On this page, we've listed
- profiles of our principle staff,
- our unique qualifications,
- our fees,
- along with some key points to consider when looking for a retainer search firm.
To select a search consultant, a client should focus on unique industry knowledge, contacts and specialized search expertise, a quality track record, professionalism, integrity, and uncompromising dedication of the search manager, as well as any off-limits companies affecting the search. References are key to properly assessing the search consultant's ability to deliver.
Susan Tracy-Wheeler is a top executive search consultant in the IT field. Ms. Tracy has sixteen years executive search and staffing experience, and is a speaker at industry conferences. She began her career in 1985 with Glendinning, a leading consumer products consulting firm and later joined Colgate Palmolive. She was recruited to a leading Executive Search and Computer Consulting Company where she was involved initially in expanding their consumer goods and financial services presence. Later Ms. Tracy was promoted to manage and build a specialty practice providing consulting and search services to information, computer & telecommunications vendors, consulting and consumer goods clients. In 1985 she was recruited to The Gartner Group, a premiere Technology Research and Strategic Advisory Firm. As the Director of Staffing and Development she designed and managed an internal executive search function concentrated on the computer industry. They developed a unique database of the top industry talent and hired over fifty senior level industry experts yearly. Gartner's success is renowned in the Global Market. In 1989, as the Managing Partner, she founded Wheeler Associates, an Executive Search Resource Strategy Consulting Firm. Ms. Tracy is a member of the National Association for Corporate and Professional Recruiters and holds a BS degree from the University of Bridgeport, with M.B.A. course work from Fairleigh Dickinson and Sacred Heart University.
Tess Lander has been a Marketing executive in the information/technology industry since 1973. Positions she has held include Business Development, Marketing, Product Planning and Industry Consultant with IBM and Xerox Corporation for ten years, during the inception of the office automation industry. Ms. Lander represented Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) as a Product Marketing Manager for Xerox's STAR and ETHERNET and was an active industry spokesperson. In 1983, Ms. Lander joined Peat Marwick. As a Manager she was involved in building a national practice in Office and End-User Technologies, and supported the Business Planning and Productivity practices for emerging technology companies. Allied Corporation then recruited Ms. Lander to re-vamp the Marketing and Product Planning Division as Vice President, Bunker Ramo Corporation, where she launched a new generation of products for the Financial Services community, integrating advanced workstations, operating systems and networking technologies. She joined Reuters as Vice President, Branch Systems and later Strategic Marketing. In 1990, she joined Wheeler Associates as Senior Vice President. Ms. Lander was an IBM Scholar and graduated from Stetson University with a B.A. in Marketing, and has completed course work at the Universities of Georgia and Houston, and Fairfield University. She holds an Executive Degree in Corporate and Contract Law from the International Center for Training and Management Development.
Mary C. Eagan, Recruiting and Information Specialist, has more than ten years of executive recruiting experience. Formerly she held Search Consultant, Director of Research, and Research Associate positions within established New York-based retainer search firms. She spent an earlier career as an Assistant Buyer with Filenes & Company and as a Marketing Representative with Allied Stores Corporation. Ms. Eagan has completed various domestic and international assignments recruiting across a wide spectrum of industries including Business Information, Technology, Financial Services, Consumer Products, Industry Products, Pharmaceutical, Specialty Chemicals and Professional Services. She has conducted multi-level assignments of both line and staff proficiencies in most areas including Information Technology, Research & Development, Marketing, Finance, Operations, Sales, Manufacturing and Strategic Planning/Business Development. Ms. Eagan holds a B.S. Degree from the University of New Haven, and has been working with Wheeler Associates as a consultant since 1990.
Wheeler Associates is a boutique Technology Executive Search and Staffing Strategy Consulting Firm. We specialize in recruiting information technology executives and management. Why do business with a boutique? Because we dedicate the time to develop long-term relationships with our clients, serving as an extension of their staff. Our overhead is less than larger firms and our seasoned professionals' time involved on your assignment is more. We involve each of our principals in every assignment, and their cumulative strategizing determines the custom recruiting approach we take in helping the client accomplish their goals. The bottom line? We do a better job for you because we invest more!Our business is based on referrals. We have established long-term relationships with our clients because of superior performance. Our mission is to communicate to potential candidates our client's vision in recruiting outstanding talent and building successful organizations. Our philosophy is simple:
"OUR CLIENT NEEDS ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY THE BEST TALENT" Our clients are innovative and progressive companies. Our involvement in their planning processes, researching and defining their market alternatives, and contributing hiring strategies enhances their growth strategies. Our clients require that we invest the time to have an in-depth understanding of their specific organization and its needs.
We are qualified to join our client's "team" because of the variety of management experiences we have in our superlative staff, a culmination of more that 35 years in industry. Our backgrounds include executive search, strategic staffing, technology product planning, product marketing, marketing communications, industry and market relations, mergers and acquisition analysis, market research, sales and sales management. Advanced technology areas are our forte: Client Server Architecture, Multimedia, Objected Oriented Databases, etc.
Our specialized expertise and industry contacts are extensive, with major concentrations in information technology, business process re-engineering, management consulting, systems and applications development, operations, planning, advanced technologies, R&D, telecommunications, vendor marketing, and human resources development.
What Differentiates Wheeler Associates?
We have developed partnerships with a group of clients where we play a key part in their strategic hiring of key executives, executives that are critical to the achievement of their business objectives. We understand these goals, the new missions and directions of each operating entity. Our combined recruiting, management and business expertise enables us to make the crucial, qualitative assessments in probing qualities and skills of potential candidates. We possess the kind of know-how required for searches in fields on the leading edge of technology. Our contacts and database are superior.
We established our practice in 1989 because of the market demand for consultants who were business leaders. While the industry retrenched and everyone bemoaned the recession, we saw an opportunity to help the leaders of the Information Technology industry face their challenges. We are focused on the emerging I/T trends and re-engineering efforts to assist our clients to develop solutions.
Companies are pressing for change agents. Corporate staffs are flat and lean, and competitive positioning is critical. Today, head count is severely reduced and few are chosenÑonly the best will do. Success is enabled through accountability and empowerment. We are a leading search firm in technology, and our expertise is renowned. We are one of the few firms specializing in finding the talent that can address issues such as:
- The growing need for technology innovators and business re-engineering implementors. The implications of downsizing, moving away from legacy systems and re-organizing to Client Server technologies.
- Corporations expanding overseas and dealing with cultural requirements of which they are not yet certain, including interfacing with Europe and regulatory implications to their bottom line.
- Multi-lingual executives versed in the cultural expertise required to unify organizations that were previously independent and represent the company's short-term and the long-term goals.
We are accountable to you. We are creative and promise to deliver the best talent in the industry. We have a reputation for being direct and effective with our candidates and our clients. Your industry is our industry and we stay on top of it by interfacing with its leaders, reading its trade publications, and attending its conferences. We take responsibility to deliver results, within budget and on time.
Through extraordinary hard work, we have achieved an enviable track record. Our efforts are intense. We are differentiated by our ability to perform at a consistently high quality of personal service. Our success is due to a shared commitment and partnership with long standing clients who have demonstrated their confidence in us. Our due diligence has protected our clients from expensive mistakes. Our assessment and insights are on target. By continuing to seek strategic relationships with companies who are visionary and are building a dream, we can make a difference.
Our extensive research capabilities include our strategic alliances, our on-line database system and access to a large consulting firm's extensive library and on-line database query capabilities. Our researchers and key sources of intelligence specialize in Information Technology and are among the best in the industry.
When you need to make serious changes, whether today or in the future, know that we invite you to investigate our customized approach in serving your needs. We are not another "cookie cutter" firm. We deliver quality results.
Fees -- Wheeler Associates' fee is a standard retainer of 331/3 percent of the anticipated first year's total compensation, including base salary, bonus or other incentive pay related to the first year of employment. One-third of the anticipated fee is billed on the initiation of the search assignment, one-third after 30 days, and one-third after 60 days. The final invoice, issued upon completion of the search, reflects the net amount due as a result of the actual compensation negotiated. Out-of-pocket expenses are billed in the month in which they are incurred and are subject to verification by the client.
Key Areas To Address When Working With a Retainer Search Firm
- Do they understand your business and industry?
- Are they connected to sources of industry intelligence?
- Do they have flexibility to utilize targeted primary research?
- Do they have relationships and partnerships with other search firms?
- What competitors and companies are off limits to them?
- Is a Search Boutique's personalized approach better than a larger firm?
- Is the firm committed to completing their searches?
- Who really does the search?
- What value-added do they bring to you?
- Are they capable of assessing your culture?
- Do they have the ability to assess technical and business excellence?
- What is their current search load?
- Are they committed to being a long-term strategic partner with you?
- Does your business have synergy with their specialty practice area?
- Are their expenses reasonable?
Wheeler Associates
30 Surf Road
Suite30a
Westport, CT 06880
Fax 203-454-3380
E-mail:
Internet: ctara@wheelerassociates.com