A conversation with Boris Georgijev: From Candidate to Plant Leader

 

By the time Boris Georgijev first connected with Kitchener Executive Consultants (KEC), he had already spent three decades with Timken, including 25 years at its St. Thomas plant. His career had taken him well beyond Ontario, supporting operations across North America and internationally and eventually helping launch a joint venture manufacturing facility in Russia, where he was involved in building the management, engineering and quality teams.

When that chapter ended, Boris was looking for something quite different. After years of travel and one subsequent role that proved not to be the right cultural fit, the question was no longer simply what job came next. He was thinking much more carefully about the kind of organization he wanted to join and the people he wanted to work with.

Around the end of 2019, a Quality Manager opportunity at KSR International brought Boris and KEC together. He joined KSR in Rodney, and over the years that followed, his responsibilities grew until he became Plant Manager.

That progression also changed his relationship with KEC. Boris had first experienced executive search as the candidate being introduced to a team. Later, with responsibility for that operation and the people within it, he found himself on the other side of the table, deciding who should join the team next.

Our conversation moved naturally between those two experiences, but it was Boris’s perspective as a hiring leader that became particularly interesting: how he decided when to develop people internally, when to search outside the organization, what he looked for beyond a résumé, and what he expected an external search partner to do before a candidate ever reached his desk.

Boris’s story also reflects KEC’s broader experience in automotive manufacturing executive search, where technical expertise, operational judgment and leadership capability often have to come together in the same hire.

 

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Author’s Note:

This conversation reflects Boris Georgijev’s personal professional experience and perspective from his time with KSR International. The views shared are his own and are not presented on behalf of the organization.

 

THIRTY YEARS THAT SHAPED A LEADER

Before we get to KSR, you had spent 30 years with Timken. What did that chapter look like for you?

I was with Timken for 30 years. Twenty-five of those were at the plant in St. Thomas.

When the plant closed, they offered me a position in the U.S. I turned that down and asked if I could do the position from my home office in St. Thomas instead. They agreed, so I did that for almost six years.

For about three of those years, I was supporting mainly North America, but also Europe and Asia. I was travelling a lot.

Then Timken was opening two new facilities, one in India and one in Russia. I showed interest in Russia and became part of the startup team there.

 

So you weren’t just supporting that operation from Canada. You were actually involved in getting it up and running?

Yes. I lived there off and on for about three years, usually a month there and a month back.

I helped hire the management team, the engineering team and the quality team. It was an existing building, but basically a shell, so we redid everything, got the plant up and running and got all the Russian certifications.

When I was done, Timken wanted to retain me and offered me another leadership opportunity. But after years of travelling, I was ready for something different.

Timken was a really good company to work for. It just wasn’t what I wanted anymore.

 

 

LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT FIT

After 30 years with one company, I imagine you were looking at the next move a little differently. What mattered most to you at that point?

Culture was more important to me than money.

 I’d spent 30 years with a good company and a good management team. After Timken, I joined another organization and it wasn’t the right fit for me.

 I’d never really had to look for work before. I trusted the recruiter and the employer at face value which failed me. I was busy with work and travel and should have completed my due diligence.

 I was looking for a good culture, and I was asking myself, how do I prevent that from happening again? How do you know what’s true? Who do you trust?

 

And somewhere around that point, you connected with Jim Fairfax and KEC about the Quality Manager opportunity at KSR?

Yes. I was actively looking at the time.

I can’t remember exactly how Jim and I connected. I may have answered an ad, or he may have found me. I just can’t recall.

But there was a Quality Manager position at KSR in Rodney.

I went there right around Christmas, during the plant shutdown. I interviewed with the Plant Manager and the HR Manager, and later they offered me the job. So I started there.

 

FROM QUALITY TO PLANT LEADERSHIP

 

You came into KSR as Quality Manager, but that wasn’t where your role ended. How did that progression happen?

COVID happened about two months after I started, so basically my whole career at KSR was through COVID.

Later, Hardy Singh came in as Plant Manager. Hardy was good. He knew factories, he knew stamping, and I worked well with him. 

Hardy would later move into the Vice President of Canadian Operations role at KSR before retiring.

Over time I started taking on more responsibility and eventually, when Hardy retired, I became Plant Manager.

 

And once you were responsible for the whole plant, what changed in the way you had to think about the business?

As Plant Manager, you need to understand a little bit of everything.

You don’t need to be the expert in every department, but you need to understand enough to intelligently converse with people.

 If you’re talking to engineering, you have to understand what they’re doing. The same with quality, logistics, production.

If a machine goes down, for example, the clock starts. You need to understand what happened, what they’re doing about it and what they’re doing so it doesn’t happen again.

 You have to do your homework.

 

Editor’s note: Hardy Singh served as Plant Manager at KSR before moving into the Vice President of Canadian Operations role, where he remained until retiring.

WHAT GOOD LEADERSHIP LEAVES WITH YOU

 

You talked quite a bit about how your years at Timken continued to influence you at KSR. How much does the organization you grow up in professionally shape the leader you become?

I look back now and understand how important it is to work for a good company, with a good team and a good management team.

It’s like growing up with good parents or bad parents.

I’m a product of the company I grew up in professionally.

At KSR, Dean Varley was putting in a lot of global systems to monitor and audit things. I had systems from Timken that I could share. Sometimes somebody would say, “We’ve got to come up with this,” and I’d say, “Well, I’ll save you about a month’s work. Here it is.”

I liked Dean. I worked well with Dean.

Editor’s note: Dean Varley served as Chief Operating Officer of KSR beginning in December 2020 and as President & CEO from February 2021 to March 2025.

Did that experience also influence how you developed people once you were leading your own team?

Yes. I believe you have to respect people. We all want to be respected.

You work with people. You help people. And first of all, you listen to people.

When I became Plant Manager, they didn’t immediately replace me as Quality Manager. So for a while I was basically doing both jobs.

I had a quality engineer who was technically very good, so I started giving him more responsibility. Managing people and presenting were to develop.

You do it in baby steps. I would show him, then have him do part of it, and gradually he could take on more.

I never asked people who worked for me to do something I wouldn’t do myself.

 

FROM JOINING THE TEAM TO BUILDING IT

 

Boris’s relationship with KEC had started with his own career decision. By the time he was leading the Rodney operation, the situation had reversed. He now had responsibility for deciding when the plant needed additional capability, what that person needed to bring, and how to find them.

Once you were leading the plant and responsible for building the team, how did you think about hiring? Was the answer always to look outside?

No. If I have somebody who’s struggling, I’d rather work with that manager and try to make them better.

Replacing a manager can take months.

And when I lose a manager, that’s not just an HR problem. We’re all working harder. The plant feels it. So if somebody can be developed, I would rather work with them if possible.  Sometimes it isn’t.

 

So when did you know you actually needed to go outside?

We were looking for a Quality Engineer to work on the afternoon shift and had actually found some really good people internally for other positions and moved them into staff roles.

 But there are times when the capability you need just isn’t there internally.

 We needed additional quality expertise, and that’s when we contacted Kitchener Executive.

 

When you did go outside, what did you have to think about beyond simply finding someone with the right technical background?

You have to understand who you’re trying to attract and what it will take for that person to seriously consider the opportunity.

 Location is part of that. Compensation is part of that.

 You have to be realistic about the market and about what you’re asking somebody to do.

 

HIRING FOR WHAT YOU CAN TEACH, AND WHAT YOU CAN’T

There was a candidate KEC sponsored through that quality search who you ultimately hired. What gave you confidence in him?

I remember that search and I certainly remember the candidate. It was Jigar Lunagarija . He came in and interviewed well.

He didn’t have the supervisory experience, but that we could teach. What I needed was somebody with the technical capability. He knew quality, he was an engineer, and it worked out well.

I had a good relationship with him.

 

That seems to be an important distinction for you. How do you decide what someone needs to already bring to the role and what you’re willing to develop?

You have to understand the discipline you’re hiring for.

 If you’re hiring a logistics manager, for example, you need to understand logistics. You need to know the KPIs. You need to understand what that department does.

 I’ve worked in factories for a long time, so I’ve been exposed to all those departments.

HR has their questions, and that’s fine. Then I have mine.

Usually I would do the first interview with the HR Manager. If we got down to a couple of good candidates, I could bring in somebody senior from that discipline who understood the technical side.

You have to do your homework. Otherwise, you just get what you get.

 

WHAT A PLANT MANAGER NEEDS FROM SEARCH

 By this point, you’d experienced KEC from both sides. First as a candidate, and later as the hiring leader. What did you expect KEC to add when you already had an internal HR team?

I’m looking for Kitchener Executive to do a lot of the filtering before we get a candidate.

 When you’re running a plant, I don’t have time to interview ten people. I have time to interview two, maybe three.

 So I need Kitchener Executive [an executive search firm] to interview ten, twelve or twenty, whatever the number is, and filter through that.

Then provide us with the two or three best candidates for that job.

 To me, that’s a value-added process. That’s part of the value proposition.

 

And when I looked back at the KEC search that originally brought you to KSR, there were about 25 candidates in that process and only two were ultimately presented. You were one of them. Does seeing that now from the hiring side change how you think about what happens before a candidate ever reaches the client?

Yes. That’s what you’re paying the search firm to do.

The company doesn’t need all the candidates. It needs the best candidates for the job.

 

RELATIONSHIPS THAT CONTINUE

 

You’ve talked about relationships a few times. Has staying connected mattered to you after the actual hiring process was finished?

Yes. I don’t burn bridges. Relationships matter. It’s a small world.

 I’ve had a good relationship with Kitchener Executive. Ian and I still talk once in a while.

 

When you eventually left KSR, were you ready to step away from leadership altogether?

No, I wasn’t ready.

I was enjoying the job. I like leading. I like the challenge.

Later Dean [Dean Varley] called me because they needed some help with an operation in Guelph. I went there and worked for about seven or eight months, helping put systems in place, supporting some of the operational work and planning some process relocation.

 

After all those years in leadership, working across different operations, countries and teams, you’ve built up a lot of experience that could still be useful to others. Do you see yourself sharing more of that, maybe supporting people earlier in their careers or getting involved in the right project, or are you quite happy enjoying retirement now?

I haven’t done much consulting yet.

 I get calls from recruiters, but they’re usually for full-time positions. I don’t want to work full-time. I’ve done that for 40 years.

 But I may want to do something. Part-time work or something where I can use my experience, I’d consider that.

 

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When Boris first connected with KEC, he was looking for the right team to join.

The Quality Manager role at KSR became a much larger chapter than the position he originally interviewed for. Over time, Boris took on responsibility for the broader operation, developed people within the team and made decisions about when existing capability could be developed and when the business needed to look outside.

Years later, that brought him back to KEC from the other side of the hiring process.

By then, Boris knew what he expected from a search partner because he understood what it was like to be both the person being considered for an opportunity and the leader responsible for making the hiring decision.

For him, the value was straightforward: understand what the role really needs, do the work before candidates reach the client, and bring forward the people worth meeting.