Christa Ventikos
Founder and Principal

Christa has over 20 years of recruiting high profile executives in the emerging digital technology, media and entertainment space for venture-backed, private equity, and established Fortune 500 companies. 
Prior to founding the firm in 2005, Christa was Director of Executive Search at AOL Time Warner, where she hired hundreds of executives across the enterprise including AOL, Court TV, Turner, Warner Music Group, and Time Warner Cable. 

Prior to joining AOL Time Warner, Christa was the Director of Executive Search at CMGI, an Internet incubator, where she formed and managed an internal search team that hired executive talent for 17 diverse Internet companies. She conducted executive searches domestically and internationally across many functional areas: Creative Services, Finance, Human Resources, Legal, Operations, Marketing, Sales, Strategy, Board and Technology. Prior to CMGI, Christa recruited for an array of companies such as American Express, Siemens, Fidelity Investments and GE.

Christa earned her Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Language and International Trade from Southern Illinois University. She also studied Economics at the University of Mainz in Germany. Christa is a Board Advisor for Women’s Entrepreneurship Day.

Claudia Dragun
Principal

Claudia has over 15 years of recruiting experience, primarily in digital media. She has diverse staffing experience inside Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, and agencies. 

Prior to joining Ventikos Associates in 2007, Claudia worked for Revolution Health Group, a highly visible start-up company in Washington DC founded by Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL. Claudia recruited C-level executives and helped the company grow from approximately 30 to 300 employees in one year. Prior to Revolution Health, Claudia recruited employees for Disney's Publishing Group's successful launch of a new digital and print publication, Wondertime.

Claudia's corporate and executive recruiting experience includes six years at AOL during its explosive growth in the late 1990's and early 2000's. She is an expert at sourcing top talent across multi-functional areas including Marketing, Sales, Technology, Corporate Development, Finance, Human Resources, and Operations. 

Claudia holds a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from American University.