Bejan Douraghy, Founder and CEO, Artisan

In 1988 at age 25, Bejan Douraghy made his way from New York City to Chicago with $1,000 in his pocket and an idea for a business. A prior job experience had taught him a valuable lesson — you have to treat creative talent with the same level of respect as your clients because as a creative staffing agency, you're in the business of people.

Artisan is now a creative staffing agency for top talent in Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., Indianapolis, San Francisco and Los Angeles that balances the demands of companies needing creative, production and marketing services with supporting the talent filling those roles. We employ talent ranging from graphic designers to web developers to interactive project managers and beyond.

Five years after its beginning, Artisan tripled in size and was named one of the fastest growing private companies in America in Inc. magazine. A year later, Douraghy appeared on the cover about how bootstrappers change their business practices to foster growth and move beyond the start-up phase.

Serving nearly 2,000 companies and thousands of creative and production professionals, Douraghy has built one of the best-known brands in the country's creative staffing services industry. He attributes the success of matching the right people for his clients' needs as much as putting together the right internal team for his company's culture and growth. Artisan continues to gain recognition with promotional events that recognize the best talent in the global creative community.

Douraghy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in retail and marketing management from Syracuse University. He is a member of Vistage and Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO); has participated in three Chicago marathons and Accenture triathlons; and has been practicing Wing Chun, a form of Kung Fu, for 20 years.

Artisan's offices in Chicago, New York, Washington D.C. and Indianapolis are complemented by partnerships in Los Angeles and San Francisco with Artisan Creative.