About Us
Chris Carmon and Chris Calogeras together bring more than 60 years of combined retained search and talent advisory experience helping organizations solve complex hiring and leadership challenges with a highly personalized, relationship-driven approach.
Chris Carmon
Founder
Chris Carmon founded The Carmon Group in 2002 and brings more than 30 years of experience advising organizations on leadership, talent strategy, and executive hiring. Over the course of his career, he has partnered with more than 500 organizations ranging from privately held businesses and non-profits to Fortune 250 companies.
Known for his ability to build trust quickly and identify talent challenges beneath the surface, Chris has built a reputation for highly personalized, relationship-driven search and advisory work focused on long-term business impact—not transactional recruiting.
While retained search remains a core focus, Chris also works closely with leadership teams to strengthen hiring effectiveness, improve talent acquisition strategy, enhance employer brand positioning, and reduce the costly inefficiencies often tied to reactive hiring practices.
His philosophy is simple: hiring and career decisions are human before they are transactional. Trust, communication, alignment, and candidate experience are not soft skills—they are business drivers.
Chris and The Carmon Group have been recognized through honors including Inc. 5000, Weatherhead 100, NorthCoast 99, and Crain’s 40 Under 40. He also remains active in community and nonprofit leadership initiatives.
Chris Calogeras
Managing Partner
Chris Calogeras brings more than 30 years of retained search experience partnering with organizations across both the public and private sectors nationally and internationally. His work has focused on helping companies identify, attract, and secure high-impact leadership and professional talent across a wide range of industries and functional disciplines. Over the course of his career, Chris has led highly selective retained search engagements spanning commercial leadership, engineering, operations, human resources, and supply chain functions. He is highly regarded for his ability to manage the full lifecycle of complex searches—from organizational assessment and position strategy through research, candidate evaluation, candidate engagement, and successful onboarding.
Chris’ approach is rooted in responsiveness, communication, precision, and long-term fit. He believes successful retained search requires far more than resume matching—it requires a deep understanding of leadership dynamics, organizational culture, candidate motivation, and the long-term business impact of hiring decisions.
Known for his disciplined, relationship-driven approach, Chris works directly with clients throughout every stage of the search process, ensuring continuity, accountability, and a consistently high level of execution. His experience navigating complex hiring environments and proactively engaging passive talent has made him a trusted advisor to organizations seeking high-impact talent where precision and long-term alignment matter most.
Chris is a graduate of Cleveland State University. He and his wife, Colleen, reside in Richfield, Ohio with their daughters. Outside of work, he values family time, community involvement, and caring for the family’s rescued animals.
Our Experience
Client Retention
Years Combined Experience
Passive Talent Sourcing
Senior Partner Led Engagements
Frequently Asked Questions
How does your retained search approach differ from traditional recruiting firms?
Most recruiting firms operate transactionally—filling positions from active candidate pools, job postings, or resume databases. Our retained model is built as a strategic partnership. We limit the number of engagements we accept and proactively identify high-impact passive talent that is not actively looking but often represents the strongest long-term fit. The result is a more personalized process, stronger candidate experience, and better hiring outcomes—not just resumes.
At what point should an owner, president, or CEO view hiring challenges as a business problem?
When key roles remain open too long, strong candidates disappear, third-party recruiting costs continue rising, or hiring outcomes become inconsistent, the impact extends well beyond HR. Hidden talent inefficiencies create operational strain, slow growth, frustrate leadership teams, and quietly become expensive. The strongest organizations recognize talent acquisition as a business function—not simply an HR responsibility. We help uncover what is happening beneath the surface and provide a prioritized path forward before the costs continue compounding.