"Half of my job is getting people together and watching the chemistry," said Wesley Poriotis.

No, the Montclair-resident isn't running a dating service.

As founder and CEO of Wesley, Brown & Bartle, a New York City-based recruiting firm with offices in Paramus, Poriotis specializes in finding diverse candidates for corporations with executive staffing needs.

"The myth is alive and well that professionals of color don't exist, in all disciplines and all fields," said Poriotis. "It's a myth that we've broken a hundred times."

Founded in 1973, the company seeks to include "women, military personnel, and persons of color to every slate of candidates" presented to clients.

WB&B has placed professionals with AT&T, Lucent Technologies, even the Pentagon and the White House.

Poriotis has built an extensive network of potential employers and potential hires. He has found success in a sector of the recruiting business largely overlooked by his competitors.

The firm has enjoyed nearly 200 percent growth over the last two years. In 1999, WB&B conducted 246 searched for clients and had revenues of $20 million.

Q. Why do some corporations believe they can't find qualified professionals who also happen to be minority or women?
A. It's a myth sustained and enhanced by my own industry. I don't think there's any evil intent, I just think the search industry as a whole doesn't have a passion or an incentive monetarily to go below the surface to where seven-eighths of the demographic diversity iceberg exists. It's harder for the classic executive search firm. It's easier for us.

Q. How do you find these candidates?
A. Over the years, we've helped so many thousands of people, that they come back and they give us an insider's look at the best and brightest of the non-traditional person, from African-Americans generals and admirals in the military to the head of small and midsize corporations, many of African-Americans and Hispanic descent. We speak at associations, and we have Hispanic and African-American folks on our staff who are known and respected in their fields.

Q. How many employees do you have?
A. 25.

Q. What is the difference between WB&B and a minority search firm?
A. When a minority search firm calls somebody, they know they are being called because they are a minority, not because they are a high performer. When we call, they know we are calling because we have a retained engagement. We are after them because they are the best performer, and we want to court them to the table to consider the employer.

Q. Why does a corporation use a search firm instead of other hiring methods, like the classifieds?
A. Often they have a person in the position now who's not cutting the mustard, but they don't want to let him or her go. They want to find out if there is somebody better. If not, why displace the person they have now?
Sometimes people conduct searches to gain market intelligence, not to fill jobs, but to see who's out there.

Q. What is the cost and payment schedule for your services?
A. We gat a flat sum that is equal to 30 percent of annual compensation. That's base salary, plus options, bonuses, etc. We get paid upon retainer, upon the client's approval of benchmark candidates, and upon identification of a finalist. And we get paid regardless of whether the person is hired.

Q. What advantages do you offer candidates?
A. How can a minority professional take advantage of the "old-boy network"?... We provide the equivalent. We connect them for opportunity dialogues with businesses before formal positions open.

Q. How has the business change since you started the firm?
A. It was really a very strange time, a transitional time. Affirmative action was just being born. Companies were still mostly white males.
I would say that corporate America today is strategically committed at the highest levels to being inclusive, because it enhances business. That's a dramatic shift from when we started.