¿ìèÊÓƵ

Background

Job Description

Former Executive Search Consultant

Company Description

My last role was as a partner at Houser Martin Morris, the firm I helped found. The firm provides exceptional recruiting and executive search services to support the growth and success of the Pacific Northwest economy.

The firm has actively led recruiting and search engagements for Pacific Northwest client companies, both public and private for over three decades. These companies, in a wide variety of industries, have ranged from Fortune 100 companies to emerging growth enterprises.

Houser Martin Morris has built and maintained a reputation for exceptional commitment and performance through our proven ability to complete challenging searches for key technical, legal and executive professionals.

Employment History

In the 1989, Craig helped found and develop the retained executive search practice at the recruiting firm of Houser, Martin, Morris in Bellevue. He was a partner in the firm for 12 years, and conducted successful searches in forest products, manufacturing, construction and real estate, environmental engineering, healthcare, non-profits and Native American, minority and Alaska Native organizations.

Before founding Houser, Martin, Morris, he began his consulting career as co-owner of an HR consulting/executive recruiting firm in Federal Way. The firm’s emphasis was on assisting small Pacific Northwest businesses with HR policy development, interview and selection processes, communications, succession planning, conflict resolution, and career transition coaching.

Craig began his working career as a Human Resources Manager at Weyerhaeuser Company in the rural South and at Corporate Headquarters in Federal Way, where he worked in various Human Resources (HR) positions. 

Education

Master of Arts degree in Communication/Journalism from the University of Iowa
Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature from the University of Puget Sound

No civic involvement entered

Mentoring Objectives & Scope

I have historically engaged students in discussions and examinations of how labor markets work, how hiring managers make decisions, interviewing techniques and pitfalls, career analysis and change strategies, resume prep, and a variety of other topics related to how people make career decisions.

As a mentor, I can support students in the following: 

- Resume review, interview prep, LinkedIn branding
- Career exploration, matching interests and talents with professions and industries
- Student transition from college to first professional role
- Building technical or subject matter expertise (hard skills)
- Improved communication and interpersonal skills
- Development of leadership skills, confidence, and executive presence
- Expanding a network, building connection, navigating an organization
- Helping entrepreneurial students define a business or product and business plan
- Career Pivot - transition to new role, career, and industry

When and where do you hold meetings with your students?

Virtual, Any day

Additional Information

Craig Macdonald is know as the mentors mentor, as he has spent years supporting our mentors as well as Albers students. 

Craig Macdonald has devoted nearly 40 years to partnering with executives and boards of directors to identify, source, recruit and properly develop high-performance talent in both for-profit and non-profit organizations. He can help you understand what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for, and help you prepare to present yourself authentically and well. 

He is skilled in “performance-based hiring” strategies, structuring interview process development and the uses of psychometrics in selection and management.

While focusing primarily on senior positions from Director to C-Level, his recruiting practice has spanned many levels and functions, including the technical, scientific and administrative, and has ranged from social service agencies to large public companies; small, family owned private businesses; minority owned organizations and economic development associations around the Pacific Northwest.

Craig has been married to his wife Leslie for 49 years and has helped raise two daughters who are now both married and living in Bellevue and Kirkland. He has been a resident of Eastside communities for the last 35 years. Craig is on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors at LifeWire, a Bellevue-based non-profit dedicated to ending domestic violence, and has been a mentor in ¿ìèÊÓƵ’s Alber’s School of Business Mentorship program for the last 30 years.