Call it fate, an extraordinary coincidence or preparation meeting opportunity — what some call luck. Whatever the explanation, Al Schnur made a remarkable journey back to Pittsburgh to acquire PCI Inc.
Schnur came to Pittsburgh to work for PCI, now PCI Human Resource Consulting, in the early 1990s, then left town for a faster track when the company’s fortunes began to wane a couple of years later. He took jobs around the country with Bridgeville’s Development Dimensions International and others, including a stint with a short-lived dot-com.
Schnur returned to Pittsburgh in 2001 to establish a branch office for a company that offers online human resource assessment tools. In the months after his return, he contacted PCI and discovered that the partners had all died and the business was languishing in the hands of an uninterested heir. Schnur made an offer and took over the company.
Schnur has leveraged existing relationships that PCI developed over the years with major players like Mine Safety and Giant Eagle, and added services like online assessment tools to reach smaller clients and expand PCI’s service offerings. Internally, he has embraced technology by introducing a sales tracking and customer service online system, one he says has been instrumental in driving PCI’s growth.
Since he acquired the company, Schnur has more than doubled the revenue of the 45-year-old firm and expects to grow its sales by 50 percent this year, largely through the acquisition of Pittsburgh training and development firm Career Dynamics late in 2002.
Despite the demands of running and growing his business, Schnur has found time to involve himself in civic service, lending his expertise as a board member of the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. How to reach: PCI Human Resource Consulting, www.pci-hrconsulting.com, Career Dynamics, www.careerdynamics.ws
