Ife Olaore joined FaithSearch Partners last year and has already engaged in important assignments in the healthcare, academic and mission enterprise divisions of the firm. He is the newest consultant at the company, but has years of healthcare experience under his belt already. FaithSearch is grateful for Oloare’s hard work at the company and thought some of our readers might be interested to know him a little bit better.
Q: Describe your career journey from your undergraduate degree?
A: Shortly after I graduated from Southern Adventist University I completed an internship with Kettering Health Network and then immediately left Ohio to work in England for Newbold College of Higher Education. I spent 18 months helping with the recruitment program before getting married and moving back to Ohio to be closer to my wife’s family. A recruiter position was offered Kettering and that started my full time employment within three faith-based health systems. I was given opportunities to grow and lead recruitment projects and I enjoyed the learning experience.
Q: What attracted you to becoming a healthcare consultant at FaithSearch Partners?
A: One of my mentors, David Jimenez, told me about FaithSearch and its history and commitment to serving faith-based healthcare systems and other non-profits, schools and ministries and after I had a few years of experience under my belt, he would introduce me to its CEO and the FaithSearch team. Since my junior year of college, I have wanted a chance to work within an inspirational executive search environment that led by example.
Q: What are some development opportunities you have taken to learn more about the executive search industry?
A: The team has been awesome about including me on all aspects of the executive search industry. There have been numerous opportunities for me to observe and participate in searches and I have used those hands-on experiences to become a better consultant.
Q: Can you expand on your involvement in the National Association of Health Service Executives?
A: NAHSE is a great executive organization that I am constantly learning more about. It is exciting to be connected to a group of the most supportive, and nurturing servant leaders. It’s legacy of developing African-American executives is outstanding and has had major impacts in improving leadership diversity within hospitals and health systems.
Q: How has your family supported your career?
A: They are still trying to figure out what it is I do exactly, and I don’t mind adding to the mystic of executive search by telling them nothing. My wife, parents and extended family are happy that I am in a career where I feel fulfilled by the work that I am doing.
Q: What gives you your passion for matching the right people in leaderships roles?
A: My dad always says that “success without a successor is failure”. I believe that I have a responsibility to merge two stories. That of the client organization(s) and the potential candidate’s professional story. Storytelling is fulfilling to me and the potential merger of two complimentary stories is what catapults and excites me.
Q: Looking back ten years ago from your current vantage point as a successful consultant, what advice would you give an early careerist?
A: Focus on family, always finish strong and never promise what you cannot deliver.
