We are Polaris Talent and we Transform Companies one hire at a time
Polaris Talent drives transformation by designing and delivering strategic recruitment and people programming that improve diversity and optimize employee capabilities for motorsports organizations and automotive companies that want to create a culture where everyone wins, together.
We believe that every company, regardless of size or industry, deserves to have access to top talent and to provide a candidate experience that rivals the best-of-the-best Fortune 500 companies. The difference between a good team culture and a great team culture is shaped one hire at a time. We are experts in transforming culture by working with you to identify and select people who share your vision and values.
We are not a recruiting agency. We are a consulting company that works in partnership and on behalf of your existing team to guide hidden and passive talent to you. We are certified diversity recruiters and experts at shaping culture, one hire at a time.
Polaris Talent's model allows companies of any size to have an enterprise-caliber talent acquisition function for a fraction of the cost, and to do it with a focus on providing a nurturing candidate experience. In a world of impersonal social media connections where ghosting is the norm, your future employees deserve a high-touch, personalized experience.
We also believe that job seekers deserve better than they've been getting. We created The Audacious Resume as an offering (and future book!) that will teach people how to take charge of their career journey proactively so they are equipped with the tools and mindset to create a career that they look forward to going to on Monday morning. We offer resume services, executive career coaching, and self-paced training programs so that job seekers are served at whatever level of service they need. We love working with job seekers and make a point to connect them with the companies we are hiring for. It's a win-win for everyone.
We are majority woman-owned and a Wisconsin Benefit Corporation. We believe in making a positive impact in everything we do. In 2019 Polaris Talent took the 1% Pledge to donate 1% of revenue or 1% of time annually to causes we care about.
Since our founding, we have supported 501c3 Arts Organizations in Southern California, sponsored women's entrepreneurship events, facilitated fund-raising events to raise money for Music Cares and the Van Stephenson Memorial Cancer Research Fund at Vanderbilt University, and the Racine Unified School District BMAC Advisory Board.
In 2024 we will be donating our 1% pledge time and money to advancing Women in Motorsports by offering fractional sponsorships to a couple of upcoming women drivers. We'll be making announcements soon about this!
The Polaris Talent Story
Polaris Talent was founded in 2017 when Marie decided that she wanted to work with her best friend since 7th grade, Marshall, and her daughter, Roma, to build a new type of recruiting solution for companies.
Marie was named the 2023 Wisconsin SBA Women's Business Champion for her work with women and diverse founders who are building startups in the Southeast Wisconsin region. She is an expert at the Business Model Canvas and Lean Startup methodology.
Polaris Talent is named after the yearbook of William Horlick High School (Racine, WI), which Marie and Marshall attended. Go Rebels!
Roma started karting a week before her 5th birthday. She drove the #99 Radical Honu racing kart in So Cal at Apex Raceway, where Dave Dimond coached her. Fun fact, she bought her Jr1 Haase chassis from current LMP3 driver Dakota Dickerson. In addition to being a co-founder of Polaris Talent, she is owner of Apex Antics.
Before joining Polaris Talent, Marshall owned a pilot car business for 12 years and escorted oversize loads all over the US. He is also a talented singer/songwriter who can be found on Spotify under the name The Coffee Brothers.
Marie's first startup was Romawat Racing (c. 2002-2005) which had licenses to produce NASCAR driver and car images in stained glass. Notable licenses were Dale Earnhardt Inc, Brett Bodine Racing, and Michael Waltrip Racing. Business success was limited by the fragility of shipping custom stained glass across the country. Technically the business failed, but the lessons learned have been implemented in Polaris Talent. Marie also blogged for the TeamDEI fan site from 2002-2005.
All of us are motorsports participants and fans and have been to dozens of tracks and follow multiple race series at a time. Marie and Marshall are season pass holders at Road America and all the Polaris Talent vehicles in Wisconsin have Road America plates. We like to drive nice cars and wish we had a bigger garage to house them all. We have aspirations of having our own race team someday but for now we are committed to supporting women in motorsports and helping teams, tracks, and the supplier ecosystem hire great talent.
The founding team at Polaris Talent is supported by a larger group of amazing humans that we leverage to scale the work we will do on your behalf. This allows us to have maximum agility, contain costs, and pull in subject matter expertise as needed.
