HUMAN RESOURCES
Preet Kuar
CEO and Executive Recruiter
Pacific Staffing and Pacific ExecSearch
If Preet Kuar had thought as a college student that one day she
would love a job as the CEO of an executive recruitment com-
pany, she would have laughed.
“Nobody goes through college thinking they’re going to go into
recruitment,” says Kuar, who moved to the U.S. from Fiji at age 16
with the expectation she would become an accountant like her
three older siblings. However, two years into earning her business
degree at San Francisco State, she knew accounting was not her
passion, so after college she went to work for a grocery store while
reassessing her options. It was there the future came calling.
One of her regular customers mentioned to Kuar that
he owned a search firm (aka a headhunting firm) in the
Bay Area that recruited talent for tech jobs in Silicon
Valley. With Kuar’s business background and people
skills, he suggested she consider recruitment as her
next career move. Kuar ran to her car to get her resume
— and spent the next three years as a technical recruiter
and account manager at RGA Associates.
Kuar says those years were “the best training” she could
have imagined. She discovered in herself an uncanny ability to
successfully research, interview and match individuals to their
perfect positions. She continued this profession as the branch
manager of Manpower after moving to Sacramento in 2002. Af-
ter joining Pacific Staffing in 2012, she helped expand the com-
pany from a team of two to six — three executive recruiters (who
operate under the aegis of Pacific ExecSearch) and three staffing
specialists — before negotiating with the owner last year to take
over as CEO and buy the company upon his retirement. Now,
she spends 60 percent of her time doing executive searches and
40 percent speaking to professional groups and universities
about trends in the employment market.
Some of the company’s most prominent clients include
Sutter Health, Golden 1 Credit Union and Dignity Health.
Last year, Pacific Staffing placed 640 professionals in various
positions, including in human resources, accounting, health
care, medical support, IT, plant operations and engineering.
Additionally, Pacific ExecSearch placed 18 C-suite positions.
The company also recently started a program for clients who
want to outsource all of their recruitment, which means Kuar
can call upon her immense network built up over the years in
the industry to help fill all kinds of positions.
“I was nervous to take over as CEO at first, but as I start-
ed networking with other CEOs in the area, I got nothing but
support,” Kuar says. “The first six months here were tough. But
then I realized that Sacramento is very loyal and community
based, so I started joining associations, meeting people and
learning our demographics. The more I got out there and met
people, the more I became a trusted adviser. Now I can’t imag-
ine doing anything else anywhere else.”
by Jessica Laskey
March 2020 | comstocksmag.com
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