Meet The Owner
Lou Cardinale is the Owner of Express Employment Professionals (Cleveland Metro) based in Parma, OH. This is his twenty-second year in business. Lou’s story is an inspiring one. After almost 20 years as the Vice President of Human Resources of a $40 million, 75-year-old company, he lost his job when the company closed its doors. Unfortunately, the country was going through a major recession at the time, leaving him unable to find meaningful work for almost two years. While working several near minimum-wage jobs in an attempt to make ends meet for his wife and three children, yet still on the verge of losing their home, he came up with a “crazy” idea in a moment of desperation. With the risk of he and his family being homeless becoming more imminent each day, he convinced his wife to “mortgage everything they owned” and purchased the Cleveland Metro territory.
In Lou’s words, this experience greatly impacts the way his business is run at a day-to-day level.
“I believe, our office has grown and been successful because of my experience of being out of work for so long. I understand the difficulties, including depression, which stem from of not being able to provide adequately for your family. Consequently, I have instilled in my staff the importance of treating ALL people applying with care and respect. We can’t help everyone, and when we can’t, we direct them somewhere that can. As a result, almost 30% of our new applicants are from referrals from individuals we’ve helped find work.”