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M. Kent Taylor
President and Founder
Kent Taylor graduated in 1973 with a Masters Degree in Labor and Industrial Relations from Michigan State University, following a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Economics from the same institution. His career has focused on human resources management, first within corporate America and since 1980 in employment consulting.
For the first six years of his career, Kent worked in human resource management within the professional services
sector; first with Lester B. Knight and Associates, a major Consulting/ Engineering firm and subsequently with a multi-national
architectural/engineering firm Perkins and
Will, both in Chicago. There his last corporate position was World-wide Human Resources Manager. A subsequent move to a high-level executive search operation, Newpher, Baas and Company, provided invaluable first- exposure to the techniques of executive search based on the Booz Allen Hamilton model, the originators of the
search industry and its methodology.
In 1980 Kent formed Taylor Search Associates, Inc., a boutique search firm specializing in high tech employment consulting. It was the first such specialty firm in the Chicago Area. This firm applied high-level search techniques to technical recruiting assignments, a radical departure from the contingency approach that dominated this sector at the time. The firm specialized in hard-to-fill, you might say esoteric requirements usually avoided by the competition due to their difficulty.
After 15 years Kent decided once again that the market demanded a new approach to employment consulting and opened an
affiliate called Prairie Resource Group. This business model was based on an hourly fee-for- services model that allowed clients to partner in the process to a greater extent than thought possible before. The logic was simple: the easier the assignment, the less it cost the
client. The more assignments performed for a given client generates economies of scale that serve to continually lower costs to that client while improving efficiencies. This business model has taken off and now constitutes the vast majority of
his business within virtually all employment sectors. Currently he
is concentrating on expansion of services into the broader arena of business
consulting.
Kathryn A. Garmes
Principal Consultant and Corporate Officer
Kathryn Garmes graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Mathematics from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Her career has primarily been in the telecommunications industry.
For 21 years of her career, Kathy worked at Tellabs
a multi-billion dollar telecommunications equipment provider serving
principally Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOC's). Starting as a programmer in 1981 and completing
her tenure as Director of Software Development in 1999, Kathy was involved in the development of data switching products, network management
and digital cross-connect systems. She was part of the team that secured ISO-9000 registration for Tellabs’ Illinois location.
In the process, Kathy received ISO-9000 Lead Auditor training with TickIT.
In 1999, Kathy switched from product development into integration management. She managed the integration of Alcatel’s DSC Communications business in Europe into Tellabs' Digital Division.
Once the integration was complete, she took over as on-sight manager of an 8 month-old
acquisition. This was a telecommunications startup located in the northern suburbs of Boston that had remained as a stand-alone entity within Tellabs. She assisted in the integration of several other technology startup acquisitions made during the late 1990s. During the decline of the telecommunications market in 2001,
Kathy had the responsibility of shutting down two facilities that had been
acquired in the 1990's. Being involved in both the integration as well as the closing of several acquisitions, Kathy has a unique view on
what makes for a successful integration.
Since leaving Tellabs in 2003, Kathy has been involved growing Prairie Resource Group in the area of program management. Her experiences at managing product
and organizational developments provides her a wide knowledge base on how program managements skills can be applied to small product efforts as well as large programs.
Copyright © PRAIRIE RESOURCE GROUP, Inc. 2004
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