Walter McNichols
Senior Vice President
A senior member of Gary Kaplan & Associates, Walter McNichols has spent his entire professional career in the executive search field where he is known for his expertise in identifying, recruiting, and qualifying key executives for a wide range of industries. Since joining the firm in 1986, Mr. McNichols has conducted hundreds of highly successful searches encompassing such diverse fields as financial services, entertainment, consumer products, higher education, natural resources, leisure and hospitality, and manufacturing.
Renowned for his expertise and insight in the human resources field, he is nationally recognized for his innate ability to effect successful, long-term executive management solutions in this arena. His unique skills in human resource recruitment are a priceless asset to the firm and naturally add value to searches conducted in other fields and industries.
Thriving on the client diversity offered at Gary Kaplan & Associates he enjoys meeting the challenge of a difficult assignment and the stimulation of conducting searches in today’s ever-changing marketplace. Superb assessment skills enable him to quickly and intuitively determine who will be the right candidate, not only to fill, but to exceed, a clients executive management requirements. The ability to persevere and creatively resolve recruitment-related obstacles, has led to numerous successful matches that might not otherwise have come to fruition.
Mr. McNichols has held a number of senior management positions, including that of vice president and partner at Korn/Ferry International in Los Angeles, where he executed a significant number of upper management search assignments, primarily in technology driven environments. He also played a key role in establishing Fox Morris Associates, a Philadelphia-based national recruiting firm, as a leading player in the human resources executive recruitment field. Following his success in opening branch offices in New York and northern New Jersey, he was promoted to regional vice president and transferred to the West Coast, where he established offices for the firm in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orange County.
A frequent guest speaker on employment and recruiting issues, Mr. McNichols has been featured in articles published in Computerworld, Investors Business Daily, the Los Angeles Times, and New York Times Magazine. He has also been a featured guest on television programs including Channel 2 News in New York City. For many years, he served as an active member of the Employment Management Association. He is a graduate of the University of Scranton with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology.
Mr. McNichols spent four years as an officer in the United States Navy, where he attained the rank of Lieutenant. He served with the 4th Naval District headquartered in Philadelphia and also completed a tour of duty in Southeast Asia.