Meet the Team
Every search is run by the people you meet.
Kristin Taylor Connelly
Founder & Managing Member
After more than 1,200 placements, I built the search firm I wanted when I was the one hiring. Every search we take on carries my name, and I stay close to it until your hire signs.
Kristin works with leadership teams on their senior hires and the people decisions around them: who to hire, how the role should be built, and what it should pay.
She spent the first part of her career in-house at two of the largest firms in commercial real estate, then moved to the agency side. She knows what a search looks like from inside the company and from the firm running it.
Kristin is a lifelong creative, with a background in theater, modeling, and hair and makeup for film and TV.
Fun fact: Kristin has been a background actor on every Law & Order series. She is also a proud, dues-paying member of SAG-AFTRA.
- Based in
- Hudson Valley, New York
- Prior firms
- Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers
- Affiliations
- CoreNet Global, New York City Chapter
- Education and certifications
- Executive MBA, Quantic School of Business & Technology BS, Dramatic Arts, Film & Television Production, St. John’s University AOS, American Academy of Dramatic Arts SPHR, Senior Professional in Human Resources SHRM-SCP, SHRM Senior Certified Professional CDR, Certified Diversity Recruiter
- 2025Women of InfluenceGlobeSt ↗
- 2024Top 20 Agency RecruitersTopRecruiter ↗
- 2022Notable HR LeaderCrain’s New York Business ↗
- 2021–22Top 20 Corporate RecruitersTopRecruiter, #8 and #10 ↗
- BOMA New York, International Women’s Day panelAccelerating Action in Commercial Real Estate2026 →
- BOMA New York podcastGrowth Through Connection: women’s leadership in commercial real estate2026 →
- CoreNet Global panelNavigating the CRE Job Market, New York2025 →
- TALiNT Partners workshopHuman and artificial intelligence in staffing, New York2024 →
- From Day OneSpeaker, DEI in talent acquisition2024 →
- TALiNT Partners, Talent & TIARAsFeatured speaker, Dallas2023 →
- CoreNet Global Eastern Regional SymposiumPanelist, early careers talent acquisition in CRE, Washington, DC2022
Havanna Velazquez
Recruiting Partner
I spent years in beauty before I ever touched a search desk. I hired and led teams across national department store retail. I ran commission-only recruiting, and I know strong beauty talent because I've been in the room with it.
Havanna runs her own searches. She sources and screens candidates, builds the slate, manages the client relationship, and brings in new business.
She led a state-level desk filling high-volume, commission-only roles, where every hire came from outreach. She still works that way, mapping the market herself and reaching out to people directly.
- Practice lead
- Beauty & Consumer Goods
- Languages
- English, Spanish
Fourteen counters, one launch date.
- 14department store locations
- 2states, opened at once
- under 3months to open all 14
A California beauty brand was opening on the East Coast in 14 department store locations across New York and New Jersey, all at once.
Each location needed a brand ambassador who could represent the brand, perform beauty services, and sell to a daily goal. Because the services were hands-on, every hire needed an esthetician license, on top of being able to teach the product and sell it.
The launch needed 14 people who could do all three, in two states, on a date that could not move.
Havanna sourced, hired, and trained the full team. All 14 locations were open and running in under three months.
Reese Blankenship
Associate, Executive Search
Outside of recruiting, I’m an independent artist, illustrator, and animator. I’ve always been drawn to storytelling and creative expression, and I enjoy finding ways to bring ideas to life visually. I’m excited to bring that same curiosity and creativity into my work at 24 Hour Search.
Reese is an Associate at 24 Hour Search, where she supports the firm’s leadership searches.
Her background is in psychology and people-centered leadership work, and she brings that understanding of people to every candidate and client conversation.
- Background
- Psychology, people-centered leadership
- Education
- University of Massachusetts Amherst
Lindsay-Faith Taylor
Accounting & Finance Associate
Working as an EMT for eight years instilled in me a level of discipline, precision, sound decision-making, and composure under pressure. I carry those same principles into 24 Hour Search’s accounting, applying a high level of accuracy, accountability, and attention to detail to all that I do.
Lindsay-Faith Taylor is the Accounting and Finance Associate at 24 Hour Search, where she runs the financial operations that keep the firm moving: accounts payable and receivable, and payroll.
Before accounting, she spent eight years as a nationally registered EMT, delivering pre-hospital and intra-hospital care to AHA and NREMT standards, and she remains an independent BLS instructor. She is also Kristin’s sister.
- Focus
- Accounts payable and receivable, payroll
- Background
- Nationally registered EMT, eight years; BLS instructor
Your next leader is one conversation away.
You pay when your hire signs.
We reply within one business day.