Tony Kroening, Managing Partner

How does your personal mission serve SIMA Partners clients?

For over 30 years I have been helping people get aligned to their purpose and life work.  Whether it was working with college students and young adults for ten years, or as a search professional for the last 20 years, there is nothing as fulfilling to me as seeing people do work that they love and what they succeed at.  And, in the end, to see people make a contribution to mission, community and organizations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Experience

Since 1994, Tony has been a Midwest leader in corporate retained search and a national executive recruiter for non-profit organizations.  Tony spent 11 years as a Co-Managing Partner and eventually owner of VTL Search, one of Minnesota’s largest corporate retained search firms.  At its peak, VTL Search oversaw the executive search work of 20 search professionals. 

 

Tony has worked on senior level searches for corporations and non-profit organizations including: Cirrus Aviation, with over 50 completed searches in over 2 decades of work; Entegris Corporation with over 25 searches over a Decade; and recent executive level searches for the CEO of Sintex-Wausaukee Plastics, CFO of The Bernard Group, and COO of OMSC.  Non-profit searches include; World Vision US, Urban Ventures, Union Gospel Mission of St. Paul, Avinity, VEAP, Minnehaha Academy, and the University of Northwestern St. Paul to name of few.

 

Over more than two decades, Kroening has completed over 100 executive searches in both the corporate and faith based non-profit sector.  In 2006, Tony joined SIMA International as a Managing Director, opening the Minneapolis office.  At that time, he also founded the search firm Ministry by Design, which was dedicated to senior level searches for large churches nationwide.  At its peak, MBD grew to seven full-time search professionals. 

 

Tony is a Certified SIMA Assessment Consultant.  Over the last 17 years, he has assessed over 300 leaders in providing job fit, search selection, and career coaching.  Tony is certified as an EQ-I Assessments Coach, which is a complement to SIMA Assessment tools.  Tony is also a found Partner of Pruvio Partners, LLC, which is an entity that creates and innovates unique assessment tools and approaches for coaching, succession, and selection www.motivationalcore.com . 

 

Giving Back

• Tony gives back much of his time to coaching and mentoring Christian leaders in career transition and vocational calling.​

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Board Work (Past & Present)

• Chairman of the Board of Directors for Real Resources (formerly YouthWorks, Inc.)

• Chairman of the Board for TreeHouse

• Founding Board Member of the multi-million dollar ministry software start-up “The Table Project”

• Founding Partner in Pruvio Ventures, LLC

• Founding Partner in MCORE, Inc.  

 

Education

• Master of Divinity from Bethel Theological Seminary in St. Paul, MN 

• Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Minnesota 

 

Fun/Hobbies

• Enjoys spending family time at his century old log cabin in northern Wisconsin.

 

Personal

• Tony and his wife Karna (a Special Education Teacher) and have two sons Karsten & Kai and a red Labrador named Ruby.