Industry & Services >> CEO Interviews >> December 18, 2012

Interview with the President and CEO: On Assignment, Inc. (ASGN)

Dameris, Peter T.
Peter T. Dameris is President and Chief Executive Officer of On Assignment, Inc. Before joining On Assignment in November 2003, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Quanta Services (PWR) from February 2001 through October 2002, at which time he resigned to pursue other interests. Mr. Dameris was recruited by Quanta Services to provide succession planning for the CEO position. During his time with Quanta, he was responsible for the creation of an effective regional operating organization for 85 acquired businesses, and he developed materials to support external marketing and a national corporate image to support the companies outsourcing initiatives. During Mr. Dameris' tenure, Quanta retired over $160 million of debt with cash generated from operations, and went from negative cash flow to $101 million in free cash flow in the fiscal year 2001. Mr. Dameris established corporate operating initiatives of cash generation, credit management, balance sheet improvement, management of fixed costs and reduction of cost of services sold. Formerly, Mr. Dameris served as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President of Metamor Worldwide, Inc. Mr. Dameris served in various capacities with Metamor, including Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and European Operations, General Counsel, and Secretary. While at Metamor, he was responsible for the repositioning of the company as a pure-systems integration company and the reorganization of the company into two business units from five. Prior to joining Metamor, Mr. Dameris served as outside counsel to the company and was a Partner with the law firm of Cochran, Rooke and Craft LLP. Mr. Dameris was also Executive Vice President, Secretary and a Director of Xpedior, Inc. He has also served as a member of the board of directors of Xuma, Inc.; U.S. Concrete, Inc.; BindView Development Corp.; Deccan Groupe; and Seismic Micro-Technology, Inc. Profile
TWST: Please begin with a brief company history and then provide an overview of On Assignment’s business as it stands today.

Mr. Dameris: On Assignment was founded in 1985,