Portia Kibble Smith is President of PKS Executive Search and Consulting, an innovative Executive Search and Consulting Firm that focuses on MBA graduates and alumni from the top tier business schools who possess a diverse set of experiences. She also has a long career helping Fortune 500 companies identify and place diverse business leaders within their organizations. Portia is a well regarded and recognized recruiting professional with productive networks. PKS offers customers a range and breadth of services that are unique in the industry.

Portia is committed to diversity in the workplace and has a proven track record of attracting and retaining top talent throughout the country, both majority and minority. Her expertise is in recruitment, sales, consulting, finance, business development and relationship management.

Portia leads with her strength of providing strategic direction for the recruitment processes for top firms. The mission that she leads is to identify, hire and develop future officers. Portia is known throughout the business school community as a subject matter expert for diversity recruitment. She has created a “best-in class” recruiting strategy for attracting minorities and women. PKS encompasses diversity and inclusion in the technology space as they are creating new pathways to attract, assess and hire candidates in tech. One of her clients is a dedicated hiring engineer who offers a premium hiring services specifically for software engineers. PKS does business development and also focuses on D&I for the firm and their clients. In the financial industry PKS is working with companies who are committed to hiring diverse financial advisors on a nationwide basis. PKS has also created a niche for hiring top talent in the mortgage banking business across the Midwest.

She has a long-standing relationship with the Wharton School of Business and frequently has customers that want a fresh perspective on issues they may be facing and/or on products and services they want to launch. Each semester Portia teams with a group of students from the University that apply classroom knowledge in developing meaningful managerial action plans – formulating and communicating the resulting strategic vision to her customers.

Portia Kibble Smith is a Kansas City native and a graduate of the University of Kansas, where she earned her Bachelor of Science Degree from the School of Business. She is a lifetime member of the National Black MBA Association and is currently a board member at the University of Kansas Alumni Association’s National Board. She is a former board member at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Howard University’s Business School in Washington, D.C.

STRATEGIC PARTNERS

 

Hodges L GolsonHodges L. Golson
Management Psychology Group

Georgia Institute of Technology, B.S., Industrial Management
Georgia State University, M.S., Social Psychology
Georgia State University, Ph.D., Social Psychology

Before graduate school, Dr. Golson was an Army officer and a computer marketing rep for IBM. He has been a consultant to organizations since 1976. He and his two partners founded Management Psychology Group in 1986 and a sister company, eTest, in 1997. He is a member of many professional organizations, including the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology and the Division of Consulting Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

He is Board Certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in the specialty of Industrial/Organizational Psychology. He consults with CEOs on issues of leadership team effectiveness, leadership succession, executive selection and unique life-at-the-top questions and problems. He is the author of many articles and white papers, including the books Influence for Impact: Increasing Your Effectiveness in Your Organization and Active Leadership: A Blueprint for Succeeding and Making a Difference.

Charles StoryECS Group provides coaching solutions to businesses that want to develop and retain a strong base of executive talent. In today’s highly competitive environment, businesses value executives who can think strategically, execute operationally, hold themselves accountable, work productively in a team, and develop succession talent. ECS Group can provide that extra resource to help businesses build a competitive people advantage.

ECS Group’s president, Charles I. Story, has over 35 years experience in the career development arena. He served almost 13 years as president and CEO of INROADS, one of the largest non-profit career and leadership development organizations in the country. He has worked with executives at all levels and understands the wide array of skills and competencies required to excel short and long-term.

In addition, he cumulatively has over 33 years experience as a corporate director and currently serves on the board of directors of Briggs and Stratton and served on the board of ChoicePoint from 1977 to 2008. Charles has a Masters Degree in Public Administration from the University of Tennessee and Tennessee State University (Joint Program) and a Bachelors in Psychology and Management from Fisk University.

The Behavioral Coaching Institute has certified him as an executive coach.