In addition to taking on new responsibilities with the acquisition of Lloyd Prescott & Churchill, a nationwide executive search and corporate recruiting company, Kees Hulstein is enjoying another new experience - U.S. citizenship.
A native of the Netherlands, Kees (pronounced kays) Hulstein, his wife and one son became U.S. citizens at a ceremony in Tampa in November. Hulstein got his voter's registration card in the mail this month.
"It said, "You are a first-time voter. Welcome,' " Hulstein said. "It's exciting."
Hulstein plans changes as well at Lloyd Prescott & Churchill, which his human resources company Hulstein & Associates took over in January. As chief executive and managing partner, Hulstein intends to rebuild the company's 15-person staff to its size several years ago of more than 40. He also plans to expand the organization within three months, adding more than 20 branch offices in key cities.
"We want to be in the more populated markets," he said, "like the Northeast, Chicago and California."
Lloyd specializes in finding senior management candidates for a variety of clients, "candidates they can't find on their own."
Hulstein credits the success of the 16-year-old company to "our extensive training and mentoring program," an area he will continue to focus on. "We have a lot of emphasis on training (and) mentoring our executive recruiters," Hulstein said. "You cannot be in this business if you do not do the right thing for years."
His new position won't require much traveling, Hulstein said, even as branch offices are opened nationwide. But he has visited 49 countries, which he says is ideal training for his position. "When I have people on the phone (from another country), I know the environment they are sitting in," he said. "You need empathy. You need to understand the other person and the environment and the culture.
"It all has to do with communication," he said. "People in different parts of the U.S. and the world tend to communicate differently. You need to be effective in those communication processes."
Hulstein said Lloyd Prescott & Churchill focuses on positions with a base salary of $100,000 to $500,000 in a variety of fields, including legal, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, insurance and commercial real estate.
Born in Arnhem, Holland, Hulstein grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. His father and grandfather sold confectionaries and coffee, and delivered them by bicycle. "I always wanted to have my own business," he said.
Hulstein earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Vrije University in Amsterdam in 1973 and a master's degree in business organization from the University of Leiden, also in Amsterdam, in 1977.
Hulstein worked for several Dutch and U.S. companies before moving to the United States in 1994 to work in New Jersey with Warner Lambert, a conglomerate of confectionary and over-the-counter products. He moved to Clearwater in 1999 with IMRglobal, where he was vice president of human resources. Two years later, he started Hulstein & Associates.
Hulstein said he enjoys working with a team. "What I really like is managing a team of people and mentoring them into success (and) see them develop and grow. . . .," he said. "That's very rewarding.
"Executive searches as an industry has always intrigued me . . . because I've always seen what a major impact it has on the success of a company when you have the right people in the management level."
Hulstein, 52, and his wife, Anneke, have three grown children. They also have two dogs that visit bay area nursing homes as therapy dogs, he said.
