Introduction

If you've received an invitation to view this blog, you may had the priveledge of having worked for one of the greatest companies that ever existed and the wonderful self-made man that started it. His name is David J. McGrath, jr. and the company he started was TAD Resources International, Inc., for many years, the largest privately held company in the staffing industry. For those of us who knew him, our lives were touched and in some way or another changed forever. The entreprenuerial spirit he created in all of us has led a whole host of start-up companies as well as leadership positions in many of the largest staffing companies in the world. What we learned at TAD was how to make a lot of money and have fun doing it.

Early on in his start-up days, David McGrath adopted the philosphy that if you give the people that work for you an opportunity to be successful, they'll make you successful as well and they'll love doing it. David McGrath made hundreds of millions of dollars and built a multi-billion dollar company. Yet, not a single person that worked for him ever resented the money he made, and in fact, we were all happy for his success because David shared in his success with each and every person that worked for his company. He in fact shared more of his company's profits with his employees than any other company in the industry and made entrpreneurs out of all of us with his corporate model that held each of us responsible for our own "profit centers", rewarded us heavily and empowered us like no other company. We were all made to feel like we ran our own business and were rarely ever subjected to all of the red tape and bureaucracy that modern day companies put you through until the opportunity passes or goes away. David was never afraid to take a risk if someone had an idea to make money, as long as it wasn't illegal of immoral.

The TAD national meetings that David McGrath, jr put on were full blown productions and included flying hundreds of people in from all over the country. The meetings were always held in different locations and in cities where TAD had an office. These included, Boston, Milwaukee, Detroit, Dallas, San Francisco and many other locations. On the agenda were two days of traing meetings and roundtables, a "free" day and 3 nights of parties and at the conclusion, a huge dinner banquet with David McGrath, jr giving the opening speech with a grand entrance. None of us who were there could forget the meeting where he came down from 30 feet up in a spacesuit tethered by wires or the time he drove onto the stage in a formula race car that was built by one of his companies, Aero Detroit. The cost of these meetings was usually in excess of $1,000,000. and a couple of them exceeded $2,000,000. without ever a single complaint by the man who paid the entire bill.

It was wasn't unusual at all to see David at the banquet rooms long after the meeting had ended, telling the hotel management to keep the open bar going for hours after it was scheduled to be closed. He loved his meetings more than anything because it was his way of giving back to the people he cared so much for. Money just didn't seem important to David McGrath, jr except as a vehicle to bring joy into the lives of others.

I remember sitting in a room full of TAD people at a meeting when we were all told that David had died after collapsing while jogging in Cambridge, MA. There wasn't a dry eye to be found anywhere in that room. We had all lost a great leader and mentor and more than that, we all lost a friend. He was a man that would walk up to people that had never even met him and start talking to them. Once David McGrath met you, he always remembered your name and once he heard any kind of a funny story about you, he never failed to remember it and bring it up again some day.

David McGrath, jr wasn't a great man just because of the company he built or because of the people who worked for him whose lives he made better, but also because of the lives he touched outside of TAD. David McGrath was a philanthropist who gave millions of dollars to the arts, the community, education, hospitals and medical research. After his death, the bulk of the proceeds from the sale of TAD were given over to fund the Highland Street Foundation, which can be found at http://www.highlandstreet.org/ At this website you will find the story of David McGrath, jr, his family, his company and a listing of the hundreds of millions of dollars that this foundation, managed by his family have donated to hundreds of organizations and charities since his death.

The purpose of this blog is to honor David McGrath, jr. and the fond memories we all have of him. We had a culture at TAD and as much as other companies like to think they have a culture or boast about it, what we had was very real. We all felt it, we all experienced it and we were all better people because of it. When David McGrath, jr passed away, his family made the decision to sell the company and in time the new owners decided to rid themselves of the "TAD culture" and begin to introduce their own non-culture. Needless to say, we all know what happened after that. However, when those of us who manage to stay in contact get together or speak, we all reminisce about the good old days and how we miss them and what a great man David J. McGrath, jr was. In addition to honoring David McGrath, jr and TAD, the other purpose for this site is for you to share any stories you may have and to reach out to old friends from TAD that you may have lost contact with over the years. To share some of your favorite TAD stories and memories, tell us a bit about yourself and provide some contact information (email, phone numbers, ect.) for others that may want to get back in contact with you. Perhaps contacts can be made and old friendships rekindled. Perhaps business arrangements and parterships can be started and everyone can begin to benefit in the entrepreneurial fashion that we learned about at TAD. It's no surprise at all to learn that so many people from TAD started their own staffing businesses and have flourished by doing so. Like I said earlier, we had a very real and unique culture and perhaps we can keep it going.

To make it easier to contact old friends, I've created a TAD group to my Linkedin.com network at www.linkedin.com/in/guyrossi Under My Groups, you should find a link to the TAD Group specifically created to share emails and profiles with former co-workers. In time, the idea is for this blog and the linkedin group to hopefully become fairly self-sustaining and take on a life of its own.

Please feel free to add your own comments below.

Thank you.