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The Team
All of our senior partners have filled top management roles in national or West Coast companies, giving them the first-hand experience required to understand the concerns of companies in transition.
Janis Machala
Founder and Managing Partner
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Before founding Paladin Partners in 1995, Janis Machala served as President and CEO of Pinnacle Publishing, a leading provider of component software and technical newsletters for developers. After seven years of operating losses, Pinnacle achieved profitability for seven straight quarters under her leadership.
Prior to Pinnacle, Janis held senior management positions in marketing and business development at major technology companies, including Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, and Wang Laboratories, often working in a mentoring or start-up capacity.
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She also helped form Seraph Capital Forum, a woman's angel investing group, and FWE Seattle, which supports women entrepreneurs. From 1994-1998, she served on the board of the Washington Software Alliance and is currently on the board of the Northwest Entrepreneur Network, which helps advance entrepreneurship in the Northwest.
Janis received an M.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Iowa and a B.A. in English and Psychology from Augustana College in Illinois. In her spare time, she plays bridge, reads voraciously, and travels as much as possible.
Email Janis here
Read Janis' interview with Seattle 24x7 here.
Carol Forsberg
Partner, Executive Search Services
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Carol Forsberg has over 10 years experience recruiting top talent for emerging growth and Fortune 100 companies. Prior to Paladin Partners, she was a director with the Brentwood Group, a retainer-based executive search firm, where she conducted searches at the director, vice president, and Officer levels for Northwest technology companies.
Carol also spent four years as a top producer with a publicly traded international search firm and served as a principal with the Huntington Group, a Connecticut-based executive search firm. There, she contributed to the company's national expansion efforts by developing a customer base on the West Coast.
She brings to Paladin clients extensive experience in developing strong relationships and an ability to find qualified candidates that meet both the professional requirements and cultural values of her clients.
When she is not working on behalf of our clients, Carol enjoys scuba diving, fine wine, traveling, and being entertained by her Papillons.
Email Carol here
Cheryl Bachman
Partner, Executive Search Services
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Cheryl Bachman comes to Paladin Partners after having her own successful executive recruiting firm which specialized in emerging growth and mid-market companies, many of which are focused in the biotechnology and scientific arena. Cheryl's been successfully conducting executive searches since 1997 and is an expert practitioner of a structured, systematic approach to finding outstanding executive candidates.
Cheryl has found critically needed talent for Bayer Corporation, Chiron, Idec Pharmaceuticals, Psychiatric Genomics, Invitrogen, Zymogenetics, Cell Therapeutics, Geron, and Norac Pharmaceuticals.
Cheryl studied Nursing at Luther College in Decorah , Iowa . An entrepreneur at heart, she started her first company, A.S.A.P. Medical Supply Company, at 24 and successfully ran it for many years.
Cheryl has a son, Joel, 17, and a constant companion, Max, her pet Shih Tzu. In her spare time Cheryl enjoys adopting elderly people, tending her roses, and traveling in developing countries.
Email Cheryl here
Aaron Fairchild
Principal
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Aaron is a local to the Pacific North West and comes from a rich family history of entrepreneurial enterprise. As a commissioned Loan Officer in a family owned bank, he developed a large network of business relationships and quickly entered the top six loan officers of the President’s Club. He founded two internet marketing ventures within the firm and developed wholesale businesses lines, sales training programs, and managed a sales staff of 20 Loan officers.
In the early nineties Aaron completed a 2-year Peace Corps service in Central Africa, and came home to begin working in the banking industry.
More recently Aaron began working as the interim President of Adventure Boys, Inc. Adventure Boys is a lifestyle brand company designed to capture the essence of boyhood. They offer a direct to consumer solution for fathers and sons to engage in authentic, engaging activities and are strategically aligning themselves with game and toy industry leaders.
Aaron received an EMBA from the University of Washington, and a BA in Anthropology from Western Washington University. In his spare time, Aaron enjoys rock and alpine climbing, skiing, international travel, and being in mountain spaces.
Email Aaron here
James R. Jones
Sales Acceleration
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With 25 years of Technology Sales and in excess of $450 Million in sales credits, James brings a wealth of experience to the Paladin team. He has served in key sales roles at DEC, SUN and Interleaf as well as executive positions at Sybase and Informix.td
For the past 10 years, James has focused on start-up companies as Chief Revenue Officer. He has been responsible for helping deliver first revenues as well as building the sales and business development teams that secure consistent company growth. He says, “I enjoy the energy of the early stage companies. I’m especially fond of driving revenue growth under almost any circumstance.”
In recent years James has worked with mobile telecoms operators around the glove. At SNAPin Software, he built the sales teams in North Amercia and Europe. He succesfully secured nine paid trials and pilots with operators like Birtish Telecom, Orange UK, Vodafone, Amena Spain, KPN, T-Mobile UK, T-Mobile US, and Cingular.
James’ experience includes start-ups in enterprise software, energy conservation, telecoms, document management and geospatial imaging.
Email James here
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