a dv e rti s i n g fe atu r e
Your
Executive Edge For 25 years, the team at Davies Park has been creating success through leadership, helping clients one executive search at a time
S
INCE 1989, DAVIES PARK HAS SUCCESSFULLY completed more than 2,800 executive searches and assignments for public, private, and not-forprofit clients. Its assignments have included searches for CEOs, presidents, senior executives, managers and senior professionals. Davies Park has also found top board of director appointees in a broad range of industries and sectors. Celebrating 25 years in the business, Davies Park now
daviespark.com
THE START: Davies Park Executive Search started in Edmonton. Partners (l-r) Ardyce Kouri, Elizabeth Hurley and Anurag Shourie build the best leadership teams.
has offices in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto. Maintaining a close relationship with clients and a boutique high-touch approach, the firm has the depth of expertise and the resources to quickly scale up to international searches on behalf of its many clients. As national executive search specialists, Davies Park has helped top-tier organizations develop their leadership talent, enabling clients to take their businesses to the next level. Davies Park
1
Top Partnerships A client relationship lasts beyond a single recruitment. Partners at Davies Park dedicate time to each search and every client
ALBERTA EXPERTS: In Calgary, Allan Nelson and Mike Kerr (l-r) search for elite talent from the local community to the international marketplace.
2
Davies Park
Executive Search Consultants
a dv e rti s i n g fe atu r e
L
the confidentiality Davies Park provided candidates. “The whole process took EADERSHIP STARTS AT THE TOP. WHILE THAT MAY about four months, and we filled the position with CFO Jonathan Chia.” not be ground-breaking news, it’s still something every firm Kerr says there are six to eight main points of evaluation that clients look to should remember when looking to fill its C-suite positions. when they are filling a C-suite position; Davies Park compiles its short list of canHiring a new executive is one of the most important decisions an didates based on specific criteria. For example, is the company’s priority focused organization will make and companies should treat it as such. But on someone with industry experience or with important transferable skills? No how do you go about choosing someone who will have a positive two searches are alike for Davies Park, because no two clients are alike. And while impact on the direction of an organization? That’s where Davies the team scours the world for candidates, their clients are doing what they do best: Park comes in. nurturing their own businesses. For 25 years, Davies Park has been dedicated to finding the Dr. Marvin Washington knows first-hand the benefits that a third-party organiperfect fit. “When a client comes to us for recruitment purposes, zation brings to a company in regard to its executive team. Washington teaches at we immediately start working to understand the culture of the the Alberta School of Business and, in addition to the MBA program, he instructs organization,” says Mike Kerr, a partner at Davies Park’s Calgary office. “We spend time with the hiring manager, the board of directors, several executive education training courses for organizations looking to bolster the C-suite team without disrupting business. He says that’s what makes executhe president – any stakeholder in the organization – to ensure that tive search firms such as Davies Park beneficial to clients. “I always come back to we understand the expectations. Then we act as an agent for that a sports analogy,” he says. “If I’m coaching the Edmonton Oilers, my focus is on organization. We become their partner.” winning the next game. I’m not thinking about who’s going to be on the team next The emphasis on partnership has made Davies Park a success in season; that’s what I have scouts for. Search firms executive recruitment. Kerr says are like your scouts, they’re going to do all the Davies Park’s typical client relation“We have been building our clients’ leadership background and groundwork while you focus on ship lasts well beyond a single doing what you do best.” recruitment. In fact, the partners teams for 25 years. We strategically partner Washington also says that organizations will at Davies Park prefer to work with with them to identify leaders who will find it worthwhile having someone in their corfewer clients in order to dedicate integrate with and enhance their culture.” ner looking beyond the obvious choices. Hurley more time to each. “Organizations - Anurag Shourie, Edmonton Partner agrees, and this is a huge advantage to Davies come to us because they want to Park’s extensive database and network. “Often, elevate their talent pool,” Kerr the best person for the job isn’t actively searching says. “It’s our job to search for the for a new position,” Hurley says. “That’s where we come in; we’ll find that person. candidate who aligns precisely with the company’s desired skills, There’s a big difference between the best person for the job and the best person competencies and experience. We guarantee every search we do.” looking for a job.” Ralph Young is a long-time client who has seen Davies Park in acThis is a driving factor in many of the “wrong” decisions that organizations tion many times since its inception in 1989. He is the past president make when hiring a new executive. It’s often that the sample section wasn’t as and CEO of Melcor Developments Ltd., and he called on Davies Park most recently when it came time for Melcor to search for a new extensive as it could have been. When that happens, the company wastes time and CFO. “After they met with us, they drafted a proposal and we refined resources training the new executive only to be back at the drawing board: still searching for that perfect fit. Davies Park makes sure this doesn’t happen. it together,” Young says. “We’ve done the due diligence,” Hurley explains. “The background check, the After the initial meetings with the search consultant team, a cliinitial interviews, the references – we’re completely committed to finding the best ent typically steps back, as was the case with Melcor, while Davies person. We don’t just fill the position and walk away. We truly become an extenPark’s partners use their extensive database, market knowledge, sion of our clients, and that’s what has set us apart all these years.” and international network to perform a client-tailored search. The team reviews the organization’s strategic and business plans to gain further insight into the direction of the company and identify the best person to take it there – no stone is left unturned. Davies Park TOP TIPS TO CHOOSING considers all aspects. Is it a new position? Was there a termination? AN EXECUTIVE SEARCH FIRM Was it retirement? Is the company in growth mode? What other positions may need to be filled on the horizon? 1. Find a firm that has experience placing great candidates in your industry, “It was an iterative process that included a committee and a long at the level you are looking to fill. list of candidates,” Young says. “Later, we had debriefs with Davies 2. E nsure the firm has a deep understanding of the challenges of your sector. Park after meeting with each short-listed candidate.” 3. Find out if the firm is willing to spend time learning about the specifics of Part of what sets Davies Park ahead is that partners are involved your business. in every search. Elizabeth Hurley, Davies Park’s longest standing 4. Ask your executive search consultants if they have completed similar partner in Edmonton, says partners provide quality assurance and searches in the past year, 18 months, or three years. oversight for every search. “Other firms may just send a salesperson 5. Find out, through references and word of mouth, if the firm has had to meet with clients, but Davies Park doesn’t do that,” she says. “The great success or a string of epic fails. senior consultant you’re meeting becomes your ambassador in the 6. Ensure that you relate, on a personal level, to the partner who is acting marketplace and will find your next executive.” as your agent. Young was also impressed with the level of professionalism and daviespark.com
Davies Park
3
The Power of People Davies Park Executive Search’s founding principles are still going strong 25 years later
WEST COASTERS: Vancouver principal Tony Kirschner and partner Greg Longster (l-r) are creating top leadership teams the C-suites of British Columbia.
G
Finally, in the late 1980s Gerry Davies offered him a job at the ERRY DAVIES AND DARWIN PARK, PICTURED firm he worked at the time, but Park said he would only join opposite, started Davies Park 25 years ago, when the two efforts on one condition: that they start their own business. were in their 40s. They seemed to some like an unlikely In September 1989, Davies Park pair to be running an executive Executive Search was born. search company. “We often joked “Great leadership has a profound impact “We had a lot of loyal clients,” that we were a jock and a history says Gerry Davies. “Darwin’s and major starting a business from on the places where we live and work. my relationships with the different scratch,” says Darwin Park. His We are proud of making our communities parts of the industrial world were post-secondary background was in stronger through our professional and really strong. This is a business physical education, while Davies philanthropic work.” that really runs on personal conhad a degree in history. tact, so if you’ve done good work, Education aside, the pair brought - Ardyce Kouri, Edmonton Partner people tended to follow you. Our a wealth of experience in managetiming was great.” ment and recruiting, after working Several years later, in 1997, they would expand into Calgary, and sometimes at the same firm and sometimes at competing firms, Park a decade later, Vancouver. says. “We had often said we’d rather work together than compete.”
4
Davies Park
Executive Search Consultants
a dv e rti s i n g fe atu r e
“We found we were getting shut down because we didn’t have a presence in Calgary,” Davies explains. “We decided to open up in Calgary because we had clients that wanted cross-Alberta representation. Vancouver was more of the same; we had clients with offices on the West Coast.” The partners eventually left with a solid succession plan in place. Three partners – Elizabeth Hurley, Anurag Shourie and Ardyce Kouri – head the Edmonton office, while partners Allan Nelson and Mike Kerr helm the team in Calgary. Greg Longster, partner in Vancouver, was joined by principal Tony Kirschner (both pictured opposite). They have held key roles in that market since its inception in 2007. The newest addition, a Toronto office, opened in 2012 and is headed by principals Kartik Kumar and Rob O’Brien. “Darwin and I hired the initial team. I guess when you’re in the executive search business, you’d better know how to hire good people,” Davies says. “We did.” Park compares the company’s approach to running. “I liken starting and building a business to training for a marathon,” he says. “You focus on an end result, but really the event is successful one step at a time. If you concentrate on how hard or far it is, you’re going to have a tough time. I think that’s how we built the business – one successful step at a time.” The national firm has taken many successful steps, now counting more than 30 employees, which Edmonton partner Ardyce Kouri notes is no small feat. “Darwin and Gerry founded this firm 25 years ago. We’ve grown to over 30 staff and four office locations doing work nationally,” Kouri says. “All we do is executive search, so that’s a sizable team.” Though the company has now conducted close to 2,800 executive searches in 25 years, Edmonton partner Anurag Shourie highlights the diversity of clients Davies Park has worked with over this time – including entire executive teams and boards. After recruiting Alberta Pension Services Corporation’s former CEO five years ago, the corporation engaged Davies Park to search for its entire executive, including members of its board. And when their CEO left after five years, the corporation asked Davies Park to search for a new CEO. It’s that kind of partnership that keeps Davies Park – and its clients – at top form. Part of the company’s success placing executives stems from its own employee retention, says Shourie, who started with the company 17 years ago as a researcher, and became a partner 10 years ago. “We used to pride ourselves on the fact that we had no turnover. We used to have reverse turnover,” Shourie says, explaining that in addition to many employees staying with the company for a number of years, a couple of staffers left for other pursuits, but later returned. Davies Park matches executives to coveted posts in every field from oil and gas and post-secondary education, to private and public companies, not-for-profit, Crown corporations, municipal governments, and health services. A key is not losing sight of where the firm started, Shourie says. “We started in Edmonton and provide a boutique approach to our clients. It allows us to be nimble and flexible, and make decisions quickly.” Today, with more than 30 people on the team and a national presence in place, Davies Park can create a robust national campaign with proven international reach. daviespark.com
OIL EXECS KNOW Andy Brooks, President and CEO at FT Services, knows that Davies Park has a depth of experience in Alberta’s oil sands. As head of the maintenance and turnaround provider for tier-one oil sands players, that’s important to him. He first met Calgary partner Allan Nelson when Nelson placed him with an oil services company that was undertaking an executive search several years ago. “Since then, we’ve had an ongoing professional relationship,” Brooks says of Nelson and Davies Park. “Allan has led executive searches for us quite regularly over the past seven or eight years to find members of our executive team and other top positions.” Davies Park’s understanding of the skill requirements, personality, and corporate culture at FT Services make the candidates the firm finds top-line, Brooks says. “They know who will fit,” he says. “They guarantee their searches, but it’s that element of the personal touch that really matters.”
MILESTONE MOMENTS 1989
Davies Park Executive Search is founded in Edmonton, with two partners and a secretary.
1991
After a “flat year,” Gerry Davies considers becoming a truck driver. A fleeting thought, and things turn around.
1997
They open a second office in Calgary to provide cross-Alberta executive recruitment services.
2003
Davies Park completes its 1,000th executive search assignment.
2004
F ounding partner Darwin Park retires, selling his interest in the business.
2007
Davies Park opens its third office, in Vancouver.
2009
Founding partner Gerry Davies retires at the company’s 20th anniversary client party.
2010
Davies Park completes its 2,500th executive search assignment.
2012
The once boutique firm becomes national, opening an office in Toronto.
2014
Davies Park celebrates 25 years in the executive search business, with a staff of more than 30.
DARWIN PARK, Founding Partner
GERRY DAVIES, Founding Partner
Davies Park
5
Words of Support
LOOK EAST: Toronto principals (l-r) Rob O’Brien and Kartik Kumar help clients build leadership teams that steward organizations to a bright future.
T
HE STAFF AND PARTNERS AT DAVIES PARK have been lucky enough to work with terrific clients, many of them for years and across different organizations. Some clients have seen the benefits of executive search from both sides of the desk, and one-time candidates have become clients, seeking out the expertise of Davies Park in their roles as they search for C-suite talent in their own organizations. As client Richard Masson, CEO of the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission, puts it, “At Davies Park, they help with the things that are important to us, they know what the market looks like, what compensation should look like, and they find the right candidates in the variable timeframe that works for our organization.” And he’s not the only one saying good things.
6
Davies Park
MEETING WITH SUCCESS In addition to Lorne Babiuk’s position as vice-president of research at the University of Alberta, he is also chair of the board at TEC Edmonton, a partnership between the City of Edmonton and the University of Alberta. In that role, he and the board were tasked with hiring a new CEO for the organization. TEC Edmonton helps individuals and nascent businesses make the shift to market, commercializing their science solutions into businesses. It demands a set of crossover skills and expertise of its CEO that exceeds the average resumé. TEC Edmonton needed the person at the helm to have experience that fell into a specific tech commercialization niche, but also had crossover to other areas, considering the stakeholders in the organization. It was a tricky position to fill. Executive Search Consultants
a dv e rti s i n g fe atu r e
experience in obstetrics or anesthesiology. Or a skilled candidate might be “We told them about the job, about our expectations, and the overall phenotype of the person we were looking for,” Babiuk says. interested in communities near the Rocky Mountains. “But five years later, no one had left the communities we placed them in.” “They cast the net wider than we ever could.” Davies Park developed a long list of potential candidates, then met with TEC Edmonton to discuss findings, narrow the field and BOTH SIDES NOW Eric Sawyer has experience with Davies Park from both sides of the desk, and develop a shortlist. Next, Davies Park checked their references he has found it positive no matter how he’s approached it. thoroughly and met with potential candidates to vet them and In 2004, Mike Kerr at Davies Park in Calgary was the main representative pre-screen them. When it came time for the small handful of as the City of Calgary’s executive search consultant in its search for a city treacandidates to meet Babiuk and the board, representatives from surer. From Toronto, Sawyer didn’t know much about the job or the city. Davies Park were there. “Mike and the others at Davies Park did a good job of representing both “It made for a very relaxed interview,” recalls Babiuk. The to me,” he says. “The interpreted the scope and extent of the job clearly and candidates had already met with Davies Park partners, so they were positive and fair to work with. They were knew what to expect. From the very helpful, but the definitely represented field, Babiuk and TEC Edmonton “Our roots are in Alberta’s entrepreneurial their client.” wound up offering the position It was a great fit and Sawyer made the move to Chris Lumb, who has now spirit and we continue to espouse those and excelled at the job, becoming CFO for held the post for a year. “It’s values. Today we have offices across the City of Calgary in 2009. Since he moved working out really well, and Canada and we recruit talent from all over west, he has also been a City of Calgary client Chris has proved very valuable to of Davies Park. “Each time it was because we TEC Edmonton,” he says. “They the world, but our legacy is grounded in put out an RFP and Davies Park was awarded asked the right questions and that Alberta entrepreneurial attitude.” the contract,” Sawyer says. “Recently, the firm acted as supporting cast during - Mike Kerr, Calgary Partner helped us fill a position in the finance group. the interview. They really got to We connected with them, identified our needs know all the candidates, and that and then I went back to work and didn’t have to deepened their knowledge of the think about it. They brought me in at the crititalent pool.” “We’ve built a reputation for quality cal times in the process.” ON CALL service and established long-term SCALING UP Now CEO of Ohlhauser and relationships. We’ve had an impact helping Tom Hodson is the President of Skyline Associates, in the mid-1990s, Dr. organizations grow and prosper. We take Group, a mid-sized construction company in Larry Ohlhauser was the registrar pride in that; their success is our success.” Calgary that specializes in building envelopes of the College of Physicians and for big commercial sites. But Hodson has Surgeons of Alberta. He was the - Elizabeth Hurley, Edmonton Partner not always been in construction. At one time person who said yes or no to he held an executive position at Proctor & professionals seeking to become Gamble. He left that company to join SMART certified in Alberta. “At the time Technologies, provider of technology solutions there were muttered complaints “Davies Park has an ownership structure to enable interactivity and collaboration in about the quality and retention of that encourages collaboration within schools and workplaces. (SMARTboards have doctors in rural Alberta,” he says. and between our four national offices. largely replaced black boards and whiteboards While the task of recruitment in the classroom.) and retention fell outside his We attract the highest calibre of people When Hodson started at SMART almost purview, he stepped up to help and in the service business and deliver seven years ago (he left to join Skyline in find a solution. the best results for our clients.” March), SMART was a successful Canadian “I told the Minister of Health - Greg Longster, Vancouver Partner company that wanted to launch a global busithat I would need a recruiter,” ness. “At that time they did not have a bunch Ohlhauser explains. “I was reof strength to scale up,” says Hodson. “They ferred to Gerry Davies, and I said, had a board of directors, and it needed to formalize its hiring practices. Word‘Here’s my problem, I need 111 qualified family docs with various of-mouth wasn’t going to work anymore.” Hodson convinced the board to try other special skills,’ ” he says. Davies Park was mandated to search an executive search firm to find top talent. “Mike Kerr from Davies Park did first in Alberta, then Canada, then internationally. a great job. He was approachable – almost folksy – and very professional.” The search culminated with a flight to South Africa, where DaSMART successfully recruited vice-presidents for human resources, operavies Park and Ohlhauser met with interested candidates. Within tions and IT. The three successful candidates stayed with Hodson for the a year, Davies Park had helped fill more than 100 positions. “And these people fit very well in terms of skills and personal interests,” remainder of his six years at SMART and together the team helped launch SMART into a truly international company, grossing $160 million. Hodson he says. It was no small feat, making these matches. For example, is currently working with Davies Park to fill an executive role at Skyline. a hospital in one community might need a family doctor with daviespark.com
Davies Park
7
a dv e rti s i n g fe atu r e
TEAM LEADERS: Davies Park has the breadth and depth of expertise to find executive talent for Canadian boardrooms.
“I’m proud our partners developed the motto ‘creating success through leadership.’ It defines our commitment to our clients, our candidates and our team. We focus on leadership excellence in each of our offices.” - Allan Nelson, Calgary Partner
EDMONTON Elizabeth Hurley | Anurag Shourie | Ardyce Kouri 1505 Scotia 2, 10060 Jasper Avenue Edmonton T5J 3R8 TEL: 780.420.9900 E-MAIL: careers@daviespark.com CALGARY Allan Nelson | Mike Kerr 1810, 300 - 5th Avenue SW Calgary T2P 3C4 TEL: 403.263.0600 E-MAIL: consult@daviespark.com VANCOUVER Greg Longster | Tony Kirschner 880-609 Granville Street, PO Box 10358 Vancouver V7Y 1G5 TEL: 604.688.8422 E-MAIL: executive@daviespark.com
To create success, an organization needs to hire the best. Davies Park helps its clients identify the leaders they need, and then focuses the search to find the best candidates possible. 8
Davies Park
TORONTO Rob O’ Brien | Kartik Kumar 3670, 130 King Street West Toronto M5X 1E2 TEL: 416.238.5622 E-MAIL: toronto@daviespark.com
Executive Search Consultants