The Kforce Story: 50 Plus Years of Great People Delivering Great Results

was pleased to have that option and the firm realized three times the revenue of the normal search fee. It didn’t take them long to decide to expand their flex offering to the IT side of the business. Howard still recalls the unusual name of that first IT flex hire—Count Darling. Dick Bramel had experience working with IT contracting firms so he played a major role in the expansion in the south Florida office. Then when Dave hired Dick Maddock, who had been a competitor in the Tampa market, he was given the responsibility of growing the IT flex business and taking it to the next level. South Florida and Tampa were the only Romac offices venturing into the world of temporary IT placement. Without support from Romac headquarters, Dave,

Dick Maddock

Rich, and Howard opted to form a separate company, a subsidiary of FMA International, for the IT consulting business. They named it AMD after Albert Mathew Dunkel. When they told Al about it, Howard said Al responded with his customary dry sense of humor. “He said instead of calling it AMD, we should have called it MAD.” As of 2012, flex placement makes up the overwhelming majority of Kforce’s business, a whopping 96 percent. “To me, that’s the most significant watershed moment in Kforce’s history,” said Dick Bramel. “If you look at our business today, we wouldn’t be a one billion dollar business without that change.”

Kforce has an excellent tradition for recognizing performance but of all the awards that are given, the one recipients seem most proud of is the Dick Maddock Award. A true entrepreneur, Dick had his own firm, Dick Maddock and Associates, in the Tampa area. When Dave Dunkel called him and suggested he join the Romac team instead of competing with them, he accepted. “Dick was a gruff, tough kind of guy,” Dave recalled. He was, “hard working, honest, did everything the right way, very exacting, very demanding…all with a heart of gold.” When Dick died of cancer in 1993, an award was created in his honor for those who, like Dick, live out the Romac and now Kforce values. Since that time, the award has been expanded to three areas: field, corporate, and leadership.

Pete Alonso and Dick Maddock greet Dick’s wife, Janene.

33 Expanding the Team