606: Leveraging the Value of Culture | Will Costolnick, CFO, Hire Dynamics

Years from now, when Will Costolnick thinks back to the start of his CFO career, he will likely count the 12 months that preceded his appointment as CFO of Hire Dynamics as part of the same chapter, for—not unlike many of his CFO peers—Costolnick first found his footing at his new employer by slipping into a vice president of finance role for a year or two.

In Costolnick’s case, the interim role lasted 12 months, or just long enough for Hire Dynamics to reformulate its management ranks and expand its C-suite.

Still, Costolnick hit the ground running by using his interim credentials to begin putting in place processes that would accommodate new growth, which was indeed a priority for satiating the staffing firm’s newfound appetite for acquisitions.

Four years ago, Hire Dynamics had but 10 offices in the Southeast; today, this number is 47. The growing office numbers follow a recent spurt of deal-making by Hire Dynamics, which today boasts of being the Southeast’s second largest commercial staffing firm. Clearly, the timing of Costolnick’s arrival was no accident. Moreover, the firm’s newly charged CFO had spent four of his previous six years evaluating acquisition targets for LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

“We looked at 40 acquisitions during that period and closed on eight,” explains Costolnick, who served as lead finance analyst for the company’s internal mergers and acquisitions group.

“I think that this was really a pivotal moment for me. I would be sitting in a room with the leaders from product development, marketing, and sales, and I got to observe them as they looked at these targets strategically,” says Costolnick, who later served as director of finance for the Atlanta-based firm.

While acquisition targets are no doubt part of Costolnick’s world these days, so too are the processes and technologies that in the future will permit Hire Dynamics to satisfy the demands of an organization many times its present size. –Jack Sweeney