Ron Milman brings a wealth of experience to his position as President of De Forest Search Partners. He graduated with a degree in Communication from San Diego State University in 1990. After leaving school, he co-founded The Milman Textile Group, a fabric sales and marketing organization selling to apparel design and manufacturing companies throughout California. After completing a highly successful 9-year run, Ron left the business to seek out new opportunities. He took a position with Alta Colleges Corporation as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the California region. His duties at Alta included marketing, sales, operations and recruiting. It was during his tenure there that Ron found a passion for the business of searching for top-notch talent and leading them to new opportunities. When Ron met Jill De Forest shortly after leaving Alta, a partnership seemed to be a logical step in his career. Ron handles the day-to-day operations at DSP, as well as overseeing marketing and client management and development. He is strongly dedicated to maintaining DSP’s excellent reputation for devotion to their clients, and for providing customer service that is second to none. Ron has been married for 16 years to his college sweetheart, and together, they are raising their two fabulous daughters.

You can reach Ron Milman at 310-374-4477, ext. 11 or at ron@deforestsearch.com.

Jill has been in recruitment for 23 years and specifically in executive search for 12 years. Jill started her career in recruitment in 1983 as a recruiter for Apple One Employment Agency in Torrance, CA. It was this job that made her realize that she had a passion for the business, a knack for connecting people with jobs and an intuition that made it work well. Within two months, Jill became the top producer in the region, and continued this trend every month for two years. This success convinced her to open her own agency. In 1985, Sawyer & Associates Personnel Service was born in Redondo Beach. The company started with six recruiters and grew to four Southern California offices and sixty-five recruiters within 3 years. In the early 90’s, Jill sold off the temporary division and dissolved the permanent division before giving birth to her 3rd child and going to work for Mattel as a Recruitment Manager. It was this position that gave her the experience placing middle and upper management and the inspiration to open an executive level search firm specializing in toy and entertainment consumer products. In 1995, Jill formed De Forest Search Partners in Manhattan Beach. She takes great pride in her personalized service, her ability to get results quickly and her flexibility to work with her client’s specific needs. The addition of new president and partner Ron Milman to handle the day-to-day management and operations of the company has allowed Jill to concentrate her time and focus to her real passion, which is recruiting and delivering superior results to her clients.

Jill can be reached at 310-374-4477, ext. 12 or at jill@deforestsearch.com.

Ann Barber, Senior Partner, Executive Recruiter specializes in senior level recruitment focusing on consumer-orientated companies. Ann has over 13 years of recruiting expertise where she has demonstrated success in delivering top talent to her clients along with a devotion to the research and attention needed to understand not only the specifics of the role, but also an understanding of her client’s corporate culture and business objectives. Ann’s thorough screening process, research, well established networking relationships, and dedication to streamlined and personalized service to her clients has provided her with ongoing success in the recruiting industry. Ann began her career as a Mechanical Engineer for San Diego Gas and Electric providing the utility’s largest commercial, manufacturing and industrial clients with engineering expertise. She has degrees in both science/engineering and business from the University of California.

Ann can be contacted at 310-374-4477, ext. 13 or at ann@deforestsearch.com.

For Cheryl Wright, executive recruiting has been a natural transition after more than 10 years as a corporate leader. Until early 2006, she led a Global Creative Services organization at Mattel, Inc. where her team strategized and executed creative collateral to all functions of the organization. With Creative Services, the goal is to understand the project, communicate strategy clearly, and then find the right team of talent to execute and deliver the results. She has come to understand that her passion has always been 'finding the right talent', the people part of the job.

Cheryl feels that she has now found the perfect job for her where she gets to connect the right people with the companies that will most value them and benefit from their skills. Her biggest strength is in her ability to listen, communicate clearly, and help her clients make the best decisions regarding the most important aspect of business… having the right people in the right roles.

Cheryl can be contacted at 310-374-4477, ext. 15 or at cheryl@deforestsearch.com.

Jennifer was born in New Jersey and moved to California to attend University of Southern California. An avid USC fan, Jennifer studied Broadcast Journalism and Film, and began her career in the movie industry. Jennifer worked at Walt Disney Studios as an Assistant to the President of Production and then on a film set (small film called "3 Wishes starring Patrick Swayze), but soon realized that while that lifestyle was fun and interesting, she wanted something more stable, so decided to attend Business School at Pepperdine University. Upon completing her MBA, she went to work for a small toy/gift company called Applause, whereby she climbed through the ranks to Associate Marketing Director. She was recruited by this very search firm to Disney Consumer Products as a Category Manager in the Global Toys group. After spending 4 years there, Jennifer was recruited once again by this search firm, but this time to be a recruiter. With her industry knowledge and contacts, it was a match made in heaven. 3 years into her recruiting career, Jennifer is happier than ever and has found a career for the long-term.

Jennifer is married, has 3 young children and loves USC football, traveling, beach-time, spending time with family and friends and running.

Jennifer can be reached at 310-374-4477, ext. 14 or at jennifer@deforestsearch.com.

Bill Vincent has a Master's degree in Business, and is a member of the American Association of Healthcare Administrators. He has over 18 years of experience in Healthcare Administration and Operations with short-term acute hospitals. Add to that his 8 years of industry specific recruiting, having worked for agencies performing retained and contingency searches as well as corporate recruitment at City of Hope National Medical Center. He has recruited for multiple positions in healthcare, including front and back office staff, Physician Partners, Vice Presidents and Directors. Bill's medical and healthcare background makes him familiar and at ease with healthcare professional, their skill sets, and key issues which make them happy employees.

Prior to joining DSP, Bill worked as the General Manager for a nurse staffing startup firm, dealing with JACHO accreditation issues, policy and procedures development as well as bringing in new clients to the company.

Bill's role at DSP is to assist with the development of the medical division, recruiting the most talented physicians and Practice Administrators, and to provide staffing services to busy medical practices.

Bill Vincent can be reached at 310-374-4477, ext. 21, or at bill@deforestsearch.com

Claire Waterhouse
Executive Recruiter

Claire Waterhouse has a diverse recruiting background with more than 10 years of experience. She is a true generalist with expertise in placing all levels of talent in industries such as: IT, Manufacturing, Human Resources, Fashion, Entertainment, Engineering, Legal, Medical, Retail, Consumer Products, Accounting and Finance to name a few.  Claire is intuitive in making matches and thrives under the challenge of finding the perfect person for every position. She is a relationship builder and an avid researcher. With a natural gift for matching people with opportunities she fell into this career while attending college. She has worked as in numerous roles on both the corporate and agency sides; with more than 5 years in Executive search on a national level.

With a love of people and a need to make a difference in the world, Claire has also devoted herself to local and world projects.  She has worked with her father on water projects in Kenya, along with many other philanthropic projects. An extreme outdoor enthusiast, if it happens outdoors she probably likes it.

Claire is a California native and lives locally in Manhattan Beach.

Kim Sandus is an integral part of De Forest Search Partners.

Kim brings over 12 years of strong administrative, customer support and office managerial experience to the De Forest Team. She began her career in the customer service field at United Airlines preparing passengers for their flights and handling service irregularities. After a few years, she then transitioned over to an administrative role supporting the West Coast Sales Team for Men's Health Magazine. Through her devotion to her team, she found that she really enjoyed supporting members within the company and enjoyed the administrative aspect of the role. From there, she acquired an even larger position as a Marketing Assistant, supporting the Southern California broker staff at CB Richard Ellis, Inc. with the aspects of the listing, marketing and closing processes of lease transactions.

In her current role, Kim heads up the DSP administrative team, overseeing the clerical staff for both the candidate and client representation departments. She oversees scheduling, and ensures that the firm's sizeable database is always up to date.

Kim is a local South Bay product, growing up in Manhattan Beach, CA and still resides by the beach.