Our senior management team was faced with the challenge of adding talent in several functions and at various levels within the organization.  We were required to balance growth with the need to have candidates contribute to achieving our goals immediately upon starting with our company.  We did not have the time to “hand hold” the recruiting process or to manage rework in the “talent mining” end of our business.  We were stretched thin with strong growth in the business, customer demand for new products, and cost reduction requirements.

One of our senior vice presidents had experience working with Paula and was willing to “put his reputation on the line” with our executive team.   He recommended KPA to manage our recruiting effort.  He was certain that KPA would partner with us, understand our technical needs, provide the energy needed to take on several searches in parallel, offer the integrity required to build trust and confidence with all search stakeholders, and deliver the results we needed.

KPA (over and over) delivered the right player for every position.  We added smart, experienced leaders who worked well with our management team and who fit in with our team’s chemistry on “day one”. We did not have to do “rework” with hires from KPA, and this year’s performance is a tribute to many of the players KPA brought to us.

Although I am by nature a skeptic, I was soon convinced that Paula and her team should be our only source for adding new talent.  Whether your business is short on time, talent, or both, I would recommend KPA as the “best” I have ever worked with, and my only search firm for the future.

Tom Odle
Board Member
Former President Morgan Advanced Materials

I selected Paula’s firm to lead our search for a Director, EHS based on the recommendation of a friend who met Paula from the candidate’s seat. He described a uniquely thorough screening process marked by the very personal and engaged involvement of the search firm owner herself..

I found real value in the PCA (Position and Candidate Assessment) as the detailed screening tool used to calibrate our organization’s needs for the role, developed in conjunction with several of our leaders under Paula’s guidance. Using the PCA , Paula personally and visually screened every candidate, capturing their background as well as the candidate’s written responses to questions in key areas of our position description. When I reviewed a completed PCA, I was able to trust the information in ways I usually can’t trust that of the typical search professional. It didn’t beat meeting the candidate personally, but it came close, and allowed me to much more confidently select down to the most qualified people to invest our leaders’ time in meeting. At the end of the process, we wound up making the right hire!

Mark Robinson
Vice President, Human Resources

Paula Beveridge and kp associates deliver first class results and top level executive search service. As a Board Director with Energy Focus, I worked with the CEO and Paula to recruit a Chief Operating Officer. She presented four terrific candidates and all were capable of excelling in our company.

We hired one of the candidates and he is today one of the pillars in our executive team leading the company. In addition to conducting the search, Paula has periodically checked with us on his progress. She wants to insure we hired the right person and learn new insights for future recruiting work of kp associates.

kp associates distinguishes itself by listening to the client and searching for the best fit rather than simply meeting the position specification. I would give Paula and kp associates my highest recommendation.

Michael A. Kasper
Board Director, Energy Focus, Inc.
Former Vice President, JDSU
Former Executive, Procter & Gamble

We selected kp associates to lead the Director, Human Resource search for our company based on the firm’s market reputation and the firm’s approach to partnering with management. kp associates has truly been a value-added resource for our company. Paula and her team understand the subtleties involved in placing the right candidate in the right position. She knows that I will be reaching out to her any time we need to work with a true talent acquisition professional.

Jerry Stethem
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

I would highly recommend KPA from a “recruitee” perception.

It is indeed rare to find a group such as this that really takes the time to obtain a “really good fit” from the employee side as well as the employer side.

Key Lessons learned in customer service are:

Knowing who your customers are.

Understanding exactly what our customers require from us (and why) so that we can properly fulfill their needs. Otherwise, we all waste lots of time and effort.

Should you choose to work with kpa, you can rest assured that you or your organization will not be wasting time and effort.

Gina Papworth
Executive Director of I.T.

Paula conducted a search for me, 2 product managers. Her search process is the most thorough I have seen in my career. The candidates we met were all highly qualified, met all search criteria, and were thoroughly briefed on the opportunities at hand, using kp associates’ “PCA” process. Other managers at my company are now using kp associates for their searches. kp associates is quickly becoming my company’s preferred provider for executive and other difficult-to-fill managerial searches.

Mark Paterson
Regional Vice President

“I have worked with Paula Beveridge and kp associates for a number of years (both as a candidate and a client) and it has been a rewarding experience throughout. Recently, Paula worked with Komatsu America to place two Product Managers in our newly initiated Remanufacturing Business Development unit. Paula assembled an outstanding group of pre-screened candidates that were well qualified and possessed a wealth of world-class experience. These two hires have really had a tremendous impact to the success of the organization, and have added real “bench strength” to the leadership team within our organization. Paula Beveridge and kp associates will certainly be our top resource to draw upon for any future search of leadership talent.

Well done, Paula!”

Michael Evans
President

“Another successful search concluded Paula. Thanks for everything you do to make this such a painless process. I don’t know anyone other than you who has the ability to identify, recruit, and land such great talent. Kudos to you and your team!!!”

Bill Steere, President
Steere Enterprises

“My experience with Paula Beveridge of kp associates Inc has taken me through a very positive interview/employment process. As I was not actively looking to make an employment change, initially there were some extended discussions involved in presenting this new opportunity to me. One of the strengths in the process utilized by Paula is her unrelenting drive to make sure things are clearly and properly communicated and in explaining this new opportunity her communication was excellent. This proved to be very helpful in avoiding the surprises that normally accompany most employment changes.

I found the pre-screening sequence to be demanding yet fair and involved a good balance between looking after the best interests of the client and yet making the candidate feel like their needs were also being taken into account. The preparation of the candidate for the next steps through the interview sequence was exemplary and I personally found it to be very reassuring that a person in Paula’s position was willing to expend this amount of personal time and effort to communicate with me and help guide me through these discussions. Even after the start of employment, the added follow up is better than I have experienced with most other recruiters.

I value the professional and personal relationship built with Paula Beveridge during this experience and I would highly recommend the use of her services.”

Bob Zeaton
Former V.P. Product Safety Engineering

Most professionals know the routine – a recruiter calls with an opportunity, sells you on the company, takes in your information, claims you’re the perfect fit, then vanishes. It’s the “candidate cattle call” that lets them put as many candidates as possible in front of their clients with the hopes of landing one. How many times do you get caught in the churning process?

That is not what you experience with Paula.

Paula takes the time to know a candidate beyond the resume – the personality and personal success drivers. On the client side, she studies each executive on the same level and assesses the overall corporate culture based on her impressions. She is honest on both fronts and has proven to me an uncanny ability to pair the two parties. I have been with Audio-Technica for over four months now without one surprise. Her assessment of the culture and quality of the people here were dead on.

If you get a call from Paula, it is worth your time to return it. She will get to know you professionally and personally and help you make the right fit with your next opportunity.

Greg Pinto
Vice President of Marketing
Audio-Technica U.S., Incorporated

“Over the years, I have been contacted by several head-hunters hawking jobs and opportunities.  When first approached by kp associates, I must confess to having that same cattle call mentality.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Paula has an outstanding understanding of the companies she represents.  It became instantly clear that she was thoroughly prepared and well tuned into the type of people that would fit the opportunity at MCI.  She did an incredible amount of work in exploring my background and what I was interested in.  I’m into my sixth month with MCI and continue to be ecstatic about the job.  And I continue to get my routine follow-up calls from Paula.  It became fairly obvious that Paula cares about people as well as the job duty to fulfill the positions to which she is charged.  I continue to be impressed with the amount of work kp associates does for both the prospective employee and the company.  Along with others that have written recommendations, I was completely prepared by the time I had my final interview. kp associates represents the ‘world class’ in their field.

I could go on and on, but I think this sums up my thoughts on your fine company.  Keep up the good work.”

Dan Heath
General Manager

I want to acknowledge that it has been a pleasure working with you on my recent recruitment. I appreciate your professionalism, confidentiality and willingness to work in my schedule constraints during the recruitment process. I am excited about the opportunity that you have brought to me and look forward to working with you on future recruitment needs at my new company.

I recently did receive the opportunity to work with kp associates to recruit an opening at my new company. Once again I have found the staff professional and contagious with enthusiasm. I was extremely pleased with the quick turn around from when I selected kp associates to conduct the search until I had an exciting slate to interview. This turn around was in less than 30 days. kp associates were able to quickly understand our business culture. As a result the service and responsiveness that they were able to provide exceeded our expectations.

Mary Sloan
Former Vice President, Supply Chain Management
Motor Coach Industries

A little over two years ago, we worked with Paula Beveridge on the placement of our current Director of Operations here in our North American Division. This has turned out to be one of the finest hires I have made in my career. He truly is an A player, bringing significant transformational talent to our organization. Under his direction, we have reduced material costs and labor, while at the same time improving product quality and highly elevated response capabilities for our customers. There has been a noticeable improvement in the team synergistic effort among the different functional areas of our business. All of this happened with a sincere appreciation of the motivation and morale of those within his organization.

I was most pleased with Paula’s ability to put a candidate in front of us who matched our profile so dramatically.

Bob Williams
Vice President, North American Operations

Over the years I have worked with Paula Beveridge I have always been impressed with both the quality of the candidates that have been presented and the professionalism demonstrated in the conduct of the searches. My needs have ranged from highly technical engineering to executive level sales and operational positions. During times when finding and recruiting high quality candidates has been difficult, Paula has always delivered a very strong slate of qualified people. Her process is thorough, quick, and has always provided great value.

David W. Porter
President, Chief Operating Officer at Reveal Data Corporation
Former COO, Telxon, Inc

kp associates is a pleasure to work with. Paula took the time to understand our business and find candidates who met our specific needs. All of the candidates Paula presented were well prepared, and interested in talking about our opportunity. I received world class service in a timely manner with outstanding responsiveness and follow through. Paula truly made the recruiting process easier.

Jerry Cignarella
President of Polar Service Centers

kp associates has demonstrated an excellent capacity to identify, interview and evaluate appropriate candidates for our business needs. I appreciate the timely and comprehensive information provided in the screening process.

Todd Pankey
Vice President, Supply Chain

“It was a totally refreshing and uniquely enjoyable experience working with Paula and her team as we brought in a new Senior Vice President of Operations. There’s just no other way to describe it.”, commented the Director of Employment at a large, publicly held precision products manufacturer at the conclusion of a particularly difficult project in early 2003. 

It has been 6 years now since you and I worked together to successfully place me here. Over the years I have found that all the things that go into making such an important life decision have come to fruition and I also believe that the research and client knowledge you were able to provide was very accurate. This includes the realization of a career path that is so often discussed as part of the deal that may or may not actually happen, but that did occur for me.

Making a job change today is different than it used to be because people really do care about making the right move not only for themselves, but our families. For you to know so well the client culture and needs and be able to match them with my knowledge and experience has been a perfect fit from day 1. And I think it’s important that, but for your persistence in recruiting me (I wasn’t looking at the time, if you recall, and I certainly wasn’t reading the want ads or returning calls from the typical headhunters I heard from every day), none of this would have happened.

Thank you again for your diligence to insure such a proper fit for both your corporate client and me. I hope to able to contact you in another 6 years to tell you of my continued success.

John Wojcik
Former Director, Supply Chain Management
Moen Incorporated

I wasn’t really looking to leave my previous company when I was contacted by Paula Beveridge. I typically received a half dozen calls a week from recruiters. But there was something different about the message that Paula left on my voicemail. She shared more information regarding the opportunity and the company she was recruiting for. Something in her message intrigued me to call her back. That’s how I would characterize my interactions with Paula. Always professional, she provided me with everything I needed to know about the position to be filled, the company that was hiring, and the recruiting process in general. It was this openness and information rich environment that made working with Paula such a positive experience.

I’ve been with Steere Enterprises for 10 months as the Quality Assurance Manager. The people are terrific and everyone works as a team. But best of all….no surprises! All the dialogue and information exchanged during the recruiting process has proven accurate.

I recently had the opportunity to participate in the final selection process between candidates brought to Steere by kp associates for a newly created position, Supply Chain Director. The selection team wanted additional input from the Quality and Production Managers that would be interacting daily with the person chosen to fill the position. They were looking for confirmation that the final candidates would fit the culture at Steere. Our “first choice” was brought on board and I am looking forward to working with him on upcoming improvement projects.

Elsa Cave
Former Quality Manager

I have accepted the position of General Manager and would like to personally thank you for your professionalism and guidance through the process. Your willingness to be available at off hours and weekends helped me navigate the lengthy process with ease. Your communication and counseling were a large part of my ability to present my skills in the best possible way to my new employer. You have my deepest gratitude and highest respect.

Walt Novak
General Manager