Valli founded ABA Personnel Services in 1986 with the goal of providing more effective and personalized staffing services. He realized that both accuracy and speed were essential to meeting his clients’ needs, so ABA became one of the first agencies to use personal computers in the sourcing, recruiting, and placing of candidates. Under Valli’s leadership, ABA quickly grew into a multi-branch agency employing thousands of temporary workers (as many as 1,400 hires per year) across multiple industries and achieved Inc. 500 as one of the fastest-growing companies in America. By 1992, ABA Personnel had become ABA Search & Staffing with an emphasis on search and placement. As president, Valli guided the agency into the more specialized areas of Innovative IT, Engineering, and Legal as the company continued to diversify. In 2020, ABA Search was recognized by Forbes to be one of America’s Best Recruiting Firms in both the Professional Search (#37) and Executive Search (#124) categories! ABA Search is one of only 69 top-performing firms in America awarded in both categories!
Born in Philadelphia, Valli attended prep school at Tabor Academy, a naval honor school on the coast of Massachusetts. He went on to earn a BA in communications from the University of New Hampshire, followed by his MBA from Suffolk University in Boston. His career in staffing started in 1982 when he joined Adia Personnel (now Adecco) as a sales professional in San Francisco. He was promoted to Branch Manager in 1984 and, in that role, Valli opened and managed a local Adia office, which he rapidly built into the 8th most profitable branch of more than 500 Adia offices nationwide.
Valli lives in Hillsborough, CA with his wife, Mandy (ABA’s President). With their two sons out of college and pursuing careers in other cities, they’d be empty nesters if not for their black Lab, Sargent Pepper, keeping them on their toes.
Favorite things to do in the Bay Area: Hiking in Purisima Creek Redwoods Park, gardening (Persian fruit trees and roses!), and snow skiing.
Favorite quote: “I go to a synagogue, church, and mosque, and I see the same spirit at the same altar.” – Rumi
Mandy helped found ABA in 1986 with Valli Farmaian. With her love of people and innate ability to nurture relationships, she knew the staffing industry was where she wanted to be, and she hasn’t looked back since. In her role as president, Mandy spearheads ABA’s Sales and Recruiting efforts, leading the ABA team in candidate searches and development of ABA’s Life Sciences, Technology, and Legal divisions. Her extensive network of Bay Area talent and employers as well as her years of expertise in recruiting and professional placement are the key drivers to ABA’s success – earning the company a spot on the Inc. 500 as one of the fastest growing companies in the US. She has successfully completed retained and contingency search for attorneys as well as technology executives.
Having established Legal as one of ABA’s core divisions, Mandy returned to ABA after three years working with the Eastridge Group. Under her guidance, these divisions provide staffing solutions to some of the Bay Area’s top technology companies as well as law firms and corporate legal departments.
Mandy earned her BA in political science and French literature from the University of California, Berkeley. After several years of city life in San Francisco, she moved with her family to Hillsborough, CA where she remains active in the community and is a board member of the San Mateo County Health Foundation.
Favorite things to do in the Bay Area: Hiking, movies, and farmers markets (and the occasional tennis game!).
Favorite quote: “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” – Winston Churchill
Josh Flagg
Director, Executive Recruiter - Life Sciences and Legal
Josh joined ABA in 2019 as a legal recruiter after relocating to the Bay Area from the East Coast. He worked as a legal recruiter for close to a decade in New York City focusing on lateral placements at international law firms with a special focus on Asia markets and practices. He holds a B.A. in Communications from Fordham University. He enjoys the excitement and challenges of getting to know and understand the personality and long-term goals of his clients in order to help them find success and professional fulfillment.
In another lifetime Josh was a professional musician who toured throughout the country, wrote jingles for commercials and started an independent concert promotion company. He lives outside San Francisco with his wife and daughter.
Favorite Things to Do in the Bay Area: Camping, hiking, and exploring new restaurants
Denise joined ABA in 2019, as a Director of Executive Search. She has been working as a Recruiter for the past 16 years, 10 of which have been supporting the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical industries, specifically in the areas of biometrics and clinical trials. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Emmanuel College in Boston, MA. Denise takes pride in developing long-term relationships and is particularly excited about getting to know clients and candidates beyond the job description and the resume. She is passionate about connecting top talent with the right opportunity.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Denise played soccer throughout her youth and also in college. She's currently the Assistant Coach to her son's soccer team. Denise lives in Placer County where she enjoys family time with her husband, two boys, and their chocolate lab, Suzy. She spends her weekends on house projects, gardening, crafting, coaching her son’s soccer team, exploring, spending time with friends and family, and camping.
Favorite things to do in Placer County: Exploring all of the fun activities Placer County has to offer, lake days, and wine tasting
Favorite Quote: "Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you." – Walt Whitman
Kathryn is the most recent member of ABA Search, joining the team in September 2022 as the Executive Assistant to the President, a role she played prior to ABA while providing teams with operational and data management aid. She has spent her professional career working across the agriculture, luxury travel, and hospitality industries and has gained a range of interpersonal, technical, and administrative skills along the way. With experience in finance, human resources, and digital marketing, Kathryn has a well-rounded understanding of the internal mechanics of a small business. She earned her B.A. in Film and Media Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. After spending ten years in Southern California, Kathryn currently lives in Northern California, far north of her native San Francisco Bay Area.
Favorite Things to Do: Surfing, camping, cooking with friends
