Executive Bio

Laura McCarthy
Qualified Search, Inc.

Ms. McCarthy established Qualified Search as a "mid-tier" search firm offering higher value, cost-effective services over contract/professional staffing and retained search firms. Catering to DC companies, who cannot find the right candidate or are disappointed with the time and cost associated with the search process, Qualified Search ensures that clients' hiring needs are fulfilled through Ms. McCarthy's personal attention, as well as through her extensive network and positive working relationships with other senior search professionals across the DC corridor who share requirements and referrals.

Prior to launching Qualified Search, Ms. McCarthy, was an IT Practice Manager with Source EDP (now KForce), a specialty temporary and permanent staffing firm serving Fortune 1000 corporations, as well as small and mid-sized firms. As featured in a 1998 Computerworld article, Ms. McCarthy was one of the firm's top recruiters, and an integral member of the senior management team that positioned the Washington, DC branch one of the most successful in the country. She placed technical professionals for professional services organizations (including the Big 6), telecommunications firms, software product organizations and large corporations.

Unlike many search professionals, Ms. McCarthy can also add direct industry experience to her credentials. Shortly after leaving Source EDP in 1998, Ms. McCarthy was recruited by one of her clients, Perspective Technology Corporation (now Idea Integration), a solutions-based professional services consulting firm to become their Business Development Manager. In this role, she combined her technical and business knowledge to compete against larger, well-established market players, traverse lengthy, competitive sales cycles, and close business process reengineering and system integration engagements. Ms. McCarthy forged strong relationships with small and large corporations, and a number of channel partners across the DC corridor and spanning the Telecommunications, Financial Services, Hospitality/Travel, and Public Sector industries.

She also spent her early career as IT professional with 2 DC-based software development/systems integration firms. Over the course of seven years, she sharpened her knowledge on two fronts: in technology development, release management, customization, configuration/testing, and integration with legacy systems and 3rd party applications; and in traversing business and process change as companies across the Banking, Healthcare, Publishing, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, and Real Estate industries migrated from manual to state-of-the-art IT infrastructures.

Ms. McCarthy holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and Finance from the University of Delaware. She has lived and worked in the DC corridor since graduating from college in 1986.

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