Michael Kennard

After leaving the US Forest Service, Michael transitioned into social services, working with Focus Employment Services, a community agency service based in Phoenix, Arizona. Driven by a passion for helping, he embraced the agency’s mission of helping people with disabilities return to the world of work. His work at Focus brought him immense personal satisfaction, and provided sobering insight into the structural and personal challenges faced by Americans with disabilities.

The insight that he gleaned as a practitioner provided a unique and valuable perspective, and his expertise was sought out by Triple R Behavioral Health, a Phoenix-based not-for-profit, where he served on the Board of Directors. Ultimately, he helped oversee the strategic merger between Triple R & NAFI, a move that resulted in the creation of a new business entity, Lifewell.

Next, Michael joined the staff of the Thunderbird School of Global Management’s Career Management Center (CMC). During his tenure there, he served as a critical liaison between the CMC and its professional student associations, alumni, and corporate recruiting partners. As one of the world’s top schools for international business, it was at Thunderbird that he truly honed his cross-cultural communication skills, and developed an expertise for building networks and coalitions with global partners.

While on a business development trip to San Francisco, Michael met with Slalom Consulting in hopes of forging a recruiting partnership between Thunderbird and Slalom. At the time, Slalom was in the process of expanding its operations into the Silicon Valley, and was actively building the team to spearhead their market entry. Absolutely thrilled by the prospect of helping one of the world’s top technology consulting firms establish itself in the hub of innovation, Palo Alto, California, Michael joined Slalom Consulting as a Talent Acquisition, Senior Manager. In that role, he is responsible for leading the recruiting efforts for its Delivery Leadership practice, the office’s largest practice area by both headcount and revenue.

Outside of the office, Michael enjoys freelance writing, and has written articles for Backpacker, Boys’ Life, Climbing and FUEL.TV.

An entrepreneur by heart, he has also founded and developed three websites: HotshotFitness.com, JobDevelopmentLab.com, and JobSearchHacker. All three sites are profitable, and continue to see healthy growth in site visitors and ad revenue.

Besides growing businesses, Michael also enjoys global travel, and is rapidly approaching visiting his 30^th country.

When he isn’t working or traveling, Michael enjoys endurance sports, and has completed a ToughMudder race, a GORUCK Challenge, and the North Face Endurance Challenge (Half Marathon).

Michael holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, and a BA in English Literature & Philosophy from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He is an actively certified Professional in Human Resources (PHR).

• Hotshot Fitness

  A site dedicated to providing strength and conditioning advice to the wildland firefighting community.
  

  • ProjectHotshot Fitness
  • Websitewww.hotshotfitness.com

  

• Job Search Hacker

  High tech tips, tricks and strategies for maximizing your job search.
  

  • ProjectJob Search Hacker
  • Websitewww.jobsearchhacker.com

  

• Job Development Lab

  A knowledge repository built to define, collect, and disseminate best practices for helping people with disabilities return to work.
  

  • ProjectJob Development Lab
  • Websitewww.jobdevelopmentlab.com