Mark Whitman
Mark’s mission is to help hiring managers recruit elite talent quickly. He takes great satisfaction in helping clients out-recruit their competition. In the process of fulfilling his mission, he takes great care to help digital marketing, integrated marketing, and emerging growth professionals elevate their careers. People say Mark owns a recruiting and staffing company. He says he owns a life improvement company.
Mark is an overcomer. At the age of 28, he was told he would be crippled and disabled by the age of 34. At the age of 52, after tens of thousands of pain-filled failures, he won a national championship in Sports Jujitsu and a Silver medal while representing the United States at the WCJJO World Championships. In 2018, Mark was inducted in the ASJL Hall of Fame in the “Inspiration” category.
As a business professional, Mark has held leadership positions in multibillion-dollar organizations, emerging growth organizations while experiencing challenging mergers and acquisitions. He became an entrepreneur at the age of 35 when he became an owner of a digital marketing agency just months before the .com crash. He led the agency through the .com crash, 9/11, and major embezzlement into prosperity and a successful exit. He founded his current company, TeamBuilder Search, at the very beginning of The Great Recession in 2008 and has led the firm to great success. Both of Mark’s companies have won multiple Business First “Fast Fifty” and Inc. Magazine awards. Mark was recognized by Business First as a “Forty under 40” over-achiever. He was also honored by the American Marketing Association as “Marketing Educator of the Year” and as “Marketer of the Year.” The Columbus Technology Council honored Mark as a TopCat Awards finalist for “Technology Educator of the Year.” Mark has served on many boards and advisory committees and has been a United Way Big Brother for 30 years.
Kelsey Gage
Kelsey Gage is the Head of Recruiting Operations and has been with TeamBuilder Search since 2016. TeamBuilder Search provides recruiting and staffing services for digital marketing, digital transformation, integrated marketing, and emerging growth roles. Her whole life, Kelsey has really enjoyed helping people. What she loves most about recruiting, is the opportunity to help people elevate their careers and lives. She also thinks the recruiting industry is broken and not enough recruiters truly value their candidates’ time and efforts. She has learned a lot over the years and it has become her mission to change the stereotype of recruiters one person at a time.
Kelsey has recruited elite talent for Fortune 10 companies, top national healthcare organizations, venture-backed emerging growth firms, integrated marketing agencies, digital marketing agencies, and a number of mature brands. Additionally, Kelsey has assisted thousands of professionals in elevating their careers and enhancing their work-life harmony. Kelsey wasn’t always a recruiter—she started out with a background in Baking and Pastry Arts—but she has since discovered that her true passion is helping clients and candidates succeed.