About Silicon Partners

Four Decades of Building Teams That Drive Value.

Silicon Partners builds upon The Ferneborg Group’s time-tested excellence, merging cutting-edge talent systems with hands-on internal Head of Talent experience, deep-technology recruiting, and PhD Residency Programs. Focused on pioneering technologies, we empower tomorrow’s innovators by ensuring the right leaders, engineers, and researchers are in place—continuing a tradition of quality and integrity that has defined the Ferneborg name for decades.

History & Highlights

The Ferneborg Group

1994 - 2024

  • Registered the world's first search domain: execsearch.com
  • Co-Developed two Commercial ATS Systems:
    FileMaker Recruiter Pro (in collaboration with Claris/Apple)
    Deskflow (in collaboration with Workflow International)
  • Chairman x2 of (AESC) Association of Executive Search Consultants
  • Founded two Global Search Alliances to compete with the largest search firms:  The Hever Group and Panorama Search Partners
  • Ranked in the Top-25 US Executive Search Firms for 30 years

Silicon Partners, Inc.

2024 - Today

  • The Ferneborg Group rebranded to Silicon Partners — core focus in frontier technologies;  sustainability, military-tech, and post-quantum cybersecurity.
  • Re-engineered business around AI for increased speed and accuracy, using in-house developed RAGs, AI Agents, and Automated systems.
  • Offering best-in-class sourcing, candidate management, reporting, and marketing automation.
  • 2025 - Officially re-launched business.

Our Team

Amanda Padilla

Sourcing Manager

amanda@siliconpartners.com

Alex Bowling

Senior Recruiter

alex@siliconpartners.com

Brooklyn Ford

Director of Growth

brooklyn@siliconpartners.com

Jason Miller

Senior Partner

jason@siliconpartners.com

John Ferneborg

Managing Partner

john@siliconpartners.com

John Ferneborg, Sr.

Senior  Advisor

ferne@siliconpartners.com

Company Advisors

Britt Sellin

Former SVP Human Resources @ Cloudera

britt@siliconpartners.com

Our Team Values

Partnership Mindset

Transaction-based recruiting is dead. We build lasting partnerships by truly understanding your technical vision and challenges. From initial search through long-term growth, we're invested in your success because we measure our success through yours.

Deep Tech DNA

We don't just understand technology - we've built technical organizations from the inside. Having worked alongside world-class engineers and technical leaders, we know what exceptional looks like because we've lived it. This isn't recruiting - it's technical partnership built on real experience.

Precision at Speed

Traditional search moves too slowly for deep tech. We've engineered a better way, combining custom AI tools with deep technical expertise to cut search times in half. But speed without precision is just rushing - we accelerate while raising the bar on quality.

Innovation First

Innovation isn't just what we look for - it's how we work. We've built our own AI systems, RAGs, and benchmarking tools because traditional recruiting technology wasn't good enough. When existing solutions don't cut it, we build better ones.

Our values are built from decades of experience in recruiting and deep technology. We believe in moving fast with precision, speaking technical truth, and building lasting partnerships. Innovation isn't just what we seek—it's how we work.

From custom AI tools to agentic benchmarks, we're constantly innovating how we identify and evaluate exceptional talent. This isn't about using technology—it's about engineering better solutions for technical search.


Silicon Partners: Deep Tech's Premier Recruiting Team.