Contact Us

Elevate your Success by Hiring the Right Talent

Our discerning approach ensures our clients are hiring the right people.

Find Talent Now
We understand the challenge of and importance of hiring the very best people for key individual contributors and leadership roles within your organization. Each high-quality hire leads to attracting other A candidates and every hiring mistake or underperforming hire has an adverse effect on the team. Every hire provides the opportunity to start elevating the performance of your organization.

professional recruiter standing at desk
We incorporate the same level of precision on direct hire placements as we do when we are working on an executive search. We will discern the best talent and we won’t waste your time with candidates who don’t fit your need.
Our Focus
We do a concentration of our direct hire placement in human resources, operations, accounting, finance & sales leadership in key contributor roles.

Recently Filled Positions

  • HR Director – (family owned)
  • Director of Finance – (private)
  • Supply Chain Director – (family)
  • Operations Manager – (PE owned)
  • COO – (family owned)

Tailored Hiring Solutions

We recognize that every client’s journey is distinctive. Whether you are a family-owned business, a middle-market corporation, or a private equity-backed company, our approach is tailored to your specific needs and aspirations. Our suite of services, encompassing both retained executive search and contingent search, is designed to adapt, and evolve with you. Your success is our top priority, and we’re here to ensure you have the right leaders by your side at every step.

Executive Search

When you need trusted assistance for your most crucial strategic hiring needs. We have trusted experience leading you through a step-by-step process to identify, attract and hire executives who will seamlessly integrate and impact the success of your organization.

Learn More

Professional Recruiting

When you need broader access to talent. We have recruiting team members focused on providing value added direct hire recruiting services to our client organizations. This gives you access to passive candidates who are not answering job postings.

Learn More

Contract Placement

When you have to fill a need immediately. We apply the same careful vetting that we use in direct hire to help clients locate candidates to handle contract, project based or interim needs. Our focus in this area includes finance and accounting, human resources and project resources.

Learn More

Our Process Ensures a Successful Fit Every time (How we Work)

We execute each step of the executive search process with a critical eye. We understand the critical organizational importance of hiring the candidate who will deliver exceptional performance.

1 Discovery

Gain an understanding around the culture, organizational values, and goals. Meet key constituents and understand the desired outcomes for the role.

2 Strategy

Critical for key stakeholders to align around the desired candidate profile. This includes the experience profile and a list of intangibles required for a seamless integration.

3 Recruiting

Tailor the recruiting, attraction & evaluation process to the specific need. Build in key steps in the process, assessment, and stake holder involvement.

4 Present

Execute the research, sourcing and recruiting strategy. Build a candidate pool that involves covering the desired candidate market while narrowing the pool against tangible and intangible requirements updating our clients through this process.

5 Interviews

Assist in facilitating the client interview process which may include developing an interview guide and evaluation matrix. Coordinate references, assessments, and any additional steps.

6 Selection

Facilitate the final decision taking into account all the steps in the process including data points from assessment, references and evaluation process. Assist with the offer, acceptance, resignation and on-boarding process.

Building Your Talent Capability One Talented Leader at a Time

We have expertise to fill the critical needs in departments across your organization.

C-SUITE

FINANCE / ACCOUNTING

HUMAN RESOURCES

OPERATIONS

ENGINEERING

SALES / MARKETING

FAMILY OWNED

PRIVATE EQUITY

Client Segments

Our primary focus is privately owned middle market companies. This includes family owned, founder owned and operated, ESOP and private equity portfolio companies with revenues up to $1B.

client segments chart

Industries

WilliamCharles has deep and broad experience working across a number of different industries and sectors. Located in Michigan gives us extensive experience with manufacturing and distribution industries. At times, specific industry experience is critical – other times it is better to seek the best talent across industries. We help you navigate those critical decisions.

MANUFACTURING

DISTRIBUTION

HEALTHCARE

SERVICES & BANKING

NOT FOR PROFIT

EJ logo

We have worked with WilliamCharles Search Group (WC) for a number of years with executive and professional recruitment; and we continue to go back to them for their services. With our most recent recruitment we had the luxury of WC finding several qualified candidates and WC assisted us in narrowing our selection to the person best suited for our company and the position. We have had direct access and excellent communication in the recruitment process and appreciate their calm and friendly persistence and professional demeanor.

Read More

- Tami D. Vincent || Vice President, Human Resources and Administration, EJ Group
Garrison Dental Solution logo

During the past two years, we have relied on WilliamCharles to successfully recruit top talent for four senior level positions. Bill Benson and Chuck Smeester are seasoned executive recruiting veterans with deep relationships and knowledge particularly in the Michigan market. They take a structured approach to ensure the job requirements and ideal candidate description is clearly defined. Then, leveraging their network and database, their team proactively finds candidates fitting the profile, building interest with them. We appreciate having a slate of quality candidates to consider so that we are not just choosing the single one which fits, but rather have the high-class problem of choosing between a couple of strong fit candidates.

Read More

- Jim Fox || CEO, Garrison Dental
Hagerty logo

We engaged with WilliamCharles to help us find talent and build muscle within our finance function as we embarked on building our capability to go public. They helped us hire a dozen people between finance (7 CPA’s, HR (3 key HR leaders) and legal (contract attorney and SEC Attorney). They are experts in receiving feedback and using this information to refine the search and ultimately find us the right person. They understand who we are as a culture and what is truly important to us from a Talent Acquisition perspective.

Read More

- Gretchen Overbeek || Vice President of Human Resources, Hagerty

Case Studies

Hiring a key executive is among the your most critical decisions to get right. We understand the gravity of these decisions and each situation provides a unique set of circumstances. We have a successful track record creating successful outcomes to these seemingly daunting situations.

150 million Chemical Company.

Situation
Regional ESOP owned chemicals company reached out to us as they were going through a leadership transition with retiring CEO turning over the position to the CFO. We were asked to work on multiple projects during this time period.

Our Approach
Met with the retiring CEO and the lead board member to outline the project and approach. Agreed on direction and process and launched searches for new board members to replace retiring (aged out) members and subsequently a CFO search to replace the person who ascended into the CEO role.

Outcome
Brought two new board members over a one-year period to fill in for retiring members and placed a new VP of Finance to succeed into the vacant CFO position.

National Medical Support Organization (PE Owned)

Situation
Fast growing private equity owned medical practice organization is scaling the organization through acquisitions at the rat of a 50+% annual growth rate. We have filled several positions including a CFO, three positions in HR and 2 positions in operations.

Our Approach
The challenge with this assignment was finding candidates who had the capability to fit the demanding environment as well as having the talent and potential to grow with the organization. We developed a specific interview protocol to make sure we were sending candidates who fit the PE model.

Outcome
We continue to work with this organization to supplement their internal recruiting needs.

New Public Company (insurance)

Situation
Large family-owned specialized insurance company was going through the process of going public. The finance function needed to quickly hire a team capable to handle the rigor of their new world compliance, reporting, and audit functions.

Our Approach
We did national searches (positions were all remote) and placed 8 SEC, financial reporting, audit professionals at varying levels. We also place a deputy general counsel, contract attorney and several people in human resources.

Outcome
The team we placed is still in place as the company has gone through a lot of transition. We were able to accomplish this major project utilizing our internal team and selected external partners.

Executive Hiring Guide

Career Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Let’s Elevate Your Success

Contact us today to discover how WilliamCharles Search Group can strategically elevate your leadership team and drive your organization toward new heights of achievement.

Michigan

7159 Headley St. SE
Suite B
Ada, MI 49301

616.464.4355

Pennsylvania

1001 Liberty Avenue
5th Floor
Pittsburgh, PA 15222

412.392.7260

Follow Us
AboutServicesExpertiseIndustriesCandidate DownloadsResourcesContactTerms & ConditionsPrivacy Policy

Join 1,000+ executives on the inside track

Sign up for our monthly email newsletter containing the latest hiring tips, leadership guides, and other topical resources.

Join Our Newsletter

Part of a Global Network: Sanford Rose Associates® is a network of independently-owned and operated recruiting offices in its 50th+ year of offering executive search services. We specialize in retained search for experienced executives, management and individual contributors. Read More ->

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
How May We Assist You?