The Kforce Story: 50 Plus Years of Great People Delivering Great Results
Gordon Tunstall, who has helped the Kforce leadership navigate the intricacies of finance since those early days, understands perhaps better than anyone that their primary responsibility is to maximize the return to their stockholders. Though he has served on a number of corporate boards over the years, he now restricts his service to Kforce. “I made that decision because, of all the company boards I’ve sat on, Kforce is a company that I really feel very comfortable with, that the integrity of the firm will never let me down,” said Gordon. One of the keys to the board’s success is that, unlike many boards that are built for the purpose of rubber-stamping, Kforce’s board is noted for its open and free-flowing exchange of information and ideas, a quality that board member Mark Furlong appreciates. “Dave is very open and forthright and loves discussion and that encourages board members to participate in a way that’s not always possible on a board,” he said. Mark Furlong joined the Kforce Board of Directors in 2001, largely on his long-time professional relationship with Bill Sanders. “They were going through tough times but I watched them reassess their strategy; I saw how closely the management team worked together,” he said. Gordon Tunstall agrees wholeheartedly with Mark’s assessment on the nature of Kforce’s board. “Dave doesn’t want ‘yes men’ on the board. He wants people who will challenge him consistently,” said Gordon. Elaine Rosen brought her vast corporate experience to Kforce’s board for the past eight years. She describes her experience of fitting into this high energy culture as, “One of the more delightful experiences of my life.” Elaine credits what she calls, “the perfect marriage of traits” between Dave Dunkel and Bill Sanders for a large degree of Kforce’s success. “That combination was, I think, the turning point for the company,” she said. “They’ve built something extraordinary.” Patrick Moneymaker, a member of the Kforce board since 2005, agrees. Patrick, whose friendship with Max Carey dates back to their Vietnam-era naval aviation flight school days, has the unique perspective of having both served on the board of directors and functioned in a management team at Kforce. In 2006, Patrick took on the integration of the various government business-related companies they’d acquired to pull them into one cohesive unit and then re-joined the board in 2009. “I truly admire the mutual respect, courage, and confidence that those two men have for each other,” Patrick said. “Whatever magic ingredient brought those two together, I think they realize that they are at their best when they let other people do what they do. It gives a lot of solidarity and sets a good example to the rest of the people in the firm.” When Kforce celebrated its fiftieth anniversary during the summer of 2012, associates at headquarters and in field offices across the country celebrated their proud heritage and bright future. Looking back over the fifty years, Rich Cocchiaro said, “We wanted to have the opportunity for everybody who helped us get here, to get them over the goal line, too. We wanted to make sure that this is a place where you can come and work and continue to grow personally and professionally without ever having to leave the company.” Characterizing the firm as a “company of success,” Pete Alonso said, “You work with the best, you become the best and (the firm) creates opportunities
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