“When I formed this company 20+ years ago, I would speak with highly-qualified job seekers. Some had been fired, or laid off, or were about to be. Some were not getting interviews. When they secured an interview, there were no offers. When they received offers, they were unacceptable. It was frightening facing unemployment, often for the first time, with bills to pay. Some felt trapped and alone, some felt embarrassed or ashamed, the feeling that that they had failed themselves and their family. They questioned who might want them and assumed they were stigmatized and stuck with this new status causing them to be perceived as less valuable to companies. The feelings are still the same today, two decades later. My clients hire me to help them develop a clear, value-driven brand, get in front of decision makers, and better communicate their genius to those who are hiring. I like helping others. What I really enjoy is seeing my clients get what they want.”
Fred Coon is Chief Executive Officer of Stewart, Cooper & Coon. He has advised thousands of executives on their job search campaigns. Fred is quoted in Forbes, U.S. News & World Report, Money Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Success Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and other major national publications, and appears on affiliate stations of ABC, NBC, and CBS as an expert on the job and employment market. His SC&C Career Advice Blog has over 5,000 monthly subscribers worldwide.
Fred was on the senior team of two different companies, in two different industries, achieving multiple listings in Inc. Magazine’s top 500 fastest growing companies in America. One of those companies, Certified Collateral Corporation, was in the top 100 fastest growing companies in the United States. CCC was number 31 on the 1986 Inc. Magazine 100 List and number 54 on the 1987 Inc. Magazine 100 List, as well as first in profitability among all of the listed companies in both years.
He is a Licensed Employment Agent, a Nationally Certified Job and Career Transition Coach, a Behavioral Consultant and a Certified Disc Administrator. Mr. Coon is a member of the Arizona Technology Council – Policy Advisory Committee, the Workforce Business Intelligence Board, and The Forbes Coaching Council.
He is a founding member of The Arizona Corporate Council on Veteran Careers. This collaboration of companies is focused on maximizing career opportunities for all service members, veterans and their family members statewide. The corporate council works in partnership with the Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, the Arizona Coalition for Military Families and other key stakeholders in support of the Arizona Roadmap to Veteran Employment. He was invited and joined the Board of Directors of the Reveille Foundation, an organization that helps veterans, minorities, and Native American populations.
He is author of several best-selling career books. His first, Ready Aim Hired, was used as one of the textbooks for the Strategic Career Management course at the Daniels College of Business Graduate School, University of Denver. He was also the first appointed Virtual Executive Mentor for Graduate and Undergraduate students at Daniels, as well.
His best-selling book, Leveraging LinkedIn For Job Search Success is available on Amazon. Currently, there are over 54,000 copies in the marketplace. Mr. Coon is a contributing author to the book, Business Model You, by Tim Clark – now in seven languages. His latest best-selling book, Hire The EQ, Not The IQ, focuses on hiring the right “fit” for any given job using behavioral interviewing tactics that he and his co-author, Ron Venckus, spent 10 years researching and developing behavioral questions to will help managers hire the right fit for any given job.
Fred is the Publisher for the National Job & Career Transition Resources Guide, and a white paper titled, Managing Multi-Generations for Profit & Harmony, which are FREE to the public. He is currently working on a military transition book specifically directed at anyone leaving the Armed Forces who would like to better understand how to make a personally meaningful and financially rewarding transition. He lectures and conducts hand-on workshops throughout United States for universities, educational, professional, business and management conferences and on military installations, nationwide.
On a personal note, he is also a well-known 5-string Appalachian claw-hammer style banjo player with concert performances in Ireland, Scotland, England, Australia, and throughout the United States, with media appearances on local, regional, and international radio and television programs, both in the U.S. and overseas, for over five decades.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredcoonscc/
Board Member: http://reveillefoundation.org/
Steering Committee: Arizona Corporate Council on Veterans Careers
Podcasts: The US At Work
Articles: Workplace-Strategies
Books and Other Publications:
Hire The EQ Not The IQ
Job & Career Transition Resource Guide
Managing Multi-Generations For Profit and Harmony
Actions Speak Louder Than Words….
Michelle Settle has over twenty years of experience in corporate expansion, management development and executive administration. Her high performing, team-centric mindfulness, enthusiastic passion, and creativity is palpable from the moment you meet her. She has been with the firm since its inception, demonstrating a deep grasp of process, policy, planning, and analysis. Michelle’s unique strengths coupled with her diverse and fresh perspective on building and leading has continued to deliver transformational business growth over the years. She is an influential communicator, who speaks the language of both the best organizational minds and the most creative strategists. Michelle’s high success record of problem-solving, conflict resolution and creating excellence has added new dimension to the corporate structure at Stewart, Cooper & Coon.
As an inherent leader and mentor, Michelle has long served her community in various organizations, including President of her local PTA and Boy Scout Troop Advancement Chair. As the mother of two boys, one an Eagle Scout and one on the Eagle track, she firmly believes in building leaders of character today for more enriched communities in the future. Michelle is a proud volunteer, serving various non-profit organizations including Feed My Starving Children, Arizona Boys and Girls Club, Relay for Life, Arizona Humane Society, St. Mary’s Food Bank and The Ronald McDonald House.
Michelle holds a Bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University and is currently pursuing her M.Ed.
Oliver is one of the early adopters of the use of modern marketing techniques to effect the transition of highly successful executives and professionals from one position to another. He is one of the pioneers in the development of individual and corporate outplacement consulting practices that saw career transition as a marketing problem, a problem of positioning, packaging, promoting and pricing.
He began his career as a college teacher and became involved in publishing, eventually running a small publishing house in Chicago, Printer’s Row Press, publishing a weekly newspaper, pamphlets, journals and books, primarily in the political arena.
In early 1980 he began a new career in corporate and executive outplacement built upon the principles of modern marketing. Rising to the position of Executive Vice President he was one of the key associates to grow the company nationwide, personally working along the way helping to place hundreds of senior level managers and executives in new and exciting growth opportunities. In 1986 he formed his own executive placement and corporate outplacement firm and built the company to cover twenty-one major market areas in the West, successfully working with thousands of clients. He retired from the career industry in 2001.
In that same year, he turned his passion into a business and began managing investments. He also helped found a company to raise money for schools which eventually incorporated and utilized the latest Internet technology to further its national presence.
Realizing the absolute necessity of using the internet and its enormous access to information to run a successful executive search he joined Stewart, Cooper & Coon coming back to the business of helping serious-minded executives find rewarding new jobs and careers.
Charles “Chuck” McConnell has been a leading voice in career management for many years. He defined and developed First Career Corporation and FindCareer.com and serves as the “Career Expert” for New York American Marketing Association. He has published numerous articles on the subject of career management and search preparation and has organized national and international conferences that have assisted thousands in getting their career searches on track.
Prior to his work in career services, Chuck was the Senior Consulting Partner at The Watson Group, a strategic communications agency based in NYC. His background includes corporate management positions with multinational marketers in the packaged goods, snack, confection, toy and apparel industries.
Chuck was President of The Apparel Group Limited, building worldwide acceptance of men’s apparel. He also has held global management positions at top advertising agencies such as WPP, Bozell and DMB&B and major marketers including Hanes, International Playtex and General Foods. Chuck earned his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a BA in economics from DePauw University and Exeter University in England.
Bill brings more than thirty years of business management and consulting experience to Stewart, Cooper & Coon. Bill has applied effective communications and organizational management strategies to achieve profitable results for a multitude of employers and individuals. Bill is also the author of The Principles Of Effective Personal Marketing ©.
“Effective interpersonal communications” is not theory, it is practice. Bill has developed and utilized his strategies to help thousands of people obtain optimum opportunities in line with their short and long-term personal development goals. He has used the same principles to help companies, non-profits and Boards of Director improve productivity and profitability.
Bill gained a significant base of experience through positions that included:
- Founder and Director of Consulting for a leading career management firm
- President/Director for a venture capital company
- Executive Vice President for a mortgage-backed securities company
- Vice President/Director for a bank holding company and its subsidiary thrift
- Vice President/Director for a property development/management company.
Bill received his undergraduate degree from Wittenberg University and completed a Masters Study in Mass Communications at the University of Denver. He earned his MBA -Finance from National University, graduating with honors, and is currently an adjunct faculty member with the University of Phoenix in Communications, Management, Leadership, and Finance.
He has held the position of Trustee and Treasurer of the La Jolla Town Council and Chairman of its Business and Professional Committee. His efforts have also included AYSO coach and soccer referee, school board financial and site acquisition consultant, Parent Volunteer in the classroom, and Advisor to the President of Wittenberg University for regional alumni affairs.