Join traded-sector executive recruiting specialists Rob Hawthorne, Tom Ryder, Bo Burch, and Lauren Henderson for their insights into collaborating with hiring businesses to identify the best talent to relocate into new companies and new cities.
Bo Burch
Founder, Chief Principal and CEO
Bo founded and launched Human Capital Solutions, Inc. in early 2003 after spending nearly 20 years in Talent Acquisition, Leadership Assessment and Organizational Transformation roles with diverse international corporations in the industrial, consumer, technology and manufacturing sectors.
Bo began his career with the MASCO Corporation, one of the largest home building products companies in the US. He later joined International Paper and supported the decorative building products division. The demand for Bo’s expertise moved him to Coca Cola, Eaton, and Corning, Inc. where he led organizational transformations in highly competitive global markets. He specializes in assessing and developing talent to meet the needs of the strategic business plan.
Bo has designed and co-authored technical and leadership assessment instruments emphasizing key performance indicators and balanced scorecards that demonstrate and optimize continuous improvement. He also contributes to professional articles on the subjects of high performance work systems, performance management, rewards systems, impactful and effective leadership, marketing, businesses development and relationship selling.
Bo worked in a family construction business prior to entering and completing his undergraduate degree at James Madison University in Virginia. After graduating with honors from the College of Business at JMU, he attended Michigan State University’s Industrial and Labor Relations School and is experienced in contract negotiation, the grievance procedure, mediation and the arbitration process. Bo is gifted in energizing the management team and the employees to collaborate, keenly focusing on the customer while driving shareholder value and profitability.
Bo is a former board member and Chairman of the American Red Cross Philanthropy Committee of Southeastern North Carolina and serves as a Board member for the North Carolina World Trade Association. He is currently serving on the Board of Visitors for the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Tom Ryder is the Founder and President of Target Solutions, a boutique recruiting firm focused exclusively on placing sales professionals specifically for the software industry. Since its inception nearly 30 years ago, Tom has established a stellar reputation with some of the top software companies, as well as Venture Capital firms, in history. Companies such as Google, Tableau, Oracle, Salesforce.com and Wilmington’s own, nCino, have trusted Tom and the Target Team to deliver the “Best of the Best” sales talent. Tom’s Team has a diverse background in technology, sales and recruiting. They differ from their competition in the fact that building a relationship and adding value is more important than just making a placement. Furthermore, Tom and the Target Team are passionate about promoting Wilmington as the city poised to be the next high tech town.
Robert Hawthorne is president of Hawthorne Search, a leading boutique national recruiting firm with a focus on digital and ecommerce. Hawthorne Search has been working with leading online b2c and b2b web and mobile driven companies for nearly fifteen years. Hawthorne Search was recently selected by Forbes Magazine as “one of America’s top 250 recruiting firms”, one of only five North Carolina firms to be chosen. A frequent speaker and writer on talent trends in digital , Robert spends his free time chasing his children from one local sporting event to another.
Ann Revell-Pechar is president of A.Revell Communications. For more than 30 years she has harnessed the power of storytelling to help build company reputations, introducing more than 200 products to the market for tech giants like Alcatel-Lucent, innovators like F5, and VCs New Enterprise Associates and now Zoic Capital. She consulted to the North Carolina Technology Association, the Council for Entrepreneurial Development, startups like Valencell, NextGlass/Untappd, and growing businesses like DocsInk, Petrics and Summerfield Custom Wellness. She is a founding board member of Cape Fear Women in Tech, sits on the Cape Fear Economic Development Council board, and was Executive Producer of TEDx Airlie, Advisory Board for North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA), Center for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), served as Chapter Board Chair and Executive Chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum of Atlanta, as well as other economic development focused organizations. She holds a Master of Public Administration from the State University of New York College at Brockport, and a BA in Theatre from Seattle Pacific University.