SFVBJ "40 Under 40" Recognizes Kelly Patchett

Kelly Patchett
Corporate Director, Consultant Development
DLC
Age 34

Woodland Hills, CA. – August 15th, 2005 –

When Kelly Patchett joined DLC her job was to recruit not just any consultants, but consultants from the Big Four accounting firms or MBAs from the country’s top 25 schools and, oh yes, financial professionals with experience working at Fortune 1,000 companies.

“When you’re a company nobody’s ever heard of and you’re looking to hire people from companies like that it’s a hard sell,” Patchett said flatly.

Despite the challenges, Patchett has practically single-handedly brought some 130 consultants to the company since it launched in 2001.

“She’s been very effective at translating the message in a way that resonates with the people we want to attract,” said David Lewis, CEO of DLC. “If you believe people are your most important asset, then she’s been a key driver in helping us get to where we are today.”

Patchett, who began her career working as a retail manager for The Limited and Ann Taylor, was working for Lewis’s dad, Richard E. Lewis, as a recruiter for what was then called Accountants Overload, when she joined DLC.

The company, which offers financial and accounting consulting services in areas such as financial planning and analysis, accounting and reporting, systems and others, is unlike many of its rivals in that its consultants do not travel extensively and they are not required to be rainmakers.

Patchett quickly figured out that those features and others would be important selling points in the recruiting process.

“I tried to learn a lot about the life of the accounting professional,” she recalled. “What kinds of things do they not like about their job? What would they like to have if they could? A lot of people are drawn to consulting but they don’t pursue it because they’re thinking of other definitions of consulting.”

By zeroing in on how DLC differed from many other consulting firms and from the Big Four accounting firms, Patchett was able to tap into a group of professionals who met the company’s criteria and offer them an alternative that met the needs that were not being met by their current employers.

Since then, the single mom admits, her job has become somewhat easier.

Woodland Hills-based DLC has grown in size and stature. The company’s clients include some of the major Hollywood studios, Sunkist, Baxter and Makita.

And DLC has been ranked among the fastest growing private companies in Los Angeles, publicity which has also helped her efforts.

Still, those who work with her say it is Patchett’s enthusiasm that is among the most important selling tools the company has for acquiring new professionals.

Unlike the work recruiters do for recruiting firms, where each client presents new opportunities to talk about, in-house recruiters must continually talk about and sell the same company.

Said Lewis, “To represent one client for four years and do it with such enthusiasm is quite an accomplishment.”

– Shelly Garcia