Marie Africa is a trusted leadership recruiter with a proven track record of building executive teams for startups and high-growth organizations. As a Senior Principal at SwingSearch, she specializes in go-to-market (GTM) and general and administrative (G&A) leadership recruiting, working across both consumer and B2B tech startups. Always curious and known for her great listening skills, Marie loves working with fast-moving companies and finding them the doers and executors they need to be a game-changing company.
Prior to rejoining SwingSearch, Marie led executive search at Coursera, where she successfully placed top-tier leaders in critical roles across the organization. With her background in sales and account management at CEB and Gartner, Marie brings a unique perspective as a former operator—experiences that have directly contributed to her success in search.
When she isn’t closing searches, Marie is probably hiking, eating sushi, reading, or doing something fun with her husband and 2 daughters.
Notable Placements:
- CRO, Stellic
- GM Coursera for Business, Coursera
- VP Global Business Partners, Coursera
- VP Product Marketing, Coursera
- VP Global Business Partners, Coursera
- VP Enterprise Marketing, Coursera
- VP Enterprise Marketing, Udacity
- VP Sales, Fiddler
- VP Sales, Preply
- VP Customer Experience, Tempo
- VP Customer Success, Seesaw
- VP Customer Success, Pathmatics
- Head of People & Talent, Stellic
- Head of Demand Generation, Freshpaint
- Head of Customer Success, Mux
- Head of Customer Success, Outlier
- Director of Enterprise Sales, Northspyre
- Director of Customer Success, Headspace
- Director of Client Success, Level
If I had one motto to live by:
Never stop learning.
Favorite quote:
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”
– Henry Ford
Fun fact:
My maiden name is Austria (Yes, I upgraded from a country to a continent!)