Dan Westra Implements Whole-Scale Change

It is considered received wisdom in the boardrooms and conference chambers of companies scattered throughout the world, that for a modern business leader nothing is more important than being able to shape and progress the interests of a business. It is no easy task to be able to make your mark on an already large company. For entrepreneur and sales management expert Dan Westra, being able to implement whole-scale change - and contribute to the growth of business success - is the most satisfying reward for any kind of work. He has built a highly-regarded career of having introduced success into struggling businesses. There is no greater sign of this success than in the concrete achievements a business leader manages to accrue.

Early on in his career, Dan Westra became the founder of Lake Union Capital Partners. LUCP was a “private equity” firm established to acquire transitional middle market companies, where he was responsible for Business Development (acquisition search), due diligence, acquisition negotiation and internal post acquisition sales development. Here they acquired the clients Celerity Energy. Upon acquisition he re-positioned stalled sales process with San Diego Gas and Electric resulting in a $26 million, 10-year Networked Distributed Resource contract. Aero-Union was another big catch. With them, he stubbornly pursued negotiations with his partners and company CEO, which resulted in their largest acquisition valued at over $30 million.

As the managing business director of Endeavor Technical consulting he also achieved similar success. Endeavor was established to acquire the assets of a nearly bankrupt technical staffing firm. Dan Westra was recruited as a partner to lead and manage Business Development and Recruiting. His initial sales efforts created the cash-flow necessary to recruit and build the core of both the Business Development and Recruiting teams. Sales rose from less than $1 million in 2001 to over $2.5 million in 2002 - exceeding goals by over 25%, and ultimately generating revenues in excess of $14 million. During this time, Endeavor grew from 10 to over 120 employees.

His role at Hall Kinion also saw success. Hall Kinion was the largest publicly traded staffing firm during the time when Dan Westra was responsible for business development and recruiting to fill senior positions in high-tech firms. He managed to exceed sales goal by over 50% for three straight years, becoming one of the top 5% of more than 350 recruiters worldwide (1999, 2000). He was also the first of two people ever to exceed $100 thousand revenue in one month of three Seattle offices, where he was the ''Royal" Award winner for revenue exceeding $600,thousand. What Dan Westra's career has shown is that business excellence can be measured by figures highlighting business growth and increased reputation. The future looks bright for ambitious and driven individuals and entrepreneurs like Dan Westra.