Client References

Bill Goeller, CEO, Hatzel and Buehler

Experience with Jerry

• Referred by FMI, construction-focused investment bank. FMI gave 3 names; Jerry was only one that called right away. Others took a week to respond.
• 4 searches, 3 complete and 1 underway
• “Excellent experience with Jerry, best exec. Search he’s worked with. Hands-on, passionate, detail-oriented, honest, straightforward. Can’t speak enough about guy.”
• “If going to hire C-level in construction industry, Jerry is guy to go to.”
• Knows lots of people in industry, has excellent research team behind him.

Jerry’s process

• Stays involved throughout process
• Great job at screening people (Jerry interviews person first)
• Psych testing
  • Something new for them, found it to be helpful but not end all and be all. Confirms gut feeling.

Joe DeArment, CEO, Channellock

Position: VP of Manufacturing Engineering

Experience with Jerry

• Got 3 final candidates and did 2-3 interviews with each. Would have hiredthem all if could have
• Joe was promoted to CEO and needed to backfill for his prior role as VPManufacturing Engineering
• Referred to Jerry by financial advisor to company. Didn’t do ownreference checks on Jerry.
• Jerry – not cheap, but a good investment. Would hire again.

Search firm experience

• Bad past internal search for COO position led to decision to “go to next level” and hire outside recruiter.

Jerry’s process

• Jerry led process to develop detailed position profile and did extensive job in getting to know organization by talking to internal managers.
  • “10 things that you want new hire to lead on”
  • Candidate hired has done good job of professionalizing family-run business.
    • Person in role has added discipline to organization and accounting/IT expertise.
• Jerry visited with lots of candidates on his own
• Kolbe assessment – helped a lot in understanding existing team and candidates. For example, would know if someone is a quick starter or not.
• Jerry had smaller role at interviews…more as needed than directly involved.

George Wilson, CEO, Barriere

Experience with Jerry

• Referred to Jerry by Ross Meyers, CEO of Allan Meyers
• Done 3 searches, all excellent
• Very professional, straight shooter, no bullshit, plain-spoken Midwesterner
• Very clear on what he expects company to do
• His company’s culture is not that accepting of outsiders. Candidates matched culture and people have stuck through hard work at getting fit and acceptance
• Trusts Jerry’s judgment of character
• Problems with searches were from company, not Jerry
  • Example – tried to get 2 jobs into one position and couldn’t find anyone with those skills. Jerry counseled splitting position into 2 jobs.

Craig Roadarmel, Owner, Atlantic Equipment

Position: General Manager
Experience with Jerry

• • Hard to hire position – 8,000 person town in Central PA and didn’t want commuters, so not a whole lot of candidates to choose from.
    • Jerry generated list of 30-40 candidates
  • Would absolutely hire Jerry again; felt very comfortable with him.
  • Likes that Jerry stands behind his work with 1 year guarantee
  • Jerry was referred by business consultant that Craig hired, didn’t do own reference checks on Jerry.

Prior search firm experience

• • • Talked to big search firm….felt culture fit wasn’t right for his company’s needs.

Jerry’s Process

• • • Jerry built great database
      • Email blasts, connections to construction-related organizations, seemed to do lots of research.
    • Very responsive – he does it when he says he’s going to do it.
    • Lots of probing questions on philosophy/culture
    • Took time to make sure candidates were fully qualified before introducing them.
    • Not involved in contract negotiations. Craig hired attorney and used existing business consultant to develop compensation plan.

Coaching of candidates

• • • Never got sense that Jerry was coaching candidate.

Ron Marano, VP and Chief Accounting Officer, Tutor Perini

Position: CFO for major subsidiary of Tutor Perini

Experience with Jerry

• Ron had been in conversation with Jerry for some years regarding positions for Ron and when CFO search was needed, Ron called Jerry because he already knew him. Ron considers Jerry to be one the straight shooters in a business [search] that doesn’t have many.
• Fabulous job, very pleased with Jerry, would hire again
• Would hire Jerry for CA search (though didn’t know that Jerry did nationwide searches until after he hired him)

Jerry’s Process

• Jerry did great job at spending time on the job description, attributes needed to be successful and in understanding how Tutor works.
• Presented 4-5 screened candidates
  • Hired candidates is one of the top performers at Tutor
• After short list interviews, Jerry helped with negotiations. Jerry had had preliminary discussions with each candidate on expectations for relocation compensation, etc., so he advised on compensation planning.
• Jerry did all reference checks on short-list candidates
• Very quick turnaround, less than 2 months to complete search.

Shawn Pulford, CEO, LB Water

Experience with Jerry

• Board hired Jerry on advice of “Cornerstone Advisors”
  • Shawn was CEO hired as a result of that search
• Shawn has hired Jerry 2 times and has another search underway with Jerry.
• Jerry is really well connected in construction industry. Pleasantly surprised that a Chicago-based firm could find candidates in central PA.
• Working with Jerry is more of a partnership than straight customerprovider; Jerry will always field calls and try to help company.
• Would (and has) hire Jerry again.

Jerry’s Process

• Extensive search process; hiring in central PA is hard if they don’t want a commute from Phil or Pitts.
• Astute at determining company needs/culture, dialed into what candidate needs to do. Eliminates lots of time and unnecessary work
• If job description isn’t attractive or working to get candidates, Jerry will be frank about that and help retool the position, company story/plan, etc. to restart the search.
• Jerry can do recruiting from competitors if needed
• Psych Testing
  • Kolbe, Caliber – help you to know what you’re getting but not the final decision
  • Using these tools for training of mid-level managers
• Post-introduction
  • Jerry can help with comparing interview notes; he doesn’t have a role in picking which candidate to hire.