In our inaugural “TalentRise Talks” employee spotlight series, meet Carl Kutsmode. If you know TalentRise, you probably already know Carl, as he’s been an essential part of the company’s growth and success over the past 15 years—from its early stages, to being acquired by Aleron in 2019, to the business’ success as a leading retained executive search and coaching firm today. Learn more about how Carl got his start in the recruiting business and his path to serving as Senior Vice President of Business Development for TalentRise and its partner company Viaduct.
Journey to TalentRise
I grew up in Westmont, Illinois—a western suburb of Chicago—and attended Loyola University of Chicago. I initially studied pre-med, then realized cutting open animals was not in the cards for me and switched my major to industrial/organizational psychology with a minor in business. After graduating, I moved to the north side of Chicago, not far from Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs).
I wanted to be a management consultant and was hired by a boutique banking industry consulting firm out of college. I did the road warrior consultant life for two years before taking a job in the insurance industry selling a broad range of financial services to individuals and business owners.
Eventually, in 1991, I was recruited by a friend to help him grow his technology consulting business doing sales, recruiting, and placement of IT professionals. This is where I got exposure to the power of the internet and learned from a computer programmer how to recruit people like him online. This was a significant competitive advantage for our company, and within a few years, we had built a great business.
I still had a lot to learn about the recruiting industry, so I went to work for a larger competitor in IT consulting, where I lead sales and recruiting. When the owner decided to sell the business a few years later, I took the opportunity to start my first company. At that time, online recruiting was disrupting the staffing and corporate recruiting industry, so we positioned ourselves as the go-to firm to help employers “get online” with their recruiting efforts—either by doing online recruiting for them (essentially an early RPO model) or advising them on best practices for online recruiting and sourcing.
We were successful in our endeavor, and the company was ultimately acquired by a larger HR consulting firm. After several years, I was ready for something new and took a job helping CareerBuilder build out their RPO and consulting business. It was during this assignment that I met an HR consultant who eventually ended up joining TalentRise as CHRO in the company’s early stages. I came on board in 2009 as a minority equity partner to help them build a recruiting business similar to the one I had previously built and sold.
TalentRise was acquired by Aleron in 2019, and since then, has gained recognition in the Buffalo and Chicago markets as a premier retained search and leadership coaching and development firm for companies across a broad range of industries, ranging from startups to global organizations, that are experiencing growth, transformation, or change.
Life at TalentRise
As SVP of Business Development for TalentRise and our partner company Viaduct, I’m primarily focused on identifying opportunities to grow our services with current and new clients. I love solving problems, coaching candidates on their career decisions, and helping people and clients connect in ways that are a win-win.
We are always innovating and trying new things to differentiate and add more value to our clients. For example, we include the Predictive Index assessment and 90 days of Fast Start Coaching as part of every executive search.
To serve our client’s global executive search and coaching needs, I lead our PRAXI partnership, which gives us access to in-country, local search delivery capabilities in 35 countries outside the U.S. TalentRise is the exclusive partner for any searches coming from the other 35 PRAXI partners that require an executive search in the U.S. or Canada.
As an Aleron company, TalentRise remains entrepreneurial but within the support of a much larger organization. Having marketing, finance, and legal teams to support our work has been a welcome change from doing it all ourselves, and the Aleron culture is like a family.
Looking ahead to the next ten years, I think AI will settle into our world as an integrated suite of tools to automate and streamline the end-to-end recruiting process. Our value to clients will be focused less on the tactics of recruiting and vetting candidates and more on assessment and advisory services to help clients select, hire, and retain the best talent.
We are building something special at TalentRise, and we care about our people and our clients beyond just a transaction. It’s about forming long-term, trusted advisor relationships that help people and companies grow. There is never a dull moment!
Life Outside of TalentRise
I swim three days a week at 6 a.m. and work out one to two days a week. That time is when I plan my day, work through anticipated challenges, and mentally focus on what needs to be accomplished. Then three cups of strong coffee with cream, and I am ready to start my workday!
Outside of work, my husband Santiago of 27 years and my 9-year-old American Eskimo dog Stella keep me busy. On weekends in the summer and fall, I enjoy spending time with friends and family at my lake house in Michigan.
I am an artist who has painted over 50 paintings and kept only a handful—all others are with friends or family, and a few have been donated to charity auctions. I love the visual arts but only paint occasionally when inspiration hits.
Lastly, I am most passionate about travel and experiencing new cultures and being of service to help people less fortunate. I’d love to visit Thailand, Vietnam, New Zealand, and Australia. I have traveled extensively, and these are on my bucket list in the next few years—for no particular reason other than they seem like interesting, cool places to visit.
