

“That was a real accelerator for my career,” Brugg says. “The more success I created for our clients and for my colleagues, the more responsibility I was given. Over two decades, I had come to lead over 300 CEO transitions and had developed a deep expertise. During the same period, I had opened new offices, started new service lines as Spencer Stuart diversified its offerings, and led global practices, most notably our industrial business and our global private equity business.”

These roles gave him insight into client needs, as well as experience working with boards and leadership teams through all types of business situations and market cycles.

“What was unique about that experience was the projects I was working on were both client-facing and firm-building,” Brugg says. “My client and management experience started with apprenticing under great mentors and eventually morphed into having full accountability for strategy and execution, and for building and leading teams. I always loved the balance of working for clients and supporting their success, while also contributing and building our own firm and partnership.”

Brugg was instrumental in the founding of Spencer Stuart’s Washington office and helped launch the firm’s education and social impact practice, as well as its CEO succession service line. He was named head of the firm’s growing private equity sector before beginning his tenure as CEO in 2024. 

He has spent his career matching candidates with companies on the hunt for new leaders, and now, he is one of those executives himself. 

“There’s a level of care and commitment that goes into the role,” Brugg says. “I find meaning through relationships, through service to others, and through making contributions to institutions that will outlast me. This is my leadership ethos and a constant source of motivation. If those around me choose to follow the same ethos, that’s when true collaboration and trust occur, and when success comes naturally for everyone around.”

While the summer internship program at Spencer Stuart has scaled incrementally over the last 25 years after Jordan’s inaugural class, it remains an important part of the firm’s talent strategy. This year, they received over 1,300 applications for just 10 open spots.

Brugg makes sure to pay it forward by staying connected to Lafayette and continuing to support early-career experiences for students. In 2018, Brugg and his wife, Maria ’02, established the Jordan L. ’03 and Maria Fekete ’02 Brugg Scholars Fund, which supports internship stipends for current students. Most recently, he hosted three students through Gateway Career Center’s externship program in January. This successful early-career experiences program offers students in-depth job shadowing over the winter interim. Spencer Stuart has been partnering with Lafayette for more than a decade. 

“I participated in an externship while a student at Lafayette, and the value of that experience to me was it showed me something I did not want to do,” Brugg says. “It helped me become more self-aware about the environment I wanted to select. Because of that, I’m a huge advocate for the program, and we’ve now designed some special content specifically for the Lafayette students we host.” 

Brugg and Neff advise job-seeking students to do their homework on companies before applying —and that means more than just a quick Google search. 

“Self-awareness and social maturity are two things that always stand out during the interview process,” Brugg says. “The more a student can connect the dots between their interests and what’s attracting them to apply, the stronger their interview will be. Students are often thinking about what a firm can do for them in their first year, but the approach to any potential employer that comes with doing your research about the organizations should be what you can bring to them.”