Our Management Team

Ron Smith, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Laurie Knafo, Regional Vice President
Pete Langlois, Vice President of SNI Technology
Sally Mainquist, CPA, President and CEO, Certes Financial Pros
Moe Harrison, Regional Vice President
Larry Mims, Regional Vice President of Permanent Operations
Angie Dawkins, Area Vice President
Scott McKenna, Regional Vice President
JoAnn Simon, Area Vice President
Chuck Stamford, Area Vice President

Ron Smith, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Ron Smith, a seasoned staffing executive with over 30 years experience in the industry, co-founded SNI Companies in September of 1998. Smith’s career began at Massey Ferguson, where he was a financial analyst for two years. He then moved to Robert Half where he ultimately owned six Robert Half franchises. After selling his franchises to Robert Half in 1988, Smith was promoted to Regional Manager and integrated 20 locations for Robert Half.

Upon leaving Robert Half in 1992, Smith continued his entrepreneurial efforts by founding Staffing Edge, Inc., a specialty staffing firm focused on temporary and full-time placement in the fields of accounting, information technology, engineering, legal, sales, high-end office clerical, insurance and banking. Staffing Edge generated $36 million in annual revenue within its first six years of operations, earning recognition by Inc. Magazine as the 17th fastest growing private company in the United States. In 1998, Smith’s efforts with Staffing Edge also earned him recognition as Entrepreneur of the Year for the Nebraska/Iowa Regions from Ernst & Young. Smith sold Staffing Edge in 1998 to ACSYS, Inc. and shortly thereafter co-founded SNI Companies.

Laurie Knafo, Regional Vice President

Laurie has been in the staffing industry for over 30 years. She started her career as a permanent placement recruiter for Dunhill Staffing and was consistently one of the organizations top producers. Laurie has mastered a variety of roles in the staffing industry including hands on production, business development and retention, staff training and motivation and area management. Her career success has been built on long term relationships with both clients and candidates, a laser focus on providing value and superior delivery of skills and service. She joined SNI Companies in 2001 and is responsible for 6 offices from Philadelphia, PA to Springfield, MA. Laurie holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brooklyn College.

Pete Langlois, Vice President of SNI Technology

Pete Langlois is the national practice director for the technology division of SNI Companies, bringing many years of experience in all aspects of technology staffing and consulting to his role. His mission is to keep the company ahead of trends for technology clients, enhance brand recognition, and to establish best practices and deliver consistent revenue growth for the division. Pete has a long history of hiring, training and retaining top talent while simultaneously delivering very positive business results. Many current staffing industry leaders recognize Pete as a mentor and his experience stretches beyond technology to include: accounting/finance, administrative/clerical, and legal staffing. Through the years, Pete has placed many qualified candidates in temporary and consulting engagements, temp-to-perm, contract-to-hire, and direct placement.

Pete comes to SNI Companies with a proven record of building successful technology consulting practices from the ground up. During his eight year tenure with Robert Half International, Pete took an underperforming IT consulting business in Florida to a perennial, world-wide Top 10 producing division. Pete earned the distinguished President's Club award for his performance and was also recognized as the number one, top performing Branch Manager and received the Chairman’s Club award. Pete was a multi-million dollar producer and held the titles of Division Director, Branch Manager of Professional Staffing Services, Branch Manager of Consulting Services, Vice President and Regional Manager, and Vice President of Major Accounts while at Robert Half.

Pete went on to launch a very successful technology practice for Solomon Page Technology Partners that achieved profitability within months of inception. Pete has also developed Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS); managed large Training & Development departments; and facilitated the Dale Carnegie courses in Human Relations and Sales.

Sally Mainquist, CPA, President, Certes Financial Pros

Sally Mainquist joined the staffing industry in 1999 after an 18-year career in the accounting, finance, and manufacturing industries. Her career progression began in the audit group of KPMG before moving into roles in finance and operations, culminating in VP of Manufacturing. She joined Certes in 1999 as a Director of Client Services and has held roles as VP of Client Services and Sr. VP of Client Services before becoming President and CEO in 2007.

Sally has played an influential role in growing Certes from a family owned business to a leader in senior level finance and accounting staffing in the Minnesota marketplace. In 2001, she founded Financial Executive Women Network (FEWnet), a networking community of 1,000+ women. She is a member of FEI, the MNCPA, and NAWBO, and actively volunteers with First Impressions, an organization dedicated to helping low-income women receive professional guidance on how to dress and prepare for success. Sally is an active CPA and received her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the University of Northern Iowa. Certes Financial Pros became a division of SNI Companies in 2007.

Moe Harrison, Regional Vice President

Moe graduated with a degree in Finance from Baylor University. He began his recruiting career with the Dallas office of The Lucas Group where he earned President's Club Honors as a producer and managed the direct hire division. He later joined Robert Half International in the accounting and finance search division and was a top producer in the Dallas office. Moe helped launch Q&A Recruiting in Texas as one of the three original partners in 1998, which was acquired by SNI Companies in 2007. In 2010, Moe began to head-up the Accounting Now and SNI Financial brands in the Minneapolis market. In addition, he oversees all operations for Dallas and Houston.

Angie Dawkins, Area Vice President

Angie has been in the staffing industry for over 12 years. Prior to the staffing industry she had a successful career in Sales and Marketing. In November 1988, Angie started as an Associate Product Manager for Maxxim Medical. During her time at Maxxim, she was promoted to a Product Manager. In October 1998, she joined Cardinal Health as a Senior Product Manager. In February of 2000, Angie joined Robert Half as a Staffing Manager working for Accountemps. After a short period of time, she was promoted to Branch Manager. Angie joined SNI in December of 2002 as a Branch Manager for the Buffalo Grove office. She was instrumental in growing that branch to one of the most successful branches in the region and the company. In June of 2012, she was promoted to Area Vice President. She is responsible for 3 offices in the Chicago land area - Buffalo Grove, Schaumburg and Downers Grove. Over the years, Angie has had tremendous success in developing strong relationships with clients and candidates. During her tenure in the industry, she has developed the ability to identify top internal talent, promote them and advance their careers. Angie has a Bachelor of Science degree from Mississippi University for Women.

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Larry Mims, Regional Vice President of Permanent Operations

Larry Mims has 20+ years of progressively responsible leadership, executive recruiting, financial operations and public accounting experience. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Florida State University in 1988 and passed the Certified Public Accounting (CPA) exam. Larry began his career with Deloitte & Touche in 1989 where he was both an audit and tax professional working with large publicly-traded companies for five years. Subsequent to leaving Deloitte he worked as Director of Tax & Risk Management for The Haskell Company, a large, privately-held design / build / real estate development firm. During his tenure at Deloitte and Haskell he had a broad range of responsibilities including client service, financial audits, tax compliance & tax strategy, general accounting operations, supporting the operations teams and strategic risk management. His experience over the last 12 years within the employment industry includes leadership and executive recruiting in the disciplines of Finance & Accounting, Banking, Administrative, Technology and Legal. He is a strong leader with a track record of success in building Direct Hire and Executive Placements recruiting teams. Larry believes in rolling his sleeves up, driving the business and leading by example. He works directly with C-level Executives, Vice Presidents, Directors, Controllers, Human Resource professionals and other Decision Makers towards developing business partnerships as a valued resource in providing strategic talent management and staffing solutions, Larry is well networked within the Executive Recruiting and Financial industries.

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Scott McKenna, Regional Vice President

Scott McKenna has more than 7 years of specialized accounting, finance, administrative, and office support professional staffing experience.  Scott began his tenure with the SNI Companies in South Florida where he managed the Doral and Kendall offices.  After flourishing in his roles in South Florida, he initiated the Denver operations for the SNI Companies.  Throughout his time with the SNI Companies, he has been a top producer.  

Prior to joining the SNI Companies, he had a successful tenure at Robert Half International.  While at Robert Half, he helped launch the Miramar, FL location as a Division Director.  He was quickly promoted to Branch Manager of the Miramar location.  After 2 extremely successful years, he was promoted to the Branch Manager of the Fort Lauderdale office where he led his teams to all-time highs.  In addition to leading trainings for Florida new hires, Scott was a Reach for the Stars winner, a media spokesman, a top performer, and he hired, trained, retained, and promoted multiple managers. 

Scott has a Bachelor's of Business Administration from St. Norbert College in DePere, WI and a Master's of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from Barry University in Miami, FL.  

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JoAnn Simon, Area Vice President

JoAnn Simon has over 28 years of experience in the staffing industry. Right out of college she started as a recruiter and has been continually noted as a top producer. JoAnn has held positions in recruiting, sales, management and senior management. In every position she has held, JoAnn has achieved top producer awards including President’s Club year over year. She has held several VP positions in both professional staffing and retail staffing. She specializes in Business to Business sales, Operations Management, P&L Analysis, Strategic Forecasting, Key Account Management, and Strategic Expansion. JoAnn is noted for building top producing teams and continual motivational development. JoAnn joined the SNI team in Minnesota in 2012 to manage the continual growth of all five divisions: Certes, SNI Financial, Accounting Now, Staffing Now, and SNI Technology.

Chuck Stamford, Area Vice President

Chuck Stamford has over 10+ years of specialized Executive, Accounting, Finance, Administrative, and Office support professional staffing experience. Chuck began his career with SNI companies as the Managing Director of Orlando, Florida. After taking the Orlando office to a top 1-3 Ranking in billable hours for SNI, Chuck was promoted to the Regional Manager of Western Florida. Shortly there after, Chuck was promoted again to the Regional Vice President Role over the State of Florida. He is responsible for offices in Orlando, Tampa, St Pete, Doral, West Palm, Boca, Hollywood and Ft Lauderdale, Florida.

Prior to joining the SNI Companies, Chuck had a highly decorated career with Robert Half International. During his time with RHI, he ran offices in Ft Myers, Florida and Orlando Florida. In 2005/2006, he grew the RHI Orlando office to the level of 6th in the world in overall revenue and revenue growth. Due to his efforts, he was a two time President Winner and a Chairman Winner. He also holds the distinction of managing & training multiple Chairman Winners as well during his career.

Also, Chuck came to the Staffing Industry with an excellent background in Accounting and Finance. He worked multiple years with Westinghouse Electric in their Audit, Accounting, Finance and Gov’t departments.

Chucks holds an Accounting Degree from University of Pittsburgh, where he also was a member of the Division One Varsity Baseball Team.