Holding roles from manager to Senior Vice President at Nelson & Associates, and as of 2018 CEO of Nelson, Joe Madigan has rapidly ascended the Nelson management ranks due to his exceptional leadership skills and his ability to build new collaborative business relationships while cultivating existing ones. He has spent the past 20 years recruiting and networking with talented professionals in the Bay Area and beyond and has built unparalleled candidate and company networks throughout his decade of experience with Nelson.

With clients, Joe works quickly and efficiently to understand not only their needs for specific positions but also their overall corporate culture to ensure his team sends the best candidates available.

Throughout Joe’s tenure, his teams have consistently ranked in the top 5% of the company and have won numerous awards for being top producers. Joe takes to heart the Nelson values and dedication to our communities; in 2016, he received an annual Nelson Company Award for Empathy. He also sits on the advisory council of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of the Greater Bay Area, where he is heavily involved in fundraising for the organization’s efforts to grant wishes to children with serious illnesses.

Joe holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from San Francisco State University.

Joe Prusko joined Nelson leadership team as Chief Financial Officer in 2015, with more than 35 years of extensive financial management experience with both public and private companies. He has been very involved in strategic planning and debt and equity financing, as well as designing compensation and employee benefit plans. An analytical thinker with a passion for finding solutions for complicated problems, Joe brings invaluable insight to his role at Nelson.

Having held senior-level financial positions with retail and staffing companies, as well as a Silicon Valley learning solutions consulting firm, Joe has continued to be advanced in recognition of his ability as a senior executive. At every company with which he’s worked over the years, his customer focus and provision of timely and useful financial information throughout the company has enhanced management decisions and ultimately driven profitability.

Joe has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from The Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA in finance from Southern Methodist University. He is a Certified Internal Auditor and a CPA.

Chandra Pappas is a recognized staffing industry leader with a proven track record of building, growing, and leading teams that consistently achieve business goals. Over the course of her 20-year career in talent management, she has developed and executed high-level insights, strategies, and plans that have helped organizations–ranging from a boutique agency to an international staffing firm–gain market share, improve profitability, and elevate margin growth.

This balance of specialized focus and enterprise operations allows Chandra to bring a unique perspective to her role at Nelson, where her leadership and staffing experience help her contribute to Nelson’s innovative client and candidate solutions. She joined the Nelson executive team as Executive Vice President in 2017, overseeing all field operations while simultaneously cultivating a collaborative team culture that champions operational excellence and strategic foresight.

She currently serves on the board of directors of Urban Alliance, a non-profit organization focused on empowering under-resourced youth through paid internships, formal training and mentorship.  Chandra holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Towson University.

Tony Bartenetti joined Nelson in May of 1998 as South Bay Regional Sales Manager. After just six months, he was promoted to Regional Vice President of three Nelson Staffing branches, and he was appointed Vice President of the Southern Region in 2002. In 2006, Tony was promoted to Senior Vice President of the Nelson Staffing division. During his tenure, Tony has been recognized with two Gary D. Nelson Leadership Awards for his outstanding strength in leadership and management. Prior to joining Nelson, Tony spent 13 years in the home health care industry with the companies that make up Apria Healthcare. At the time he left Apria to join Nelson, Tony was Regional Sales Manager for a $68 million territory and managed 18 sales representatives in a four-state region. He received their National Leadership Award in 1996. Tony has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from University of San Francisco.

Christina Russo joined Nelson in 2015 as the Vice President of Marketing. A hands-on, innovative, solutions-oriented leader, Crissy brings a background in consumer, product and enterprise marketing; market research; project management; strategic initiatives; and years of staffing experience to her role at Nelson.

Having worked in the rapidly evolving world of human resources technology, services and solutions for the majority of her career, Crissy continues to be motivated by the developments she’s seen in the field and by the possibilities of a future where the latest tech advancements connect people not just to a job, but to a fulfilling career. She most recently worked for a disruptive outplacement solutions provider, where she focused on B2E marketing and educating both enterprises and displaced employees about the importance of a quality outplacement solution for talent acquisition and job search effectiveness. Crissy also delivers a wealth of experience in demand generation, digital marketing, sales enablement through content and interactive marketing strategies, strategic alliances, brand awareness, and leading successful teams.

She has a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing from San Jose State University.

Craig Nelson was appointed Chairman of the Board in 2014 after a long history of management roles within Nelson. Having most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer for Nelson, prior to that, Craig ran Nelson Technology, Nelson & Associates, Nelson Staffing, and Nelsonjobs.com. Craig was also previously the General Counsel at Nelson with responsibility for legal, administration, safety & risk, and human resources.

Prior to joining Nelson, Craig spent seven years with the Criminal Division of the California Department of Justice. He also spent three years as a litigator with the Law Offices of Bowles and Verna. Expert in the fields of both staffing and employment law, Craig has been quoted by a wide variety of news organizations including National Public Radio, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, Staffing Industry Review andThe Recorder on a wide variety of topics such as employment trends, recruiting, family businesses, the San Francisco Medical Leave law and California’s Three Strikes law.

Highly involved in the community, Craig is on the board of the Marin Economic Forum, the Leadership Council of the Boys & Girls Club of Marin and Southern Sonoma Counties and the executive board of the North Bay Leadership Council. He was the Chair of the Executive Leadership Committee of the 2011 North Bay Heart Walk, and he is the past Chairman of the Marin County Workforce Investment Board. Craig is also the author of God Left Manor Farm and was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the Staffing Industry by Staffing Industry Review in 2012.

Craig has a Masters of Law degree from the University of San Diego, his Juris Doctor from Hastings College of Law, and degrees in Business Administration and Economics from California State University, Chico. He was admitted to the State Bar of California in 1990.

Gary Nelson is a forward thinker whose passion, creativity, and determination make him a visionary in business. A graduate of San Jose State University with advanced work in industrial relations, Gary had ten years of experience in human resources before founding Nelson in 1970. He continually explores new ways to provide value to clients and to maintain his company’s standing as a clear leader in the workforce management and human capital industry. He believes in a personal-touch approach with both clients and job candidates and instills this practice in his businesses. His wealth of industry experience has earned him recognition as an expert. He is regularly asked to speak at human resource-related events and conferences and has shared the stage with many industry leaders and dignitaries, including Dr. Henry Kissinger, Lloyd Bentsen and Scott Cook of Intuit. In 2011, he was listed in SIReview’s Who’s Who: The Staffing 100 as an influential leader in the field of staffing. In his local community, Gary is recognized as an outspoken advocate for healthcare and education. As a community activist and philanthropist, he has spearheaded efforts to open and support public charter schools. He was a leader in developing Sonoma’s “Field of Dreams” project to create a major youth baseball and soccer complex. Additionally, Gary and his wife, Marcia, established the Gary and Marcia Nelson Emergency Care Fund in support of emergency room services in Sonoma Valley.