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Minority & Small Business Week
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September 29, 2010
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Simone Brooks will be taking over the day-to-day management o f Brooks Temporary Associates, the
s ta te ’s first minority-owned staffing agency with its longtime connection to northeast Portland with
offices on Alberta Street.
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Se habla español: other interpretation by appointment.
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and government contracts. S. Brooks and Associates Inc. was
awarded over $332,000 in contracts from American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act, which Sam Brooks proudly points to as a sign
of the company’s health.
Growing up, Simone Brooks saw all the time and effort the
business took, and wasn’t sure if she wanted to follow in her
parents path.
The younger Brooks attended Hampton University in Virginia,
graduating in 1995. From there, she enrolled at the University of
Washington where she studied marine and environmental sci
ences, but left the program after realizing she didn't want to spend
the rest of her life studying the behavior of fish.
From 1997 to 1999, Simone worked at Boeing doing administra
tive and project management work, before taking a job with her
father’s company. She worked there for two years on a number of
aspects of the business including payroll, accounting, and inter
viewing of staffing candidates. She then worked at AMEC, an
environmental consulting company, for five years.
By that point she had reached what she describes as a “ceiling”
at the company. Meanwhile, business was booming at parent’s
company, and it made sense to go back.
“Those two things just kind of converged,” she said.
Simone had conversations with her parents about taking over the
business, but was a bit skittish about the idea. A deadline of June
30 of this year was set for her to make a decision, and she took all
the time allotted to her.
“How often do you get to work for someone whose sole purpose
is for you to take their job?” she said about the process of accepting
the offer.
But the passing of the reigns will be slow process that will take
about a year and a half to two years, and there will be no day
marking the official passing of the torch.
“What does retirement look like?” said Sam Brooks. “It means
that I’m not in charge of the company, but it doesn’t mean that I
don’t have value.”
Sam Brooks, 63, will continue on as chairman of the board and
majority shareholder of the company. He and Margaret, 65, will
continue to keep offices at S. Brooks and Associates’ headquar
ters on Alberta Street, and will be there to give advice and share
contacts as Simone steadily takes over more control of the
business.
Simone Brooks is still figuring out exactly what she wants to do
with the company, but has a couple ideas. She’d like to enhance
their presence in the states the company works in, and maybe
expand its staffing, capabilities, which currently are focused on
clerical and light industrial work, to other fields, like forestry.
“You have grown the business to a certain level,” said Sam
Brooks. “You presume that you have taught them all that you can
teach them. They’ve learned, and now they are going to bring the
business to another level. It could be the same, it could be other
things, but if you’ve done your job well it will be successful
whatever it is.”
Both Margaret and Sam Brooks are happy to have someone to
pass on to the' business to. In the process, they’ve talked with
consultants to see what could be tightened up with the business, and
has also talked with Michael Powell, owner of Powell’s Books,
who is passing his business to his daughter.
A new era is slowly beginning to take shape at Brooks Staffing,
with the business staying in the family. Will Simone Brooks, a
mother of two, pass it on to the next generation?
“My kids say they're not interested, but I already know that
story,” she said.