Meet Our Team

Neil McLean sits in the Visionary seat for Sagacious Partners. He began his career as a high school football coach and that’s where he discovered his passion for bringing out the best performance in teams. Team building has been a continuous theme for Neil… serving as a U.S. Air Force Officer, as partner of an internet startup that he grew from 8-45 employees, and again in 2001 when he formed Sagacious Partners.

Neil’s firm is a South Carolina based executive coaching firm dedicated to helping companies and communities grow. McLean is the first Certified EOS Implementer™ in S.C. and has worked with more than 40 CEOs and leadership teams helping them gain traction and breakthrough results in their businesses.

McLean received his BS-Engineering and MBA from the University of South Carolina and participated in executive education programs at Wharton and Harvard Business Schools. Neil serves as Vice Chair for Providence Health and was named to Columbia Business Monthly’s  “50 Most Influential” in 2011 and 2012.

Neil lives on a pond just outside of Columbia in Blythewood, S.C. with his wife Deb and dogs Pete and Cooper. Children Veronica and Thomas are off to college but still maintain bedrooms in the home.

Hometown: Columbia, S.C.

What do you do really well?
See the big picture. Help others believe. Simplify. Coach. Cook.

What are some things you care about deeply?
Deb, Veronica and Thomas. USC Football.

What upsets you?
Excuses. When the Gamecocks lose games that they are supposed to win.

What grounds you?
Walking or running around the old cow field next door to my house. Fripp Island. Planting new things in my yard.

What word describes you best as a person?
Sagacious (here’s a definition)

Kristin Hamilton sits in the marketing seat and is part of the leadership team for Sagacious Partners. She joined SP in 2013 and leads the marketing and communications efforts for the company and for several SP clients and initiatives. Kristin’s marketing experience comes from both the agency side (Erwin Penland in Greenville; Edelman in Chicago) and in-house (NAI Earle Furman in Greenville). She graduated from the University of Florida Summa Cum Laude with a B.S. in Advertising in 2006, and later with a Master’s in Advertising. She’s had the unique privilege of working remotely for SP since her oldest daughter was born in 2016 and currently lives in Spartanburg, S.C. with her husband Alex, daughters Hope and Sadie, and two dogs. When she’s not working or chasing a toddler around, she spends her time working on house projects in their historic 1920’s home, volunteering through the Junior League, or cheering on the Wofford College Men’s Golf Team that her husband coaches.

Hometown: Okeechobee, FL (more cows than people)

What do you do really well?
Organize. Make lists. Laundry. Entertain toddlers.

What are some things you care about deeply?
Work/Life balance. Girls’ weekends. Agriculture. Dairy products.

What upsets you?
Misplacing something. Last-minute changes. Toddler tantrums for no reason (is there ever a reason?).

What grounds you?
Cuddling with my daughter (when she sits still). Relaxing with a glass of wine and a mountain view. A weekend away with my husband. A clean house.

What word describes you best as a person?
Dedicated.

Margaret joined Sagacious Partners as a Project Manager in January 2019, bringing with her a background in managing volunteers, special events and educational programs. She found her way to Columbia in 2013 by way of a position with the AmeriCorps VISTA program, in which she coordinated local tutoring sites for the United Way of the Midlands Reading Consortium. Since then, she has held positions at St. Lawrence Place, where she managed volunteers and programs for youth in transitional housing, and EdVenture, where she worked primarily in development. Margaret is a proud Paladin and graduated magna cum laude from Furman University in 2013 with a degree in psychology.

A native of rural Georgia, Margaret loves that Columbia has an element of that small-town feel while also having a movie theater (multiple, actually) less than 40 minutes away. Outside of work, she enjoys exploring Columbia on foot (i.e., running), volunteering with her church, leading a book club and spending lots of time with the people who make life sweet.

Hometown: Madison, GA (#1 Small Town in America)
What do you do really well?  
Make pancakes. Encourage others. See things that go overlooked.
What are some things you care about deeply?
My family and community. My neighbor’s cat. Really good stories. Understanding.
What upsets you?
Bad drivers. Thoughtlessness. Ketchup. Homeward Bound.
What grounds you?
My friends and family and their grace, wisdom, and encouragement. Any book by C.S. Lewis. Running.
What word describes you best as a person?
Loyal

A native New Yorker, Anton has made Columbia his home since 2012. He’s tried his hand at a lot of different things, from researching the properties of nanomaterials to running a summer college prep program for underserved high school students to writing lyric essays about identity and mental health. Anton enjoys combining his technical savvy and writerly creativity to support his team and get a business’s left brain talking to its right.

Prior to joining Sagacious Partners in 2018, Anton worked at Free Times as an Office and Circulation Manager and at K2 Tech Group as an Operations Coordinator. He continues to write creative nonfiction, earning fellowships and residencies with Lambda Literary, Breadloaf Orion, VONA/Voices, among others.

Outside of work, Anton enjoys eating at new restaurants and coaching his ragtag band of a tennis team, The Diminishing Returns.

Hometown: Yonkers, NY

What do you do really well? Keeping other people grounded. Interrogating assumptions. Eating.

What are some things you care about deeply? My dog Charlie. Literature, family, clothes that fit.

What upsets you? Passivity. A lack of imagination. Unfulfilled potential. Incorrect toilet paper orientation.

What grounds you? Quiet reflection. Reading.

What word describes you best as a person? Consonance