Giving Back Is Contagious, DaVinciTek CEO Anthony Curlo Says
In March 2014, DaVinciTek, the Morristown-based IT recruitment and staff augmentation company, was honored by the Commerce and Industry Association of New Jersey with the Chairman’s Reception Award.
That award salutes the generosity of businesses and “extraordinary acts of kindness” performed by member companies.
NJTechWeekly.com sat down with Anthony Curlo, President and CEO of DaVinciTek, to talk about his company’s culture of giving, which he says is built into its DNA.
DaVinciTek’s staff augmentation business covers a wide range of services, Curlo told us. The company is approaching its 10 year anniversary and over the years has placed employees ranging from Global Head of Technology for a major Commercial Real Estate Firm to Help Desk Specialist for a multi-million dollar holding company. Salaries for DaVinciTek’s placements have run the gamut from $65,000 to $650,000, Curlo said.
“We are a people business. And often … dealing with people, we find ourselves giving back. We find that giving back is contagious,” Curlo said. “We are all ‘infected,’ and we’ve infected others.”
In 2013 alone, DaVinciTek conducted food drives on behalf of Market Street Mission and Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Center, both based in Morristown, in conjunction with YouGiveGoods, a Mendham startup that conducts online food drives. The company also provided financial assistance to the NJ SIM Foundation.
In February 2013, DaVinciTek collaborated with executives from Resources Global Professionals on the NBA Cares initiative to build a new playground within an urban Houston, Texas, neighborhood.
In addition, DaVinciTek remains an ongoing supporter of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, The Children’s Institute, the American Cancer Society and National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, among many others.
The company also gives to educational institutions including Syracuse University, Franklin and Marshall College, Fairleigh Dickinson University and the private high school Delbarton, Curlo said.
“We back charitable causes with time and financial support for a number of reasons,” he explained. “We want to be close to our homes and our hearts,” he added, so sometimes the company backs a cause close to the individual management team member’s heart, sometimes it decides to fill a need in the community and sometimes it decides to help with a cause or charity close to a client’s heart, he added. “There is no one organization or charitable cause that we back,” he said.
The executive team — Curlo; Rick Diana, VP of Sales and Marketing; Elaine Murtagh, VP of Human Resources; andWalter Colgan, VP of operations — is very hands-on with these causes. Many team members devote a few hours on Sundays to food banks or even work with these charities during business hours.
Curlo said that last year, when the company sponsored a breakfast series with the New Jersey Technology Council (NJTC), it picked a new charitable cause to support for each breakfast.
This year, DaVinciTek used its connections with the Morristown Municipal Airport, where it has a plane and a hangar, to obtain additional hangars for an auction and dinner to benefit The Children’s Institute and its mission to serve both children and adults with autism and related disabilities.
Added Curlo, “2014 is shaping up to be a tremendous year from our continued organic growth to our involvement and ability to impact the education, family development or health and wellness of the community surrounding us.”
Giving back is good for business, Curlo added. “We surround ourselves with people who are like-minded, and we find that this is an opportunity to meet and establish new connections and to help each other. We find ourselves networking, and the folks we find ourselves networking with are typically doing similar things in other companies.”
