History

1955

Personnel Research and Development Corporation (PRADCO) was founded by Erwin Taylor, Erwin Nevis, and Richard Barrett. The office was located in Cleveland, Ohio, and some of the first clients were Republic Steel, National City Bank, Diebold, and Timken.

1968

Stanley Rubin, Salvatore Pizzurro, and Erwin Weiss became minority stockholders in the company.

1972

PRADCO was selected by Chevrolet to develop a multi-year program to evaluate and train employees who would be selected for promotion to the positions of District Manager and Area Service Manager.

1973

Terry Owen became a minority stockholder in the company after two years of service as Director of the Assessment Division.

1975

Erwin Taylor passed away unexpectedly, leaving Stanley Rubin as the majority stockholder and Terry Owen and Sal Pizzurro as minority stockholders.

1981

Stanley Rubin maintained the position of Chief Executive Officer, while promoting Terry Owen to President. Edda Owen joined PRADCO as a part-time employee and eventually became the full-time Office Manager.

1982

PRADCO was awarded a major project by Federated Department Stores. PRADCO was asked to evaluate a large number of high-potential executives across all divisions to determine their promotability to the highest levels of the company.

1988

After a relationship with PRADCO spanning several decades, Progressive Companies became PRADCO’s largest client, using the full array of evaluation services.

1989

Terry Owen purchased the stock of Stanley Rubin and became the majority stockholder.

1991

Goodyear and PRADCO partnered to develop a selection and promotion system for Sales, Sales Manager, Service Manager, and Store Manager positions in Goodyear’s retail operations.

1993

PRADCO worked with K-Mart and associated companies to evaluate and develop high-level executives. PRADCO also created benchmarks for effective Store Managers, District Managers, and Regional Managers.

1996

Kristin Tull and Kevin Owen (children of Terry and Edda Owen) became Vice Presidents and minority stockholders in PRADCO. Kristin began employment in 1991 as a staff psychologist while working on her Ph.D. Kevin began employment in 1992 as a Sales Representative while working on his MBA.

1998

PRADCO changed strategic direction as Kristin, Kevin, and Terry collaborated to build the company’s first index—the Sales Index—which is used to measure the behaviors that salespeople emphasize in carrying out their jobs.

1999

Recognizing the growing importance of the internet, PRADCO installed all tests and indexes on its website so clients could evaluate employees and candidates online. This dramatically sped up the evaluation process, while reducing costs for the clients.

2003

Kristin Tull and Kevin Owen increased their ownership of PRADCO and, along with Terry Owen, each owned one-third of the business.

2005

PRADCO celebrated its 50th year in business while continuing to build new products.

2008

Following Kevin Owen’s departure from PRADCO in 2007 to pursue personal business interests, PRADCO became a women-owned (52%) organization, with Kristin Tull and Edda Owen as majority owners. Kristin Tull was promoted to President and Terry Owen became CEO.

2011

PRADCO was certified as a Women-Owned Business by the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. The certification process confirms the business is at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by a woman or women.

2013

Larry Borodkin was promoted to Vice President in recognition of his consistent contribution to PRADCO’s growth.

2015

PRADCO celebrated its 60th year in business, further expanding its offerings to help clients build stronger organizations.