Twenty-five years,
one niche.

What I do

I place senior individual contributors, regional managers, Market Sector Directors, EVPs, and C-suite talent for California community and regional banks. The work spans the people who originate the loans and the people who underwrite them, and the executives who lead those groups. Two sides of the same coin, and you can't serve one well without understanding the other.

I moved to St. Louis in 2025, but my clients are in California. That works because commercial banking talent doesn't move on geography. It moves on relationships, reputation, and a recruiter who knows the difference between a credit box that's too tight and an RM whose credit acumen isn't sharp enough.

How I work

Quality over volume, full stop. I take engagements I believe I can win and decline the ones I can't. Most of this industry is wired the other way: more searches, more candidates, more activity, more invoices. I'd rather do fewer searches well, and the math works out fine when clients keep coming back.

I play the long view over the quick win. If a candidate isn't right for the seat, I'll say so, even if they're impressive, even if they'd say yes. Same in the other direction. I'd rather lose a placement than burn a career I've watched develop for fifteen years. The philosophy fits on a bumper sticker: relationships compound. Everything else follows.

Background

I came up through recruiting and search, not banking. That shapes how I work. I don't pretend to underwrite credit or run a portfolio; I leave that to my clients and candidates, who are very good at it. What I bring is deep EQ and 25 years of pattern recognition: who fits where, who's restless, who's about to move, who's quietly excellent, who looks great on paper and falls apart in committee.

The seat worth earning

What I find most rewarding is being someone clients call before they have a search. The trusted-advisor seat is the one worth earning, and it's the only seat in this business that doesn't get commoditized.