At IMS, we believe our people are our greatest asset. In honor of our incredible team, we are thrilled to go “beyond the bio” and share the personal stories of employees across our organization.
This month’s employee spotlight features two members of our expert witness search and delivery team. In this department, recruiters and researchers work seamlessly together to locate and engage the best-aligned expert witnesses that meet our clients’ exact specifications.
Lead Recruiting Consultant Tina Grenier and Lead Researcher Robert Sullivan are senior members of the expert witness team and have been instrumental in company and client successes over the years. Both Tina and Robert honor IMS Core Values and exemplify what it means to "Operate as One" to meet client needs. Read on as they share how they got their start, how they serve IMS clients, and which of their experiences have been the most memorable.
Tina Grenier, IMS Lead Recruiting Consultant
Tina ensures IMS provides high-quality experts that best fit our clients' needs. In her 10 years as a recruiter, Tina has seen IMS experience tremendous growth and develop the agility to overcome new challenges, such as those faced during COVID-19.
Q: How did you get into this industry?
A: I just kind of fell into it. I had no idea this kind of business even existed. I was looking for a new opportunity because the company I was working for was slowly going out of business. I came across the job posting for IMS, and it piqued my curiosity, so I did some research on the company and business model. I was fascinated by the idea of locating expert witnesses for litigation cases.
Q: Why did you choose IMS?
A: After learning more about IMS, the culture, and the company, I set my sights on future opportunities. I applied twice at IMS, about a year apart. I first applied for a role within marketing but was not qualified for the position. I kept an eye out for future job postings and knew the right one would come along…and it did!
Q: What do you like most about your specific department/role?
A: There are so many things I like about my role as a recruiter. I enjoy the challenge of finding that needle-in-the-haystack expert, talking with them and learning a little bit about every topic I could imagine—and even some I could not have envisioned.
Q: What internal accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: I am proud of the accomplishments we as a team have made year after year, growing the business and winning industry awards. When I started in 2009, we had around 25 employees, and now we are at 200+. We have broken monthly search records and placement records year over year, and we bounced right back from the impacts of COVID when many companies have not.
Q: Are there any memories you’d like to share?
A: I will never forget when IMS hit our first 100-search month many years ago. We had no idea how we were going to handle that volume of searches. However, it was all hands-on deck. We had marketing colleagues doing research, we had executives assisting in sales and recruiting. Not only did we get through it, but we excelled from there. Now when we see 100 searches in a month, we don’t even blink.
Q: What do you think sets IMS apart from competitors or other companies?
A: What sets IMS apart from other companies and competitors is the integrity, passion, and joy we have in serving our clients. The fact that our clients and experts keep coming back to IMS time and time again speaks volumes about our reputation and the value of services we provide.
Q: How do the IMS core values align with your own?
A: In the past, I had an employer whose values did not align with my own, and I promised myself I would never work for another company that did not possess the same core values that I have set for myself. In that previous role, we were launching a new program, but there was no clear benefit to the company. The opportunity did not bring any revenue to the bottom line, because they were paying out more to distributors than the company was making. I remember asking my boss how that was good for the company, to which he replied that it was none of my business.
Within IMS, we all have a voice, and we are all empowered to provide insight, feedback, and even criticism. A reputation is one of the most valuable things in the world we live in. I pride myself on being honest, reliable, trustworthy, and doing what I say I am going to do. IMS lives and breathes those same qualities.
Q: If you were an attorney or expert, what would you find most valuable about the process at IMS?
A: I believe our vetting process is the most valuable to both attorney clients and our expert witnesses. It allows us to thoroughly vet and qualify experts for the opportunity (not only for skills, expertise, and education, but also for presentation style and personality) before they are submitted to the client. This helps the expert ensure the opportunity is the right for them, and it’s a valuable time-saver for our clients. Instead of calling up to 10 candidates who vaguely fit the requirements, we narrow it down to 3 or 4 high-quality candidates.
Q: What has been your favorite case to work on so far?
A: I have been recruiting since 2012, so there are far too many favorites. I really enjoy those searches when we are looking for a “purple unicorn,” because it's such a great feeling when we find that expert. I have worked on cases looking for everything from parachute design to flow cytometers for the assessment of animal virility.
Robert Sullivan, IMS Lead Researcher
Robert employs comprehensive search skills and techniques that are vital in sourcing those "hidden treasure" expert witnesses with a specific niche experience or hard-to-find credentials. Robert’s passion for research continues to grow even after 19 years at IMS.
Q: How/why did you get into this industry?
A: Prior to joining IMS, I worked for a professional employer organization by the name of Staff Leasing, where I served as a Regional Administrative Manager. I then started a boutique recruiting firm in the enterprise software space, so I became well-versed in the world of sourcing/recruiting. I really enjoyed the research, sourcing, recruiting, and administrative aspects of the business but was not a fan of the sales and business development side, so my partner took on those responsibilities. When he developed terminal cancer, he decided to retire, so I closed the business and applied for a position at IMS.
Q: How did you find IMS?
A: I saw an online posting for an administrative position that seemed to encompass much of what I enjoyed within the recruiting arena. I applied for the position online but never heard back, so I assumed it had been filled. About three months later I saw the same posting and decided to hand deliver my resume, upon which Mike and Bill Wein and Ted Gorder interviewed me. I was very impressed with them and the company, and I was intrigued by the expert witness recruiting niche. I had never heard of anything like it before.
Q: What do you like most about your specific department/role?
A: Researching/sourcing experts has always been my favorite aspect of the recruiting desk. It’s like sleuthing to find hidden treasures buried deep in the Web. I really enjoy the people I work with as well. It’s great being a part of a group that kind of “geeks out” on sourcing techniques, advanced Web searching, and the thrill of hunting candidates.
Q: What internal accomplishment are you most proud of?
A: I am proud of training and developing successful research teams, developing an efficient job assignment system for recruiters and researchers, and creating the research exercise used to evaluate applicants’ research and critical/analytical thinking skills. A big accomplishment is just hanging in this long without ever losing interest in what I do here and in my passion for research.
Q: Are there any memories you’d like to share?
A: I’ve enjoyed watching this company grow from a small office of eight people on the shores of Pensacola Bay to what it has become today, and I am grateful I could be a part of it. I have fond memories of fun work, camaraderie, and a little dog named Arnie who loved French fries. (He was Mike Wein’s pet and the office mascot.) Even though IMS is much larger now and has been through some changes over the years, it’s still fun work, and I’m still enjoying the camaraderie.
Q: What do you think sets IMS apart from competitors or other companies?
A: There are probably several things, but the one that comes to mind for me—and it’s what I’ve always loved about this company and its leadership—is the genuine respect and dedication they have for their employees. The mindset of this company is to give its associates what they need to be successful and to manage with a service-oriented approach. I think, in turn, that makes IMS successful and it’s one of the things that makes us stand out from the competition.
Q: How do the IMS core values align with your own?
A: They align in practically every way, which is probably one of the reasons I feel such a connection to the company. According to personality and behavioral assessments I’ve taken over the years in my professional life, I have perfectionist tendencies, and I value quality and excellence in the things I do. I’m motivated to lead by example, so I strive to be dependable, cooperative, and to bring my best work to the table because it’s what I expect from others. At the same time, I know we all make mistakes. It’s how we learn, so I think it’s important to practice humility and give grace when mistakes occur.
Q: If you were an attorney or expert, what would you find most valuable about the process at IMS?
A: We try to be thorough and bring value to our clients, not just by providing qualified expert witnesses, but by providing insight about what the expert market has to offer. Sometimes the expertise our clients seek (along with other criteria, such as testimony experience, geographic restrictions, etc.) can make an expert search very challenging.
Because we conduct a customized search, we are either able to find the exact expert our clients need, or we can give feedback about the obstacles they might face in finding an expert and help them to determine the next best course of action. We do most of the leg work for our clients by finding, vetting, and background-checking our experts prior to presenting them, so we’re providing them with the best candidates rather than blasting them with dozens of resumes in hopes that something sticks.
Q: What has been your favorite case to work on so far?
A: In my 19 years with the company, I’ve worked on thousands of searches, so I’m not sure I could pick out a favorite. It’s actually one of the things I love about this job. There is so much variety in the types of cases you work on, and the kinds of subject matter experts you have to research and find, that it never gets old. I did work on several enterprise systems software cases, which I enjoyed because it was subject matter I knew well from my recruiting days.
One of the more interesting cases I worked on was in 2006 when I had to find a horse psychologist/behaviorist who could opine on whether underground drilling to install natural gas pipelines would cause behavioral problems in racehorses and detrimentally affect their racing and breeding abilities. Up until this case, I never knew there was a such thing as a horse psychologist. You can learn a lot being a researcher.
Learn More
We are grateful for the opportunity to shine a spotlight on Tina and Robert. Please join us in recognizing their diligence and dedication, as well as their candidness. Visit the links below to meet our talented team and learn more about the IMS culture and career opportunities.