Someone once told me that I was one of the most optimistic people they had ever met. Since the person was a banker reviewing my business plan, I’m not sure he meant it as a compliment. But, I’ll take it as a positive trait! With that caveat, I would like to announce the following additions to our team. We are adding resources in order to be prepared for the increase in finance and accounting hiring that I believe is just starting to happen. As you will see, we have added a new service – - retained search – - and three new experienced recruiters to our team. And, if my belief in a recovery is correct, we plan to add three more recruiters by the end of 2009. Here are the backgrounds for the three people who recently joined our team.
The Luciani Group
Tom Luciani recently merged his retained search practice, The Luciani Group, with Kula. I have known Tom for many years and am very proud to have him working with me again. Tom first recruited me when I worked for Ernst & Ernst (now E&Y), and later taught me the staffing business when we co-founded Management Solutions Inc. in 1987.
The Luciani Group will operate under this brand name, as they have for the past fifteen years, and Tom and his staff will continue to provide high quality retained search services for senior financial management and executive opportunities. By joining Kula, The Luciani Group will be able to offer contingent search and contract staffing services to their clients.
Maria Burns
Maria joins Kula as a senior recruiter with ten years of recruiting and placement experience. She is a very hard working, well networked placement professional with a passion for technology. She has extensive experience with high tech companies, including gaming, social networking, e-commerce, software and telecom firms. Her placements range from three year technical accounting professionals to V.P. levels. Maria is a proven performer and I very glad to have her on our team.
Dolorez Dumas-Aris
Dolorez has also joined us as a senior recruiter. She has over nine years experience recruiting technical accounting and tax professionals, with six of those years recruiting for a Big 4 firm in the Bay Area. Prior to becoming a recruiter, Dolorez had a ten year career in banking, with the Bank of America, with the last two years there on the recruiting team. Dolorez has worked with hundreds of CPA’s, from financial audit, internal audit to tax professionals, in her career and has developed a great reputation with them for honesty, and follow-through. Plus, she is one of the easiest people to talk to that I’ve ever met. Her recruiting focus is San Francisco, the north peninsula and the east bay area. She has experience placing accounting people with both regular fulltime and contract assignments.
Kula now has a total staff of eight people. Still a boutique firm in size, but big enough to be able to meet our clients’ needs from three year exempt-level staff through senior financial management and executive talent. We are ready for the upturn!