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Jason León understands what it means to reshape who sits at the table and what one person can do once they are there. That belief sits at the heart of Executives & Boards (E&B), a Washington DC-based search and board advisory practice created to reexamine how diverse, board-ready leaders are identified, prepared, and elevated.
León, CEO and managing director of E&B, has helped countless executives make their own leap into board service, and he’s done it himself, a move he affectionately calls “From the Bronx to the Boardroom.” He’s done it for others, he’s done it for himself, and now, maybe, he can do it for you.
The leader of E&B grew up in an inner-city environment where corporate role models were scarce, and the idea of someday sitting on a corporate board was so foreign that it might as well have been a different language entirely. But León would find his way in some truly novel means.
He pursued his undergraduate degree in Puerto Rico, studying accounting and ultimately graduating first in his class before passing the CPA exam. This is where it gets wild.
One day, León gets an unexpected phone call to meet with a local chief human resources officer about a career opportunity. Moments later, he would find himself in city hall interviewing with the city’s mayor. Not yet twenty-five years old, León accepted a role as CFO for the municipal government of Isabela, Puerto Rico, managing a budget of more than $30 million, a dozen departments, and services for roughly fifty thousand residents.
“That was the experience of learning the fundamentals,” León recalls. “You can’t be great at everything, and sometimes you just have to work on what’s in front of you. It was an incredible experience.” After five years, León wanted to refine his leadership skills and get on the city management path.
The young CPA returned to New York to earn a master’s in public administration at Baruch College, simultaneously landing a fellowship at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, one of the largest health-focused philanthropies in the country. There, he saw how thoughtfully placed leaders and long-horizon investments could change systems and communities over a decade or more. That’s where the idea started to take root.
“We just don’t often have the role models. I’m hoping to be part of that change and encourage people to get involved with their local community, advisory, or nonprofit boards early in their career.”
Jason León
It intensified in Washington, DC, at the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility (HACR), where León served as senior director overseeing programs, communications, and development in partnership with more than sixty Fortune 500 companies. HACR’s mission to push corporate America to put more Latinos in the boardroom, C‑suite, and procurement pipelines introduced him to retained executive search, an unknown industry to many young professionals, particularly in Latino communities.
At HACR, León kept noticing a pattern: many of the board appointments and C‑suite moves he tracked were not happening by accident. Experience, informal networks, and who you know were undoubtedly key ingredients to getting noticed. But once the door to opportunity opened, search firms had a pivotal seat at the table.
When a top ten executive search firm expressed interest, León recognized the opportunity. Over the next decade, he would lead the firm’s Washington, DC office, manage a multimillion‑dollar P&L, and specialize in board, financial services, healthcare, and nonprofit leadership searches.
So why venture out on his own?
Launches in executive search often look incremental. Executives & Boards is deliberately designed as a departure. León describes traditional search as “very transactional,” moving quickly from one assignment to the next and often spending more time on finding the right person than on the long-term arc of a candidate’s leadership journey. The founding thesis of E&B is that board service is not an end in itself. It is an accelerator for impact in executives’ careers, their companies, and their communities.
“You can’t be great at everything, and sometimes you just have to work on what’s in front of you.”
Jason León
The firm operates on a dual mission. On one hand, E&B is a classic high-end search partner, helping boards and CEOs place transformational leaders in board and C‑suite roles across corporate, private, and nonprofit sectors.
On the other hand, it is a leadership advisory platform for executives who are serious about board service but lack a roadmap. E&B helps them craft board‑ready profiles and bios, identify appropriate governance opportunities, and approach search firms and networks strategically. Additionally, E&B publishes curated resources, reports, expert insights, and real stories of how successful directors began their board journeys.
The catalyst for launching E&B, León explains, was a decade of conversations with executives, many of them Latino and leaders of color, who clearly could serve on boards but were missing the visibility, sponsors, or preparation to cross the threshold.
León saw roles come and go for people he knew were qualified, but he couldn’t spend the time inside a traditional search mandate to coach each person into readiness. E&B is his answer. Advisory work is a core component of the business model. The firm is intentionally investing time in executives who may not be on a board yet but are eager to pursue it and willing to do the work of building the right profile, experience, and strategic network to get there. This kind of long-view cultivation is what sets E&B apart.
What makes León uniquely credible in this space is that he inhabits both sides of the boardroom table. He is a seasoned search leader. He is also an active corporate and nonprofit director. He serves on the board of CareFirst, a major Mid‑Atlantic health insurer with more than $13 billion in revenue, and on the board of the GALA Hispanic Theatre, a leading cultural institution in Washington, DC.
“I think board service is an overlooked area, particularly for people of color,” León says. “We just don’t often have the role models. I’m hoping to be part of that change and encourage people to get involved with their local community, advisory, or nonprofit boards early in their career. It’s a great way to begin that life of service and better understand the steps to get where you want to be.”
