Much has changed since executive search professional Warren Carter began working around northern Baja California, Mexico, as sales manager to a customs brokerage and freight forwarding firm in the early 1990s.

“In those days, you could drive up to a new plant that was under construction and you could literally park your car, get out, walk inside and introduce yourself,” says Carter, the co-owner of QualiFind, a Chula Vista, California, firm specializing in recruiting executives for cross-border manufacturing operations. Read more »

When Warren Carter was transforming his Chula Vista, California, executive search company from a two-person virtual organization to a more conventional model with full-time employees, the company lacked the processes and expertise to attract, hire and retain the employees it would take to fuel QualiFind Inc.’s plan for success. “[To] make that transition from independent contractors to search consultants on payroll, you have to create infrastructure,” says Carter, 43. “We weren’t big enough to put somebody at a director of HR level.”
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Warren Carter’s Georgian drawl is still evident as he talks about his early days working as a marketing and sales manager for a San Diego customs broker, driving up and down Baja California trying to find new business.

“In those days you could drive up to a new plant that was under construction and you could literally park your car, get out, walk inside and introduce yourself. You can’t do that anymore,” said Carter, co-owner of QualiFind, a Chula Vista executive search firm focused on cross-border manufacturing operations. Read more »

Fernando Espinosa, a native of Mexico City, admittedly got into recruiting by accident.  I had just returned to Mexico from Japan (where I became fluent in Japanese) to process my enrollment for a Masters program in Japan.  Instead, I wound up getting an offer from a search firm that was looking for someone fluent in Japanese.  The search firm was looking to expand their service to Japanese companies that were investing in Mexico due to the implementation of NAFTA.  NAFTA was beginning to stimulate development in the U.S. / Mexico border region and Japanese manufacturers needed personnel to get established. Read more »