Don’t try pidgeon holing Charles Bretz … a gifted mind has many offerings.

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Charles Bretz manages Crowe Horwath’s Sourcing Team and is responsible for current needs and pipeline development in Audit & Financial Advisory, Tax Consulting, Performance (IT Consulting) and Risk Consulting. Other areas of responsibility include the Employee Referral Program, Vendor Management, Employment Advertising, Metrics & Analytic’s, Social Media for Recruiting and Recruiter/Sourcer Training. Charles is an integral part of leadership team implementing Crowe’s Jobs2Web efforts.

Charles has been a speaker at “The Learning Conference 2011,” and at Sourcecon Atlanta 2012. Reading his Sourcecon bio speaks highly of how much of an impact he has made in his career over the years; “Over all, Charles has over fifteen years of experience in recruiting and sourcing, providing strategic, tactical, and competitive intelligence to both private and public sector…As a sourcing guru, Charles is sought out for his industry expertise and has written articles for Talent Management Magazine, Recruiting Trends, Baseline Magazine, and many other publications. He has done multiple radio media tours speaking on social media and military recruiting. Charles is a member of the Staffing Management Association of Greater Chicago.”

I had the good fortune of being introduced to Charles by our mutual dear friend and colleague, Michele Porfilio at the Linkedin Talent Connect Conference in Las Vegas this past October and then again at ONREC in Chicago. In the six years I have been featuring the players of note within our industry, and the unsung heroes who contribute to their successes – my readers will recognize that I have stated often, that I was impressed by the expertise, the life story, or a certain character trait. In Charles Bretz, I was given front center seats in each of our meetings to observe all three factors for a compelling reason to share the story of my colleague, as a technically astute, hands-on sourcing expert, as a family man, and as someone I call my friend. Charles can speak as passionately about how he met his wife as his classmate sweetheart, his days as a prodigal musician who purposely missed key notes for a key scholarship to turn to other pursuits, and about sourcing methodologies and processes. In each subject matter, as noted, he speaks with the same emphatic tone, and sincerity that catches your complete attention. In all things, Charles sincere and for all these reasons I can honestly state I recall poignant and mundane aspects we communicated in vivid detail. You remember Charles, and you know he remembers you – its not that kind of passing in the hall way type of familiarity, but a kindred spirit with an intellect you want to collaborate in some manner. I’ll take a chance meeting with Charles anyway I can. A voracious reader has a lot of stories to share, and if anything else, I’d like to have Charles on my trivial pursuit team. Crowe Horwath prides itself as the little engine that could in the world of the Big Four professional services industry. They achieve much by having the very best and brightest staffing organization thrive on efficiency and they have the awards and best practice presentations at an industry function near you to see why. On a personal note, I was immediately able to discern why Michele Porfilio places such high regard and depends on his contributions to make her talent acquisition roadmap a destination worth venturing to. We all know of her own prowess on the speaker circuit, but Michele has an organization to run, and we see in Charles how the wheels spin, and the gaskets seal the center of excellence they are developing for a professional services organization of their scale. Hiring the right people are the true hallmarks of leadership, and in this person, we see one more example of why she succeeds. In Charles, I know, and desire, as his team members do – to see him succeed for what he can do as well as who he is as a person. In this instance, however, I invite our Six Degrees audience to read and learn first-hand why Charles Bretz is certain to be at a stage near you in the coming years as a subject matter expert.

Crowe Horwath is a top 10 public accounting and consulting firm, growing at a double-digit pace for more than 40 years.It is a professional services firm with offices throughout the United States, including California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. In addition to its U.S. presence, Crowe serves clients worldwide as an independent member of the Crowe Horwath International global professional services network. Crowe’s services include assurance, benefit plans, financial advisory, forensic services, performance consulting, risk consulting, tax and technology, among others. Crowe customers primarily consists of large and middle market public companies and large privately held businesses.

According to Accounting Today, SourceMedia’s publication servicing the public accounting profession in the United States, Crowe brands itself as “The Unique Alternative to the Big Four.”

Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world, Charles.

CHARLES: Married for 13 years to Stacey Bretz. We first met in the 3rd grade and grew up a few blocks from each other. We were friends throughout school and briefly dated in High School and again after attending separate colleges for a year or so and final got back together the third and final time the day before Thanksgiving in 1995. I have two wonderful children, John (11) and Jessica (9) along with 2 loving dogs Izzie, a Kelpie which is an Australian sheep herding dog and Quincy who’s a shepherd, retriever mix and who will fetch a ball till your arm falls off.

We love to travel and camp. We started out tent camping, but a few years ago, we got tired of sleeping on the ground and we purchased a pop-up trailer a few years ago. Our next camping trip will be with friends to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, going to see and explore the west side this year as we visited the east side of the Michigan UP last year. One of our favorite family activities to do while camping, or for a day out at home, is Geocaching. Geocaching is an outdoor activity using a GPS to find hidden containers called geocaches, or caches, anywhere in the world. Caches could be as big as a bread box or as small as the very tip of your pinky and most are hidden really well in fallen logs, under rocks, bridges, park benches, basically anywhere. It’s a great, fun family activity that teaches navigation, map reading, observation and most importantly gets you outdoors. I enjoy winding down at the end of the day by reading books and magazines. I usually will read 3-4 magazines and 1 book a month.

Six Degrees: How many years have you been in the staffing industry?

CHARLES: Hard to believe but 15 years, doesn’t seem that long.

Six Degrees: How did you get started as a recruiter?

CHARLES: I started at a Management Recruiters International franchise in 1996 as a full lifecycle recruiter in Accounting and Finance. Days after September 11, 2001 the agency transitioned me into a sourcing/candidate development role for the Biotech practice which was severely lacking candidates and I fell in love with this piece of the recruiting process. I loved the challenge to find and engage talent. In 2006, I decided to transition to the corporate world and I became the first sourcer that CDW Corporation, a B2B reseller of technology products and services, hired. In February 2011, my network informed me of a great opportunity and in March I joined Crowe Horwath LLP as the Sourcing Manager for our experienced hires. The sourcing team is responsible for identifying talent for our tax, audit & advisory, risk and performance business units. Roles include accountant, auditors and IT consultants from Senior to Partner levels nationwide.

Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your sourcing/recruiting career?

CHARLES: I would say when I transitioned to a pure sourcing/candidate development role in 2001 at MRI. If not for that, I don’t know if I would have found the sourcing function. Sourcing was in its infancy at the time and the agency provided me time to learn and grow in my new profession.

Six Degrees: Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, aor model your career after?

CHARLES: There are so many. Some of them may not even know it, but I would say a few of my biggest influences are Shally Steckerl, Glenn Gutmacher and more recently Glen Cathey, Mike Notaro, and Michele Porfilio. There are many more that I have not mentioned and it’s no slight to them.

Six Degrees: Tell us about your role at Crow Horwath LLP

CHARLES: Currently I’m the Sourcing Manager at Crowe Horwath LLP. I oversee the day to day sourcing team (5 sourcers), our Employee Referral Bonus Program, vendor management from a tools and resource perspective, source metrics/analytics and training. I also am involved with our employment branding and social media from a recruiting perspective.

Six Degrees: (A) What other companies’ recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples?

CHARLES: Being that Crowe Horwath is an Accounting & Consulting firm, I always keep an eye on what our competition is doing, so Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, KPMG. On the IT consulting side, I watch Accenture, Avanade and Protiviti to name a few. Of course Microsoft, Starbucks, Dell, Deluxe and Sodexo keep raising the bar as well.

Six Degrees: (B) In what aspects are their talent acquisition organizations mentionable in terms of best practices?

CHARLES: I would say one of the common traits they all have is that they are forward thinking and not afraid to fail. By that, I mean they are willing to try new approaches that are well thought out and they execute them for a long enough period where you can measure their impact.

Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future?

CHARLES: The greatest impact I see is the lack of students in the STEM curriculum in our colleges and universities. We already have a shortage of talent in these fields and with less and less students going into these professions it will only get worse. In order to compete, these highly skilled and high paying roles will have to move offshore in order for our company’s to grow and survive in the global economy.

Six Degrees: Tell us about your broader involvement within the staffing industry:

CHARLES: I’m a member of the Staffing Management Association of Chicago and I try to attend as many of their events as I can each year. This year I attended Jobs2Web Collaborate 2011, LinkedIn’s TalentConnect 2011, Onrec, and I co-presented at The Recruiting Learning conference. I’ll be presenting at SourceCon this February.

Six Degrees: Can you detail how the recession has affected your particular industry niche?

CHARLES: Since I joined the firm in March of this year, I did not see the effects that it had previously. Currently, it’s had little effect on us from a recruiting perspective. In fact, we are back to or above normal hiring for Crowe.

Six Degrees: Aside from simply the generic term “Networking” what specific efforts have you made on your own behalf, or on behalf of colleagues to broaden your opportunities. Are there specific groups, both online and in-person that have proved fruitful in extending your personal brand and job seeking prospects?

CHARLES: I try to identify 3-4 people attending each event I attend that I never have met or spoken with that I target to introduce myself to. I have a specific reason for selecting each of the people I target and why I want to expand my network with them. I also try to identify how I can provide value back to them as well so we both benefit.

Six Degrees: Given your own Trial and Error experiences as a Networker, what advice do you have for your peers on what NOT to do?

CHARLES: Realize that you cannot just take, but have to provide value back. Also, if your network reaches out, get back to them in a timely manner. Even if it’s just letting them know you got their message and need a few days to get back due to work or personal demands. Don’t be a black hole and just not respond.

Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there?

CHARLES: Preparing myself to take my boss’s job or a similar role elsewhere. I’m not ready yet, in my opinion, so I’m learning everything I can from her and others to take myself to the next level.

“Working with Charles has been an absolute delight. His social media savviness and competitive intelligence gathering skill sets are key differentiators. He’s an experienced sourcer with many candidate wins under his belt. Charles is focused on producing results for his internal clients. He prides himself on being able to overcome an internal clients expectations and most of the time exceeds them. He’s a true resource to the team as he is a foundational element to the success of the entire Talent Acquisition organization.” February 24, 2011
Jen Klein, PHR, Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition, CDW

“Charles is undoubtedly the most resourceful & talent sourcing specialist I’ve had the pleasure of working with during my contract at CDW. From a personal standpoint, he is a warm, friendly & genuine team player who is a delightful professional to partner with.” November 7, 2010
Leahanna Horn, Contract Recruiter, Horn Consulting Services

“Charles is extremely knowledgeable and an expert in technology and online media.” December 29, 2009
Mary Pilot, Account Manager, NAS Recruitment Communications

“I have worked with Charles now for the past 2+ years while at CDW. Charles is a consummate professional and always a pleasure to work with. He is prompt and an honest individual who can relied upon for all things related to recruitment and reporting. He is extremely knowledgeable about the industry and business trends. In addition, he is very well networked. Charles has provided me with some excellent candidates for roles I have worked on and is always open to feedback. I have truly enjoyed working with Charles, and I highly recommend him!” December 18, 2009
Jennifer Pither, CIR, Corporate Sales Recruiter, CDW Corporation

“Charles is a talented researcher and sourcer, knowledgeable about where and how to identify passive candidates. I’ve had the pleasure of working with him at CDW, where he has helped identify candidates for various positions. Charles stays tuned into the various websites and utilizes unique techniques to work his magic.” December 27, 2007
Lynn Saratore TopLinked, CDR CIR PHR, Senior Recruiter, CDW

“Charles has been able to find the proverbial “needle in the haystack” when other avenues have come up dry. He makes an effort to understand the requirements and responsibilities of the position being sourced for in order to target appropriate candidates.” December 12, 2007
Beth Lewis, Senior Technical Recruiter, CDW

“Charles has an ability to source for and find specific candidates utilizing self developed techinques. He is particularly skilled in identifying the passive applicant” December 7, 2006
Paul Kinderis, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist, CDW

“Charles was a very valuable contributor at OSG Global. He is that rare person on who one can rely. He fully understands responsibility and the necessity of supporting his team and his company. He is an unselfish contributor. Charles, an early innovator, easily ventured into and mastered new territory. He then was able to clearly communicate what he had learned to others. I found him to be dedicated, optimistic and strong of spirit. He was successful in his efforts and invaluable in the high level of success then achieved by OSG. I endorse Charles with absolutely no reservation.” December 17, 2009
Ward Larkin, Managing Director, OSG Global

“I had the pleasure of knowing Charles while working at OSG Global he was very innovative in researching and finding candidates that normally were not available by traditional means. He was very supportive and to this day a great friend.” August 28, 2008
Randy Rose, Account Executive, OSG GLOBAL

“I have known Charles for 8 years and he is incredibly talented. He is an exceptional researcher and recruiter and is able to drill down to identify passive candidates. He is constantly coming-up with new ideas to enhance his skill set.” April 6, 2006
Shena R. Barlas, Sr. Director-Executive Search, OSG Global

“Charles is an invaluable asset in my work. He is able to keep current with technology, uncover hidden candidates and constantly bring new tools and ideas to the table. He is organized and efficient – and even attempts to train me!I would highly recommend Charles!” March 30, 2006
Marybeth Haas, Director, Statistics and Analytics Practice, OSG Global

“I worked with Charles for 2+ years at OSG. His sourcing skills are exceptional and he became the go-to person in advising us on the best approaches and methods for the sourcing of potential candidates for our clients using the internet, associations, user groups, etc.. He has an excellent network of individuals in a similar role at other organizations that he can tap into on a moments notice.” July 25, 2005
Mike Madura, Recruiter, OSG Global

Friends,
I will be sharing tidbits of my learnings as I travel from EMEA to India the next two weeks.”Dave Mendoza Tales From Paris, Luxembourg, Uk & India”

In the interim, I wanted to take this moment to share something rare. El Dave is Interviewee not Interviewer today!

Rather than referencing an interview of a corp staffing leader I engaged in to share their best practices … Today I share my own. I was interviewed by Luxembourg’s Leading Magazine “PaperJam” and I shared my own personal insights of the corporate staffing environment – the dysfunctions, the trends where inroads on innovation are being made – and my hopes.

QUOTE: “The Talent Strategist, blogger and sourcing consultant explained the ERE Recruiting Excellence Award for competitive mapping and talent strategy architecture he developed for Informatica in an event sponsored by OTYS recruiting technology. He talks about gathering competitive information using social media and other public domain web tools.”

VIDEO of my post keynote speech Interview discussion: Click http://bit.ly/k2uKkn

The Interview article itself is available as an online pdf – the second of two covers, starting on page 40
Click: http://bit.ly/iUQ1JG

I’ll be back in two weeks. In the interim, I’d appreciate friends who have a moment to tweet the links referenced. Thanks so much

On March 24th, 2011 my client, Informatica was recognized with the 2011 ERE Recruiting Excellence Award for the category of as “Most Strategic Use of Technology.” The award was based on the talent strategy architecture I developed this past year to establish a sustainable talent library founded upon a robust, competitive intelligence model. More significantly, the research oriented product was made actionable, as a plug and play resource for our talent acquisition team to access search syntax which could adopt and refine itself in progressive updates.

The award is the result of an aspiration to contribute on behalf of the corporate staffing industry in a meaningful and substantive way. It is a recognition of which I am grateful and humbled by and, as such, I want to take this opportunity to reflect on the mentors, clients and friends which assisted in making this achievement possible.

First and Foremost, I thank my friend and mentor, Shally Steckerl, Leading Global Recruitment and Sourcing Consultant, Professional Speaker (NSA, for his hands-on guidance and support of my career goals,his thought leadership contributions and curriculum; all of which resulted in fundamentally changing the way I process and produce in regards to my craft. Years ago, he took the time and patience to smash my prior perceptions and “rebuilt” the thought engine of how I looked at data. It was his family that took me in and became my own when I was unknown and and a virtual blank slate. Shally took the care to review my nomination submittal draft and in those hours as in always; never refrains from challenging my thought process to his credit. His influence directly fueled my world travels as a speaker and opened my eyes in a way I never expected.

The award itself could not have been possible had it been for Brad Cook, Vice President of Talent Acquisition Management at Informatica. It was his recognition and investment in the feasibility and potential of my talent strategy proposal that produced the staging ground for this effort to become reality. He has been a remarkable corporate staffing visionary, eager to embrace new ideas and enact technology-based change , globally within the organization. I am proud to have him as a client and, most of all, a friend who genuinely contributes to my evolving consultation practice.

I thank Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business Division; more popularly known as its Gaming function, and it’s forward thinking, staffing management. Greg Hart and Danielle Monaghan assigned an opportunity to develop an industry best practices review which helped formulate some of the actionable recommendations that evolved into the basis of this award. Prior drafts of a competitive intelligence workbook were incomplete, until the broader vision of a product based, social media landscape roadmap were fine tuned within the best practices model in my deliverable. It was conceived at Microsoft and implemented as a refined proposal to be enacted at Informatica. Greg was especially helpful in helping me navigate the thought process of my deliverables and the results are a cornerstone of the vision bearing fruit.

I thank Carol Mahoney and Danielle Monaghan, as both former clients, friends and thought leaders for their encouragement and actionable input on both my deliverables and career navigation. The two are remarkable women and their leadership style says much about how they have molded, and in many ways, reinvented organizations in environments of change. I truly look up to them and thank them for caring about my career and my personal development.

What makes them directly attributable for this award is that both looked at my efforts and saw a ‘product.’ It was their direct review of my work that had me see the potential of the direction in which I was taking talent data – and I say this without overly stating how important their influence was in this matter. I could just as easily had tinkered and moved on had they not noted the significance of what I was trying to develop.

I thank Gerry Crispin, sage of all encompasses true thought leadership in the talent industry. He has made a career of contributing data driven analysis to the tried and true of best practices and fostered much of the meaningful conversation of impact of social media and emphasized the human aspect within the digital divide. He has made a career of making others known and recognizing conversations outside the norm of the conference circuit. Indeed, he makes chatter into an industry conversation. Several years ago when Shally introduced me to him, it was a phone call out of the blue from Gerry a few days later that was memorable. He took the time to ask about my goals and ideas and provided encouragement to put them to paper. In all certainty, I mark that conversation with all the significance that it deserves. It brought me out of my old environment into the new. He likely tires of my remarks in this regard, but it is sincerely stated and important to voice that when thought leaders encourage others to the stage of ideas … things happen.

All stated, nothing happens in a vacuum. My wife, Heidi, endures my long hours and my children, Tino and Siena Blue, recognize that my efforts contribute to their well being and for that I am consistently humbled and appreciative.

I thank the judging panel of the ERE Recruiting Excellence for this recognition, and I share it with every person who has taken the time to listen, question and encourage prior to and since.

This is an opportunity to likewise show appreciation for indirect influences; if not necessarily attributable for this recognition that I wish to highlight as reminders of what makes this vocation special. Margo Rose and Her “Hire Friday” efforts contribute to the well being of others in a manner that doesn’t fit neatly into a category within our industry, but nonetheless is impactful. Helping others in need with the resources of the talent industry reminds us of significance of our vocation. Dennis Smith, who as a staffing manager was one of the very first to take Web 2.0 into practice and whose humor and insights as one of the pioneer bloggers in recruitment encouraged my domain name purchase and first blog post. He is a life long friend who deserves continual recognition as a pivotal player in my professional brand development. He might as well have created a clock widget of the many he introduced me to, – to count down my blog creation.

Which leads me finally to …

Thank you to my readers at SixDegreesfromDave.com for watching and reading as I have grown into who I am at home and at work. I promise to continue to contribute and share.

Best Wishes

SourceCon NYC:
February 8-9, 2011
Register today: http://www.sourcecon.com/2011nyc

SourceCon is back and for the first time ever hits New York City on February 8-9.

About SourceCon

SourceCon originally began as an idea to develop an educational conference uniquely dedicated to internet and telephone researchers, sourcers, sourcing leaders, and those interested in learning more about the art and science of recruitment sourcing. Born out of the necessity to recognize sourcing and research as important components of the recruitment process, and to provide a continuation of knowledge sharing and insight to the growing and diverse sourcing and research community, the SourceCon website was launched after the very first SourceCon conference in 2007 and has been a destination site for information, knowledge, and news for the sourcing community ever since. In the summer of 2009, SourceCon was purchased by ERE Media and the tradition continues.

Join fellow students of the art of the Sourcing craft in NYC for the sourcing conference that started it all. Over three years ago, SourceCon began as an opportunity for the sourcing community to come together in one place to learn from one another, share best practices, and forge relationships that would span the globe. I am definitely excited it will be in the Big Apple!

Nowhere else will you be able to learn from so many of the best and most respected minds in the sourcing profession in one location. Join your colleagues this February to learn about researcher resources, strategic sourcing skills, time-tested team–building techniques, and further your understanding of what sourcing is and how it is evolving.

There’s something for everyone at SourceCon; their speakers are from all walks of life and include corporate sourcing leaders, agency sourcers, solopreneurs, and a few unexpected surprises! If you are in a corporate leadership role, we have a special invite-only event in store for you.

Led by conference chair, renowned sourcing industry trainer, Shally Steckerl, the conference will be held at Comix in Manhattan’s booming Meatpacking District. Shally Steckerl will kick off SourceCon NYC by welcoming attendees to NYC and to the conference. He will recap of what’s been going on in the sourcing world since the last SourceCon event and provide important information and tips for making the best of the conference and the information you will learn. This venue will provide a great setting for learning, sharing, conversation, and fun — the perfect atmosphere for SourceCon to be held!

So managers, bring your teams along with you because there truly is something for everyone at SourceCon. Stay tuned for updates on the agenda and speaker lineup over the next few weeks.

“Tell me, and I will forget – show me, and I may remember – involve me, and I will understand.” -Confucius

Get involved with SourceCon and register today!

SourceCon: Look Beyond the Obvious

In this day and age of information overload, it is easier to skim the surface to get just barely enough knowledge on a topic than to dive deep and gain real understanding. As recruiting research professionals, sourcers are charged with going deeper than that: we must look beyond the obvious to find what we’re searching for.

Possessing data is no longer the advantage – it’s what you do with it that makes you competitive. At SourceCon NYC, they aim to show you some new and interesting ways to find and view data and then put it to strategic use for your organization. Whether you’re a corporate sourcing leader, a solo practitioner, a brand new researcher, or wondering whether it’s time for you to hire one, there will be something at SourceCon for you!

Is Sourcing Different than Recruiting? I think so!

Recruiting is done in some form by everyone; good and bad, but true sourcing is done by few, and done well by fewer.

The traditional way of finding great talent barely worked well enough when the pace of business was much slower, industry and work forces were more loyal, and business trends were easier to catch, follow, and predict. Effective sourcing is the magic behind the big headlines; whether the headlines about your company are good or bad can most likely be traced back to whom you found and put on your team.

We are truly a Sourcing Family, and we are committed to the advancement of sourcing as a global profession. We focus on the critical factors that make up the foundation of effective sourcing through the promotion of continual learning.

The philosophy is that the future of corporate successes will be from those who have mastered sourcing… and SourceCon is guardian of this truth.

The leadership behind Sourcecon are excited that the best and brightest minds in the industry will come together in one place to focus on the biggest recruiting issue that is facing us all today and is only going to get harder in the future – identifying and attracting the right talent.

How did SourceCon come to be?

In response to what was becoming an urgent need in the industry to have a conference that was focused on the art (some say science) of sourcing and talent acquisition – SourceCon was born and launched in 2007. In today’s world where talent is a key driver in successful businesses, there has been a trend towards the specialization of identifying and attracting candidates. This specialized skill is no longer a solely owned function of the full lifecycle recruiters in both agency and corporate recruiting departments.

The sourcer, researcher, name generator and candidate developer have emerged as the new champions to help fight the war for talent. The industry has new heroes whose skills and expertise can no longer be confined to a side track at national recruiting conferences.

Sourcecon intentionally set out to be different from all the traditional conferences. The conference wanted a venue where you don’t have to feel like you are constantly being pitched and sold on a slide deck or discussion by the latest and greatest. It was and is Sourcecon’s intent that you spend your quality time and money on a conference that is bursting with opportunities to learn, share, and collaborate with your peers, luminaries, and industry leaders.

Fellow Sourcers, and enthusiasts of the discipine, look forward to seeing you in New York City on February 8-9 for SourceCon NYC.

Best of all, access the famous Sourcing Labs brought to you by Arbita!

View Agenda

Have you purchased your ticket yet??? Only 4 days remain until SourceCon 2011.

Meet me at the ERE Spring Conference!!!

No more “apply and goodbye” to all but the chosen one. Marvin Smith gave a superb review of the exciting ways in which Microsoft talent sourcers are building talent communities—a pipeline of talent created by putting the human touch into a technology-based recruiting process.

About Marvin Smith

As a Talent Community Evangelist, Marvin identifies current and future talent (employees) for Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division (E&D). Specifically, he identifies the target talent that is needed for our businesses and create opportunities for conversations with that audience. The target audiences are segmented into the professions that will be needed by our division to meet our goals and objectives. This workstream is an integral part of the pioneering talent community development pilot at Microsoft. This initiative evangelizes|markets the respective “brands” of E&D (Zune, Xbox, Xbox Live, Auto Sync, Windows Phone, Surface, Microsoft Game Studios, etc.) to the appropriate target talent audience

I received a rare privilege of which I am exceptionally grateful. A few weeks ago Donato Diorio, CEO at Broadlook Technologies called me and invited me visit his headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to which I heartily accepted and appreciated. Granted, I have visited other vendors in the broad category sense, but I have known Donato for the last five years and I have used his products for at least three of them and I would make a distinction between being invited to visit and have dinner with visiting and meeting each individual staff member at their headquarters. In this instance, upon arrival, Broadlook’s CEO personally picked me up from the airport and picked up my bags. Upon arrival, his Executive Assistant, Jenny Locke had personally developed an hour-by-hour itinerary of my schedule, with each member of their team allotted time to demonstrate their expertise and relevant tool set they oversee in addition to after hour entertainment. Wednesday night we I met Donato, Broadlook Co-Founder, Dan Hughes, and Sales Director, Andy Stanczyk for dinner at Sobaor Brazilian Churrascaria and had a spirited conversation about the recruitment industry.


Thursday morning I was picked up from the Marriott Hotel by Jenny and given direct one to one lessons on Broadlook’s Exclipse with the legendary Mike Tischer, Director of Client Experience. I use the word ‘legendary’ for a specific reason: he is the salient example of how his customer care in ensuring clients are well versed in product utility led to his desk being filled with assorted items of Kansas Barbecue as a means of showing appreciation. In the staffing space, this is a rare experience, let alone for the client experience side of the business. I saw it with my own eyes and feasted on its benefits with a BBQ greeting me on Thursday’s lunch hour with some of the best chicken breast and pork I have had in some time hot off the grill outside the cold Milwaukee landscape grilled by Mike himself. Thursday night I had the pleasure of joining Kalin Konop and Sales Consultant, Ross Hoppenjan for a Marquette basketball game and a round of post-game Mohitos at Pfisters night club lounge.

Friday I received the most gratifying visual of data mining in practice with Broadlook’s intensely intelligent and ever modest “Data Czar”Kary Valley. Few are equally adept at such technical processes as I observed and he was kind enough to part with two hours of his day to demonstrate some of the more advanced capabilities of data mining. In addition, I spent the remainder of the afternoon getting an advance viewing of the latest beta versions of their software suite in addition to what can be, Objectively speaking, be defined as “Game Changing” new technologies yet to be launched for public consumption.


The final evening was memorable. Donato was kind enough to have me break bread with the Diorio family. I met his charming wife Chris, and his four children, Callandra, Prometheus (“Theus”), Andromeda (“Andy”) and Rhea – the newest addition to their family. What was memorable was likewise touching., Upon meeting us at the restaurant with her mother and siblings, his six year old Callandra approached Donato and I and mistook the restaurant owner sitting next to us for me. She then greeted him with arts and crafts she had personally made to welcome me, including a paper plate necklace. Even though it wasn’t me, it was on my behalf and it was quite a heart warming visual of one of the most considerate welcomings I have ever received. I had four year old, “Theus” explaining his favorite number was 1,000 while little two year old, Andromeda kept shuttering her eyes and smiling every time I caught her looking at me. After a nice dinner we went to Donato’s home where I got to play with his 190 pound Newfie, “Archer” named after Star Trek’s “Enterprise” short lived series. Donato and I then met up with Dan Hughes and his girlfriend at a jazz bar.

Broadlook Technologies suite of tools enhance website profile searches in real-time , providing important information. It can build data lists within a folder, hit profile plan to research that url, providing sources to identify which are both most and least updated, and ranks accordingly and with high probability. These applications are used to automate many of the most redundant tasks in doing Internet research, and collecting information within commercial, and non-profit sectors. This helps researchers come to rapid conclusions on initiatives such as:

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This profile is one in a series titled Monday Member Showcase. It was originally published on RecruitingBlogs.com, a recruiting and HR community, where I am a featured contributor. To read the whole series please click here.

Jim Fowler Quotables:

Jim is a Triathlete, a big time Giant’s fan, who loves playing hearts and “No Limit Hold Em”, and, not surprisingly, not a big fan of puzzles.

“We are on a path to go public. We have the chops to become a billion-dollar company”

• Jim Fowler
• CEO, Jigsaw “The Crowd-Sourced Business Directory”
• San Mateo, CA
• RecruitingBlogs Profile
• Linkedin
• Twitter
• Jigsaw Tweets
• Facebook
• Corporate Website

Over the last several years, I have had the pleasure of getting to know Jim Fowler at the various staffing industry conferences. He will spontaneously offer to find a bench to catch up, and is one of those executives without any pretentiousness. In fact he is a rare breed among the approachables: he will speak to you and recollect from the mundane to the significant that you have shared with him, and in each response he is direct, substantive and charismatic. For a CEO, he is less about watching the clock than he is more about getting to know you and the topic at hand. He didn’t build a business simply for a dollar’s glance – he truly wants to contribute to what we consider Game Changing ideas in the art of commerce. Prognosticators will tell you Information is the most powerful weapon of the 21st century. It isn’t simply about hardware and software – it’s also about field entries. The market for Database information is a $50 Billion dollar business. Billions within it are likewise exceptionally relevant in how our staffing industry generates and collates that data to produce and introduce prospective passive and active candidates to employers of choice. What more relevant subject for today’s feature than someone whose daily effort is to find knew ways to vett quality and quality utilizing the social aspect of community data sharing? For me personally, I cannot think of a more valuable way to verify my name generation leads and to contribute them to the broader concept of community. It’s a pleasure to introduce you to my friend, Jim Fowler.

As Chief Executive Officer of Jigsaw Corporation, Jim Fowler provides direction and leadership toward the achievement of goals and objectives at Jigsaw, a leading provider of business information and data services that uniquely leverages user-generated content contributed by its global business-to-business (B-to-B) community. A veteran sales executive, Jim has more than 12 years selling software for marketing and collaboration applications. Before starting Jigsaw, Jim served as VP of Sales at Digital Impact (DIGI), Paramark and TightLink. In these roles, he built sales departments from the ground up focusing on sales strategies and processes. He was able to leverage his experience as an outstanding sales manager at Personify and NetGravity. Prior to his career in software sales, Jim owned and operated Lookout Pass, a ski resort in Idaho. He also served in the US Navy as a Diving and Salvage Officer. Jim graduated from the University of Colorado.

Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world.

Jim: I have been married Holly Wiebe for ten years. We met through my wife’s best friend who was dating one of the ski instructors I knew and we were introduced to one another. We have a son named Six (who is eight years old) and a Labradoodle named Comet.

Our family skis/snowboards all winter and camps all summer. Our favorite type of camping is canoe camping. You go to really beautiful and remote places and still carry enough stuff to eat and drink really well. There is nothing better than an after dinner cigar around a campfire beside a high Sierra lake!

Six Degrees: Tell us about your Company, Jim

JIM: I am the CEO and Co-Founder of Jigsaw.com. We have 120 employees. Most of our employees are software developers or sales people, but we do have a full time recruiter!

Jigsaw is a Global Business Directory of company and contact information. Jigsaw was in Beta through summer of 2004 and officially launched in December 2004. We have over three million complete company records and 19 million complete contact records. Members get contacts they need to recruit, sell or market by adding, updating or graveyarding records.

Jigsaw Pioneers Data-as-a-Service. The ability to quickly find people in a target organization and contact them directly is an essential means to gain an edge in a very competitive marketplace. Jigsaw provides very simple, but required data that every single recruiter needs to do their jobs – company and contact records. Jigsaw is essentially an open database, along the lines of Wikipedia. Salespeople looking for say, a buying manager in a given company, swap one of their contacts to access the lead they need or they can buy it for $1. Every one of its contact records is complete with email and phone number. (Note: 72% of Jigsaw records have a direct dial.)

We make money by selling data and data hygiene services to corporations.

Six Degrees: How was Your Company Founded?

JIM: Jigsaw was founded by myself and Garth Mouton on Oct. 31,2003. We are venture backed and have raised $18M in venture funding. I came up with the idea for Jigsaw after 12 years in software sales left me frustrated with the time-consuming practice of finding correct contact details within a company. Prospecting lists were costly and usually full of outdated information.

Six Degrees: How did you get started in the industry?

JIM: Jigsaw was founded out of pain. I was sick and tired of the expensive and crappy lists the marketing team would buy for my sales teams. (I was VP of Sales at an email marketing company called Digital Impact). I knew there had to be a better way and the idea of a crowdsourced business directory popped into my mind. The idea for Jigsaw was germinated in the summer of 2003. We raised our first round of funding (of three total) in December of 2003 and formally launched Jigsaw in December of 2004.

When I was vice president of sales at online advertiser Netgravity (now part of Google’s DoubleClick), I asked a sales rep nicknamed Tark “to cold call into Sprint PCS until he got us a meeting. It took him two weeks. I said, ‘There’s got to be a better way.’”

Six Degrees: What is the broader picture of how the data business operates

Each year, corporations spend over $50 billion a year on B2B marketing data. Your usual data acquisition avenues – list rentals, online data services like Hoovers, OneSource, and that old technique cold calling – are hard and expensive and don’t provide automatic updates, maintenance or net new records.

Six Degrees: How/ where did you develop investors?

JIM: We are located in the Silicon Valley. This is the land of venture capitalists. Just follow the signs to Sand Hill Road!

Six Degrees: What is Your Company’s Value Proposition?

JIM: Our value proposition is that we are the best source of data for recruiters who do passive recruiting. Every one of our 19M records is complete with name, title, business phone and business email.

Our service is free. You can exchange business cards you have for business cards you need. If you don’t want to exchange you can purchase our records. Our data is the best available because we have one million members who clean and maintain the database (for credits). We are similar to Wikipedia in that many people build and maintain our database.

Six Degrees: How do you plan to make Jigsaw into a Game Changer?

JIM:The goal is to do the same exact thing to the data layer that salesforce has done to the software layer. Ten years ago, when Salesforce first got started procuring and managing software, Today if you look every company that sells B-to-B, they’re procuring and managing the records that populate their CRM solution. the lead records. contact records, the account and the lead records. What Jigsaw DataFusion provides is unlimited access to Jigsaw’s community vetted database. Overall, Jigsaw has established a robust database of over 19 million records, and it grows daily by 25,000. The Database as a service is their Game changing premise. It used to be known simply as a cool social aspect of keeping data fresh to make sure it is kept up-to-date, but now the concept has expanded by volume, accuracy and automation:

With DataFusion, What we do nightly is that we take that data and put it in the cloud and every night compare our client’s data to Jigsaw’s. Given Jigsaw doesn’t allow partial data – the data is refreshed and complete, coming in everyday, flagging records, piping all those changes every night in an automated way; Matching, filling in all the fields, flagging their dupes, a process of ‘stare and compare’ of records. We pipe in new data that matches the client’s administrative criteria. In an SaaS mode. It will no longer will be a one off, and will transform the data business.

Data Fusion comes as a monthly subscription service but companies can reduce the usage costs by contributing back to the Jigsaw system. It connects with a CRM system and automatically matches and updates records daily, with a dashboard to monitor activity and changes and the option of accepting or rejecting any specific updates. Administrators can pick which fields in each record they want to synch daily. After Salesforce, Jigsaw expects to add other CRM systems and databases this year and next. It has published an open API and a Developer Toolkit so any CRM or database vendor can integrate Jigsaw.

Data Fusion comes on a per-seat, per-month basis just like Salesforce and other SaaS providers. A full license like a big OEM just bought runs $500,000. With Data Fusion, if you have 25 seats of Salesforce, then you buy 25 seats of Jigsaw.

Six Degrees: Are you importing contacts from sites like LinkedIn, Hoovers and others?

JIM: No. Every contact in Jigsaw has been added by a member. We started with 20K contacts and now have over 1.7M (and growing by 10K new contacts per day). Even if we wanted to import contacts from other sites we couldn’t because Jigsaw requires every contact to have complete information including phone, email, title, etc. Phone numbers and emails are hard to get and are usually not provided on other sites.

Six Degrees: How does Jigsaw use social media networks and your blog to connect with customers and prospects?

JIM: Like Wikipedia, Jigsaw links out to the best possible information. Every contact record has a link to Google and LinkedIn for automated research on the contact – such as looking at a biography. Because Jigsaw is a community of sales professionals our blog and message boards are critical for communicating closely with our community. We also have large followings on Twitter and Facebook.

Six Degrees: How do you control members from sending out spam emails to contacts in Jigsaw?

JIM: Jigsaw’s model isn’t a good fit for spammers. Too much work or money is required to get information off in the quantity needed by a spammer. Jigsaw’s members primarily do one-to-one marketing versus one-to-many marketing. If a member is caught doing anything unlawful or against Jigsaw’s rules, the member will be banned from Jigsaw permanently.

Six Degrees: What is the pricing structure for your services/products?

JIM: Most of our million members use Jigsaw for free (the add, update or graveyard records in exchange for the data they need). We sell subscriptions and lists that fit every budget.

Six Degrees: How has your Company adopted to the economic downturn? What is the long-term future for Your Company?

JIM: We expect to double revenue this year. We want to get companies out of the business of procuring and managing company and contact records. We want the Jigsaw database to power every CRM solution by providing all the prospecting data a company could ever need, and keeping those records up to date in real time. We are in heavy duty hiring mode. We’ve just released this product in beta and hope to see it take the market by storm!

Six Degrees: How has your company promoted its brand and aligned itself with Staffing Industry communities, both virtual and on-site ?

JIM: Not as well as we need to. We are getting ready to hire a marketing person who’s full time job will be to address the recruiting industry.

Six Degrees: What single event had the most impact on your overall staffing industry expertise?

JIM: I am an expert in only one narrow (but important!) part of the staffing industry – information. The single event that had the most impact on my expertise was founding Jigsaw and the people who I have met throughout the journey. I’ve learned an incredible amount over the past six years of Jigsaw’s life and it keeps feeding our passion to innovate.

Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on modeling your career after?

JIM: I really admire Steve Jobs. Not his management style, but his vision. The guy is just an incredibly talented individual.

Six Degrees: Aside from simply the generic term “Networking” what specific efforts have you made on your own behalf, or on behalf of colleagues to broaden your opportunities.

JIM: The single biggest has been to been as a “Featured Networker” listing with SixDegreesfromDave.com. We became more motivated to connect and reconnect with our following within the recruitment industry in a big way. The process gave us a more approachable introduction to both our users and those who have inquired about our utility as a passive talent database. We will continue driving home the message to the recruitment community and to our database of 19M business contacts to drive awareness of Jigsaw and to recruit passive candidates to organizations.

Six Degrees: Given your own Trial and Error experiences as a Networker, what advice do you have for your peers on what NOT to do?

JIM: Use extreme caution when sending out a single message to your entire network. Networking is generally about one-to-one communications. Mass messaging is irritating within a social or business network.

Six Degrees: Do you blog?

JIM: No – my Co-Founder Garth Moulton writes our company blog.

Six Degrees: Reading up on you, I understand you are a Triathlete, a big time Giant’s fan, who loves playing hearts and “No Limit Hold Em”, and, not surprisingly, you are not a big fan of puzzles. Tell me something others may not know about you

JIM: I’m a complete history geek. I unwind by reading history. Curiously, I find studying history helps me in business. The decisions politicians and generals have had to make since the beginning of history are not unlike the decisions you have to make as a start-up CEO. There is usually less actual blood involved.

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Peter Malamas
Sr. Vice Present, Sheila Greco Associates (SGA);
Online Subscription Content & Software-as-a-Service
Board Member & Committee Chair (Current) at Habitat for Humanity

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Email: peter@sheilagreco.com

TESTIMONIAL: “SGA ExecutiveTracker provides me the opportunity to search a wide range of industries and executives within one system. The functionality is simple, but the results are robust. Tracker supports my recruiting efforts greatly, providing potential candidates, referrals, company profiles, corporate structures of leadership, and Bio’s that give me an overview of the persons career. I researched similar tools and chose SGA ExecutiveTracker, because it’s best at providing the in-depth information that I need to successfully recruit at all levels and functions within the organization.”
– Annette F. Green, Director of Executive Recruiting, Brinker International

Working with SGA since 2004, Peter has focused on the creation and launch of the SGA ExecutiveTracker product as well as the continuing growth of the SGA ExecutiveTracker division. His experience includes driving significant revenue growth as President of idEXEC, an online business intelligence service, under both Thomson Financial and infoUSA, and the founding of Tactical Business Concepts LLC to assist Subscription-based Content & Software-as-a-Service providers with new product development and business growth. He was a key team member in the sale of idEXEC to Thomson Financial, as well as the subsequent sale of idEXEC to infoUSA.

Peter is a Board of Directors Member and Fundraising Committee Chair at Habitat for Humanity of Bergen County NJ, and is the NJ Executive Networking Group Moderator for NETSHARE.

SGA http://www.sheilagreco.com specializes in custom research and subscription based online content and tools for HR, Executive Search and Sales professionals.

Six Degrees: Tell us of your home world.

Peter: Dave thanks for inviting me to be interviewed on SixDegrees. I think you are providing us a great opportunity to connect on a more personal level with all the people we work with or hope to work with out there in the industry.

I live on what’s now known after a NY Times article 2 years ago as the “New Jersey Gold Coast”. It’s made up of several towns like Fort Lee, Edgewater, Hoboken, and Jersey City that are right across the Hudson River overlooking Manhattan. Hard to believe 30 years ago it was all industrial buildings, shipyards, and factories over here, now mainly high rise apartments and condos!

I have a wonderful 6 year old daughter who just lights up a room when she walks in. I have to say, as you know from personal experience too Dave, fatherhood has been one of the greatest developments in my life. Kids can really show you how to approach every situation as an adventure and positive experience, because it’s all new to them, I certainly learn as much from Alexis as she learns from me.

Six Degrees: What do you outside of your day to day professional activities?

Peter: I’m on the Board of Directors as well as Chair of the Fundraising Committee at Habitat for Humanity of Bergen County here in NJ. It’s a terrific organization that provides affordable housing for families in need. Two things I really like about Habitat are that we help families help themselves, they are required to put 400 hours of “sweat equity” work into their own Habitat home and also have to pay for the home. It’s not given to them, they make payments into an interest free mortgage. Also most of the work we do is all here in our own communities, so we get to see the result of our good works of Habitat and improving our own neighborhoods all around Bergen County. It’s pretty satisfying.

For fun, I have had motorcycles and trail bikes since I was a kid growing up riding the trails in Massachusetts. Then I rode sport bikes for a long time, and when I got my first Harley a few years ago I found myself riding it more than the sport bikes and going on longer rides. So now for pure fun I like to ride my motorcycle in the country. You really can reach a kind of Zen-like experience riding up there. Riding in the city is a great way to get around Manhattan and it’s very easy to find a parking space, but dodging yellow cabs on 6th Avenue on a Harley isn’t exactly as relaxing as a ride by the lakes in Harriman State Park!

I plan to mix my hobby and my charity work, we’re planning the first Habitat Bergen Bike Run Fundraiser for September 2009.

Six Degrees: How did you get started in the staffing industry?

Peter: Actually Dave I never have been a recruiter, although I have been a hiring manager for most of my career. On the candidate generation side I have been very focused on the related field of “business intelligence” since I moved to NYC in ’94. I started that part of my career in sales at a small product division of Knight Ridder’s Business Info Services called Finex, which at the time was a part of KR along with Lexis Nexis. We were a business information company specializing in Executive Profiles and Company information. Recruiting firms and Sales organizations used us, they both were very interested in contacting the right executives at U.S and Global firms. The product was generating less than a $1mil when I started. I then worked my way up to leading the sales team and then President of the company, brought the product online, and along the way we grew the company to about $6mil and renamed it idEXEC. We sold it twice, so I was President under three different parent companies including Thomson Financial and then infoUSA/infoGroup. After 9 total years at idEXEC including three years of growth under infoUSA/infoGroup I left to do my own thing.

I then setup a consulting LLC to work alongside clients in long-term engagements called Tactical Business Concepts. http://www.tacticalbc.net That’s how I connected with Sheila Greco and SGA (Sheila Greco Associates) four years ago.

Do you have a mentor to whom you attribute your overall outlook on recruitment, capabilities, and/or model your career after?

Peter: Well when it comes to answering both of the above questions I really look to Sheila as the main influence on me. Her taking me in to help bring SGA into the online data world and start the ExecutiveTracker business was the reason I got more deeply involved with the Recruiting marketplace, and she is also the one responsible for teaching me about the internals of the Recruiting industry. It’s been a great relationship because as we work together we draw on similar experiences, we both are entrepreneurial and have been in the driver’s seat for multi-million dollar companies, but from different industries, the recruiting world and online information. That provides a great… and sometimes crazy… environment where we are constantly bouncing ideas off each other and moving quickly to launch new ideas.

I not only admire Sheila’s creativity and energy in growing a great business and building a great team at SGA, but I have also learned a lot from Sheila on work-life balance. I have a lot of respect for her focus on her family. She is always there for her son Joey while meeting the demands of running the SGA business. Needless to say Sheila has a LOT of energy to accomplish all that. Anyone that has ever met her can confirm that opinion! Sheila’s has built a great team that she can trust to help run the business including Joe Morse, Mary Maines and Tere Masters, just to name a few. People tend to stay with Sheila. At four years with SGA I’m actually the “new guy” among the group I mentioned!

Six Degrees: Tell us more about your position, responsibilities, and size of your organization:

Peter: ExecutiveTrackerPro is a product line that’s integrated into the full range of services provided by SGA http://www.sheilagreco.com that support the recruiting process. SGA’s specialty is finding “passive candidates”. It’s that full range of services that is our greatest strength because we not only have an online passive candidate database, which is unique because it is telephone verified, but we also specialize in the custom research, name generation, and Traditional Research that fills in the gaps not addressed by all the online products out there.

It’s funny Sheila and I joke often about my job description. While officially I help lead the Tracker division, including product management, marketing, sales, and strategic alliances such as Lexis/Nexis, Sendouts, or salesforce.com, I really get involved in more than that. Whenever anyone asks my job description I usually say my job description is “Sheila let’s me know whatever we need to accomplish and then I go figure out a way to get it done”. I’m only half joking since one day I may be evaluating the terms of a client contract, while the next day I may be giving a product demo, creating a marketing email, or dealing with a user interface design issue. In an entrepreneurial environment you become even more goal oriented and a little less focused on an official job description. What’s great about that environment is the diversity, you’re working on technology, sales, customer service, marketing. That keeps things very interesting. It’s always great to be interested and still learning something new every day. I especially enjoy the constant contact with our clients, and telling new people about our service.

Six Degrees: (A) What other companies’ recruiting operations do you admire or have heard are best-practice examples?

(B) In what aspects are they superior?

Peter: I think if you look at these people I mentioned it all comes down to a combination ot the qualities I admire, which are that they have great technical mastery and the skills to get the job done, but also those intangible personal qualities and positive outlook that engender confidence in them and just make it more effective and fun to work with these folks.

Six Degrees: What recent general news story or industry trend do you feel will have an impact on your work in the future? Why?

Peter: Right now it has to be the economy. Clients are going to take a harder look at budgets and are more fiscally conservative in times of economic uncertainty. These are challenging times but also I view it as a time of opportunity for us at SGA. When you have been in this business since 1989 delivering consistently high quality results for clients like SGA, that track record will go a long way towards reassuring your current and new clients that they are doing the right thing investing their budget dollars with you. We are stronger as a partner in their search process vs. a lot of other firms that are unproven, may not deliver the best results, or may not have the depth to make it through the next economic cycle. As a client you don’t want to sign a contract with someone that may not be around to complete it.

Six Degrees: What venues has SGA sponsored or attended?

Peter: We’ve maintained a very consistent conference and event presence at SGA, including some of our own in-house produces events. We have sponsored AESC, Kennedy, IACPR, SHRM, OnRec events, just to name a few in the past year, and have had Sheila or others on the team speak at several of those.

Six Degrees: What is your next career goal? What do you need to do to get there?

Peter: My goal is to continue helping Sheila and the team grow SGA. To get there we just need to keep doing what we’re doing through the current macroeconomic challenges, providing high levels of service to our clients, and delivering maximum value. Our clients most often call us when they are under pressure and don’t have time for mistakes. Clients need to know we are like a part of their virtual team, where they can just pick up the phone and know things will get done right the first time.

And in the longer term who knows, maybe I’ll combine my volunteer work with a job and end up running a not for profit charity someday.

“Peter has proven to be a real team player and leader at Sheila Greco Associates. He is involved in both a sales and project management role and is outstanding in both. Hats off to your successes and may there be many more with us. Sheila Greco” March 23, 2008
Sheila Greco, President, Sheila Greco Associates, a woman owned business

“Peter was instrumental in bringing a business opportunity between our two companies to fruition. He is a solid negotiator and brought about a win-win situation for both parties.” January 11, 2008
Jonathan Hoy, Strategic Alliance Manager, LexisNexis

“I’ve known Peter since 1992, and we’ve worked together in several capacities since then – at the same company, and as business partners for our own respective companies. I trust Peter’s judgment, and I rely on his counsel for business development, and lead generation matters. I own a public relations agency called “For Immediate Release PR”. We work with approximately a dozen clients who range from start-ups to mid-sized companies. Each client is interested in lead generation and business development, and Peter provides the counsel we need to help our clients reach their goals. Peter’s insight is based on more than 20 years of real-world experience. He communicates with clients, partners, and colleagues in a clear and concise manner, and his counsel always seems to work out, once it is acted upon. Peter is a tremendous asset to FIR’s clients, and to FIR’s staff, and he’s a valued friend and colleague to me personally. If you would like to discuss Peter’s contributions to FIR in further detail, I welcome you to contact me directly at todd@firpr.com” January 13, 2008
Todd Keefe, President and Founder, For Immediate Release

“In my dealings with Peter I found him to be a very professional senior executive who was intimately involved with the details of his division and its marketplace. Peter was also very receptive to the strategy of working with other divisions within infoUSA to grow corporate revenues and was well respected by the corporate executive committee, his peers and direct reports. I highly recommend him for a leadership position.” January 11, 2008
Chris Lundgren, SVP, Donnelley Marketing

“SGA ExecutiveTracker has been indispensable to our practice because of the quality of contacts and the reliable information it provides. As a management consultant, I’ve used many executive contact sources over the last 17 years, and SGA’s data is superior to most, if not all other competitive offerings. I’m hooked on SGA ExecutiveTracker, and I use it every day.”
Trisha McGovern, Partner at Sathe

“I have been surveying my colleagues about SGA Tracker-it is a unanimous hit!”
Karen Hall, Senior Associate, Slayton Search Partners

“SGA ExecutiveTracker is where I start with every new search. It’s an incredibly valuable tool for me”
- Mark Misiurewicz – President, Tax Integrity LLC.

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