Meet The Team

Paula founded Legacy MedSearch in 2005 after a 22 year career as a prominent medical device sales executive within leading Medical Device companies as Johnson & Johnson, Synthes, Zimmer Spine, and GE Healthcare.

Paula is a true entrepreneurial pioneer; seizing an opportunity to leverage her firsthand, professional experience selling orthopedic, spine, and imaging/navigation products. With her deep-rooted industry relationships and innate passion for people, she developed the Legacy MedSearch Executive Search approach and has successfully placed thousands of Medical Device professionals.

When Paula isn’t talking about implantable devices, surgical navigation, ablation, robotics and disruptive surgical devices, she’ll probably just then be writing about it. Throughout the years, Paula has contributed over 120 works of Interview Prep, Resume Review, and Executive Hiring, How To literature to the industry, but in the off chance she actually leaves the office at a decent hour, you can be sure you’ll find her spending quality time with her family.

Fun Fact! Paula is inordinately proud of her 4 children and their spouses; is a terrible but optimistic golfer and advocates for Alzheimer’s research in her position on the Board of Directors of the Central Florida Chapter, which incorporates 44 of Florida’s 67 counties. Committed to raising $1M for Alzheimer’s research in 2022, she wears hats and is chairing a major fundraising event in honor of her mom, Jean, who owned and wore 300 hats prior to succumbing to the disease in 2019. Should you, or a family member have interest or concerns about Alzheimer’s, now affecting one in three people over the age of 60- feel free to reach out to her. The cure is within our grasp and lifetime with proper resources.

Chris Miclot joined Legacy MEDSearch since 2012 and was promoted to General Manager in 2018 and Equity Partner in 2021. Chris works with a vast variety of companies throughout the MedTech space, matching top talent of all levels of seniority to innovative companies. Chris attends nearly twenty conferences a year to stay up to date on the latest technology, keeping clients up to date with hiring trends, and meeting talented candidates in person.

Growing up in the orthopedic capital of the world, Warsaw, Indiana, he has a strong tie to the Medtech and has been recognized as an industry expert and confidant of leading senior-level professionals in the field.

Fun Fact! From being a master scuba diver and a formally trained aircraft pilot, Chris enjoys a lot of great hobbies outside of the office.

Van White spent 40 years in the banking industry including 12 years at the US Treasury and 28 years at SunTrust (now Truist) as EVP of Risk Management prior to joining Legacy MedSearch as its Chief Financial Officer in 2018. In addition to driving the company’s financial goals, he has shepherded strategic initiatives and enhancement of teammate benefits to include a generous education allowance, 401(k) matching, and pathways for teammates to participate in profits as the company is experiencing continued exponential growth.

Christine joined Legacy MEDSearch after a 25+ year career in commercial and corporate banking with Bank of America and SunTrust Bank. Her roles included sales, special assets, underwriting/portfolio management, and risk management. For the last 15 years she led teams which led her to discover her love of talent development, especially with young leaders, problem-solving, and strategic execution.

These days Christine spends her professional time partnering with Legacy MEDSearch teammates to develop strategies, and the process/procedures supporting them, to ensure Legacy’s clients enjoy best-in-class service.

If Christine is not in the office, you are likely to find her trekking across Nepal or taking a cooking class in Kenya with her friends and family. Learning about the world by immersing herself in it is where her money is happily spent.

Joy joined the Legacy MEDSearch team in 2008 and was elevated to a Practice Leader in 2012. Her dedication to working with people started over 25 years ago when she served in the Air Force, then moved to attain her BA in Psychology, and her Master’s degree in Human Resources. She has more than 25 years of experience in executive recruitment and has placed thousands of people in her storied career.

As a National Practice Leader and one of the best in the business, Joy is truly the backbone of the company. Joy not only works on a large variety of roles, from all levels of seniority and every area of the medical device industry but is also a massive support to the rest of her team. Joy takes time to work with the newest members of the team and goes above and beyond to help with any new initiatives in the office. She is also, quietly, the most competitive person in the office and seems to win nearly every contest held by sheer determination.

Joy truly finds happiness in her job, often telling people she cannot believe she is paid to talk to and help the driven people of the MedTech industry. Founder Paula Rutledge has said that Joy is the most inspirational person she has ever met: strong praise considering the talented people in her world. Joy is a gem. If you are fortunate enough to work with her, know that you have found a friend.

Fun fact: Outside of work, Joy enjoys spending time with her wonderful children and grandchildren.

Sean joined the Legacy MEDSearch team in 2018, with a background in B2B Sales with Sprint’s enterprise division. Sean hit the ground running recruiting at Legacy. He quickly became an indispensable member of the Legacy team with his upbeat attitude, spirit for competition, and knack for finding all-star candidates for even the hardest to fill searches. He believes his best conversations are with perfect strangers and welcomes the opportunity to connect with anyone and everyone.

Sean is an avid sports fan of nearly every discipline. From standards like football and basketball to equestrian events and curling, he is invigorated by the thrill of competition.

Fun fact! Sean’s wife is also an expert in the recruiting field, and he has a four-year-old daughter.

Born and raised in Central Florida, Carolyn is a true Orlando native, graduating from Winter Park High School and the University of Central Florida (Go Knights!) Putting her Human Resources Management BA degree to good use, Carolyn spent nearly 15 years in a Human Resources Generalist role for a mid-sized manufacturing company before joining the team here at Legacy MEDSearch in 2011.

Carolyn is known in the office for her professional consideration and inter-office flexibility. Whenever anything needs to be done, she always volunteers her time to fill in the operational gaps. As a Recruiter and Account Manager, Carolyn is known for the partnership and expertise she brings to every search.

Carolyn finds her job very satisfying because she matches talented individuals with companies who are working on medical technology that can improve and save the lives of patients. She has also always had an interest in the vast variety of roles out there and loves getting to talk to so many different people about what they do, how they got there, and where they’d like to go next.

When Carolyn isn’t working with her clients and candidates, you can almost be sure she is watching football! College or pro, she loves it all!

Corey joined Legacy MEDSearch as an Associate Recruiter, having graduated from the University of Central Florida with a Bachelor’s in Sports and Exercise Science and attending the Medical Sales College to learn more about medical devices where he excelled and was a stand-out in his class.

With his extensive background in anatomy and physiology, Corey has the ability to collaborate at a high level with candidates and clients in the medical device space. He has quickly become an asset to the team with his warm, inquisitive nature. His parents, natives of Jamaica, and sister are at the center of his life and he attributes his drive and determination to having a strong family bond.

Fun fact! Corey has been playing soccer since he was five years old, and his favorite team is FC Barcelona!

Melissa started with Legacy MEDSearch in the Fall of 2019 as a Marketing Intern and has since come back to join the team as the Digital Marketing Manager. Melissa has worked in recruiting since 2018 and enjoys the fast-paced, ever-changing nature of the industry.

Melissa supports Legacy MEDSearch’s full marketing cycle, overseeing everything from the company’s social media to managing the job boards.

Fun Fact! Melissa’s family has a long history of aviation; she learned how to steer an airplane before a car!

Born and raised in Orlando, John has been working at Legacy MEDSearch since 2011 and currently serves as the Talent Sourcing Manager, directing a team of 4 full-time researchers to quickly source passive talent and update our current candidate profiles which number 510,000 medical device professionals.

An expert in Boolean searching, John welcomes any search challenge and is the office savant when it comes to anything research-related. His team uses a wide range of technical and complex research, applying his knowledge of advanced research techniques to finding potential Medical Device candidates from every imaginable online source available and (sometimes those that are not-so-available).

When we have questions, he has answers, and his ability to apply and interpret technical knowledge as it relates to our Medical Device candidates is truly remarkable.

Fun fact: John will receive a Masters degree from Georgetown University in 2022.

While Van White is the firms CFO (Chief Financial Officer), Jackson is the beloved Chief Fluffy Officer and reported to work each day until 2021, when he retired to spend more time at home. As a Legacy alum, he attends critical company events but especially enjoys holiday parties where is inevitably drawn to the Legacy team mates children, Analisa, Sonia, Ava and Ella. He is especially looking forward to the birth of the first Legacy boy, due summer 2022 to Sean Wilcox and his wife, Alison.

Fun Fact! In his spare time, Jackson enjoys dog treats, back rubs and barking at the mailman.