Sandra Pinnavaia

Sandra Pinnavaia leads BTG’s business innovation work, building and nurturing key channel partnerships and relationships with top clients. As a member of the founding leadership team, Sandra has played an essential role in developing BTG’s client base, innovating the go-to-market strategy, and transforming the way clients use high-end independent talent.

Sandra led the highly successful strategic partnership between BTG and Heidrick & Struggles for two years, from its inception through Heidrick’s acquisition of BTG in 2021. She continues to work with senior clients, helping them unlock business potential, seize opportunities, and solve problems using on-demand talent. With a laser focus on growth and innovation, Sandra closely monitors the marketplace to identify opportunities to expand the impact of on-demand talent as a category and to evolve BTG’s business model for the mutual benefit of independent talent and clients alike.

Sandra brings over 25 years of experience as a business leader, management consultant, and trusted advisor. She began her consulting career at McKinsey & Company, helping build the life sciences practice and paving the way for non-traditional (non-MBA) hires at the firm. She subsequently built and ran a successful freelance consulting practice, pioneering work as independent talent herself before the “gig” economy was so named.

Sandra hails from mid-Michigan and is a proud alum of Michigan State University. A Marshall Scholar, Sandra earned an M.Phil in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, Trinity College. Now a “real” New Yorker by virtue of having raised three children in NYC, she remains true to her midwestern roots and an avid Spartan. Sandra serves as a Trustee of the Bank Street College of Education, an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Hunter College, CUNY, and the co-chair of the Marshall Scholarship Selection Committee for the New York region.