What People Say About Brick House Partners

Clients, Candidates & Personal References

Jeff Tritt – EVP People & Culture, Leo Burnett USA, Inc.
“It is rare to find an individual whose technical expertise, leadership abilities and track record for building high performance teams comes together in one single package. As a marketer Ralph has impressive credentials innovating on both the client and agency side of the business. He has an exceptional eye for talent and the cultural instincts to understand 'fit' like few executives do. With an engaging personal style and natural curiosity about what makes people tick, Ralph brings a wealth of experience and strategic insight to the recruitment world. We have been consistently impressed by the quality of candidates we interview and hire from Brick House.”

Kim Bartley - VP Marketing and Product Development, White Castle
“When you work with resource partners it is especially valuable when they have walked in your shoes. Ralph understands how to build a great marketing or agency team, he understands how to build a brand and operationalize marketing. He also understands that all these things are best accomplished with people who have chemistry and fit with a company's culture. Ralph's view garnered from a wide experience base across marketing and advertising makes him a great resource partner in building a team.”

Patricia Berns – EVP Worldwide Account Lead McCann Worldgroup
“Three words come to mind…integrity, vision and passion. From the beginning of my experience with BHP it was evident this was a firm unlike the normal Executive Recruiting organization…and I have interfaced with many over the years. Bottom line, if all Executive Recruiters operated like BHP and delivered the same caliber of results, no client would fill any key position without them. It was one of the most positive recruiting relationships I have had in my executive experience and I would recommend BHP to anyone who is looking for a strategically-driven, valuable partner.”

Tim Nicholls – President - Global Brands, Berlin Cameron and The United Network
“When it comes to significant, potentially life-changing decisions, Ralph brings a professionalism, objectivity and honesty that is both refreshing and reassuring. I will always seek out his opinion.”

Mark Goren – President, Point to Point, Inc.
“Ralph is superior in every way to any recruiting professional I have ever worked with. The idea of putting recruiter next to Ralph's name is a misnomer and can't even begin to tell the whole story. Ralph goes deeper and provides insights and thinking that enhances the entire process. He brings the same level of advice that any excellent trusted advisor brings and he's not afraid to tell you what you need to hear. Need great legal advice, call your lawyer. Need accounting direction, try your CPA. Need people advice and the best skills to understand and find human capital in marketing and advertising, call Ralph Cutcher.”

Dave Sheehan - President, Hoffman York
“We all have our own opinions on the value of recruiters. For me, the best recruiter is someone with a straight-up approach that cuts through the chatter clutter. Ralph does this while he applies his experience running and building an agency along with his client side experiences. Ralph's agency and client experience views are helpful but the key separator for him is the way he does business.”

Ellen Moore – CEO, Carton Donofrio Partners
“Ralph is thorough and genuine and sincere in his efforts to help us find great talent. I appreciate how much he wants to dig into our culture to be sure the person not only works 'on paper' but will work well with us long-term. Ralph consistently presented some of the best talent we had the opportunity to consider during our search for an ECD. When I get a candidate from Ralph, I always take time to stop what I am doing and look at the person because I know he is sending me someone of high quality.”

Ellen Thorne – Manager, Human Resources, MicroMass Communications
“We had the privilege of working with Brick House Partners last year on a strategic hire for our agency. Our experience with Ralph during this process was and continues to be exceptional. We formed a strategic partnership, where Ralph quickly gained an understanding of our unique offerings as an agency, our culture and was instrumental in working with us to identify critical success factors for the hiring need. Ralph's overall process is thorough and seamless. He set the search up for success from day one by completing a comprehensive brief that helped map out the criteria that would make this role successful in the group and ultimately the agency. While we have a comprehensive behaviorally based interview process, the brief served as the framework and was a complement to our existing process. We were complimented by candidates at how thorough the process was and how buttoned up we were with Ralph on all aspects of the recruitment process. I would recommend Brick House Partners to any agency. Ralph is a great guy, a pleasure to work with and I look forward to working with him in the future.

Gareth Gwynne - Managing Partner, IronBrand
“When it comes to recruiters, Ralph is a rare talent. From a candidate's perspective, his approach is thoughtful and well-rounded. Ralph is not just going to throw your resume, along with a hundred others, at a prospective employer. He gets to know each candidate and ensures not only that there is a good fit for a role, but he also frames each candidate's strengths very well in the context of a specific role. I can imagine that for a client of his, the input and insight received on candidates is a real boon. I would recommend Ralph to anyone searching for senior staffs who want to avoid the resume mills out there.”

Jonathan Salem Baskin – Global Brand Strategist, Author, Speaker
“BHP takes the time to get personally involved, both in terms of getting to know the candidate and giving the candidate a truly personal experience. In our era of generic, anonymous web-based recruiting, it's a refreshing and meaningful point of difference.”

Gretchen Goffe-Wagner – SVP, Consulting Practice, Pink Tank, a division
of GSW
“Ralph is unlike any other recruiter I've met. He is more focused on the long-term, so you never get the feeling that this is a "transaction". He really took the time to get to know me, and assess the tangibles and intangibles around a career change. Connecting with Ralph is like adding a career mentor.”

Mike Randall – Strategist, MicroMass Communications
“Ralph understands better than anyone that it's not just about filling a position, but helping out a person, and that emotion is involved. In my mind, BHP completely reframed the way placement can and should be handled. Every recruiter has a lot to learn from Ralph.”

Martin Davidson - Partner, Creative Director, Writer, DavidsonRoth
“I think agencies, advertisers and candidates will be hard-pressed to find an advocate who cares as much about their best interests as Ralph Cutcher. In a true people-business like marketing and advertising, Ralph is the consummate people person. He has an innate understanding of the interpersonal dynamics that make organizations hum or hiccup, plus he has the experience of having practiced the business from all sides: advertiser, agency, agency search, executive search. I can't think of a more well-rounded partner to trust with your next hire or the next step in your career.”

Fred Ehle, Managing Partner, BrandApart LLC
"BHP is a smart group of professionals who operate with the highest integrity. Their counsel and perspective was a tremendous value add to the opportunity they brought to my attention. And they managed the whole process seamlessly and easily.”

Jeff Ewald – CEO & Founder, Optimization Group
“I always felt that BHP is looking for a win-win match … not just 'a placement.'”

Bob Maloney – Founder, Left Brain Advisors LLC
“The one thing that stands out from my experience with Brick House Partners is the quality and consistency of the communication. As a candidate, I was well-prepared for my meetings with the prospective employer, and I always knew where I stood in the process. When you are dealing with Ralph, you feel like everything is above board. No separate agenda. No surprises. He takes the stress out of the process. With some executive search firms, you find yourself wondering if the recruiter is representing their own interests. That's not the case with Brick House Partners. Ralph is all about matching the right talent with the right position. His deep expertise on both the client side and agency side, coupled with unparalleled integrity, makes him uniquely qualified to mange any search in the marketing and advertising space.”

Brady Cohen – VP, Media-Interactive, Point to Point, Inc.
“Ralph and BHP were great to work with through the entire recruiting and hiring experience. Ralph treated me with the utmost respect and helped guide and coach me through the entire process. It was great working with Ralph.”

Scott King – Senior Managing Director, Sun Capital Partners
“Ralph understands people in a most unique way. He senses who they are and what they are about very quickly and translates that into relationship value. Value in clear expectations and communications, value in consultative views, value in getting the key issue(s). Ralph is the best people manager and coach I have ever worked with.”

Brett Shevack - CEO, Brand Initiatives Group (former Vice-Chairman - BBDO/NY)
“When Ralph was my client and CMO of Sherwin Williams Consumer Brands I quickly understood two things about him. First is his depth and quality as a person; The way he handles himself in tough situations, his ethics and his penchant for doing what he said he would do. He cares about people and is a great mentor. The second thing I noticed is his speed…he gets into a business fast and makes things happen. Ralph is the type of person you want alongside you when you are searching for solutions.”

Aylie Fifer – Relationship Architect, Sonnhalter
“Ralph is one of the best people you can find to work with. Insightful, innovative, determined and action-oriented, he is also a man of his word. Working for Ralph was enlightening and fulfilling as he not only cares about his work, he cares about his people. I would recommend Ralph highly to anyone who seeks his skills or services.”

Loree Horton – Senior Brand Manager, W.M. Barr
“I had the privilege of becoming part of Ralph's team when Sherwin-Williams acquired Thompson-Minwax. Ralph had excellent insight and gave thoughtful consideration to how and where to apply his mix of talent. I suspect that it is his rare blend of advertising agency and corporate experience that provided his perspective in fitting experience with job content, but the more important skill of matching the right people with the right situation is all his own. He is straightforward and unflinching, and will give you the unvarnished truth. What more can you ask of an advisor for the right person for your team?”