Sarah Marks brings the uncompromisingly high standards of top-tier legal training and practice, the judgment developed through years of executive leadership in an organization with a billion-dollar annual budget, and the operational expertise honed in a high-growth technology company.
A paragon is a model of excellence: the standard others are measured against. Paragon Strategic Consulting was built with that standard in mind and with an approach rooted in common-sense solutions to complex problems.
Sarah Marks founded Paragon in 2025 after more than two decades at the intersection of law, public service, education leadership, technology, and organizational strategy. Her first role after college was Deputy Press Secretary for U.S. Senator Evan Bayh, where she learned to write and think with precision under real-time scrutiny. She went on to earn her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and began her legal career at Holland & Hart, advising executives and HR leaders on executive compensation, ERISA, and employee benefits. She also practiced in the area of estate planning, advising high-net worth families, business owners, and fiduciaries on issues ranging from tax planning and succession planning to charitable giving.
She then spent five years in senior leadership at Denver Public Schools, first as Chief of Staff in the Elementary Division and then as Executive Director of the HR Partner Team, where she led a 25-person team supporting all people managers across a 15,000-employee district. Her portfolio included HR accountability for school closures, turnarounds, and reductions in force, as well as building systems meant to last, including a competency-based hiring model still used to hire roughly 1,000 teachers annually. From there she joined Guild Education during a period of exceptional growth, helping expand its academic partner network from six institutions to nearly 100 and growing her own partnership portfolio from $1M to more than $25M in annual recurring revenue.
Paragon works with leaders of organizations across sectors on three kinds of work: the HR foundations an organization is built on, the talent systems that develop its people, and the governance and strategy that enable transformative results.
Sarah is based in Denver, Colorado. Having both played and coached tennis at the collegiate level, she remains a competitive, nationally ranked tennis player — a through-line of discipline, competitiveness, and commitment to excellence that carries into her work.
Paragon does not stop at recommendations. The work includes building the plan, aligning stakeholders, creating implementation infrastructure, and driving execution.
Sarah's background spans law, public education, government, and high-growth technology, giving her the range to step in and add value quickly.
Sarah is no longer a practicing attorney, but her years of legal training and practice remain central to how she works: rigorous issue-spotting, disciplined analysis, structured judgment, careful documentation, and practical guidance for leaders navigating complex organizational decisions.
