Michael Chad Givens is director of sales and client services at Systems Source Inc. (SSI), a Dallas executive recruitment and staffing services firm specializing in insurance and technology professionals. The company, founded in 1994, has helped companies across the nation hire chief-level executives, directors, project managers, business architects and analysts, as well as technical experts adept in mainframe, enterprise and Web application development.

Givens joined SSI in 2005, after a four-year reprieve from a decade-long career in executive staffing and employment services. For about four years prior to joining SSI, Givens had started his own Farmers Insurance Group agency in McKinney, Texas. The firm specialized in commercial and personal lines insurance for the automobile and retail industries, and built a “book” of more than 1,000 clients in just two years. In 2008, Farmers Insurance acquired Givens’ agency. In 1994, Givens co-founded and served as president and search consultant of Affinity Partners International L.L.C. in Dallas. The executive recruitment firm focused on venture-capital start-ups and Fortune 1,000 semiconductor companies. Givens helped the company achieve profitability within its first three months of business. Between 1989 and 2000, Givens worked for Management Recruiters International in Dallas, and for Mutual of Omaha Insurance Co. in Richardson, Texas. During his tenure at MRI, Givens tripled production revenue in three years, from $1.2 million to $3.8 million.

Givens lives in Dallas and is the proud father of two teenage daughters. When he’s not recruiting executives, or helping insurance companies find top talent, Givens enjoys playing the drums, scuba diving and mountain biking. He even finds time to serve as manager of a Southern Rock band.