We are Polaris Talent.
We Transform Companies one hire at a time
We believe every company, regardless of size or industry, deserves access to top talent and to provide a candidate experience that rivals the best-of-the-best Fortune 500 companies. The difference between a good team culture and a great team culture is shaped one hire at a time. We are experts in transforming culture by working with you to identify and select people who share your vision and values.
We know job seekers deserve better than they've been getting. Our No Ghosting Policy is a reflection of that.
We are not a recruiting agency. We are a consulting company that works in partnership and on behalf of your existing team to guide hidden and passive talent to you. We are certified diversity recruiters and experts at shaping culture, one hire at a time.
We are a majority woman-owned Wisconsin Benefit Corporation. We believe in making a positive impact in everything we do. In 2019 Polaris Talent took the 1% Pledge to donate 1% of revenue or 1% of time annually to causes we care about.
Since our founding, we have supported 501c3 Arts Organizations in Southern California, sponsored women's entrepreneurship events, facilitated fund-raising events to raise money for Music Cares and the Van Stephenson Memorial Cancer Research Fund at Vanderbilt University, and are members of the Racine Unified School District BMAC Advisory Board.
In 2024 we pledged our 1% donations to ShiftUp Now which supports women race car drivers. Read the press release here.
Meet the Team
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Marie Watkins
marie@polaristalent.com
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Marshall Folger
marshall@polaristalent.com
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Roma Watkins
roma@polaristalent.com
The Polaris Talent Story & Some Fun Facts
Polaris Talent was founded in 2017 when Marie decided that she wanted to work with her best friend since 7th grade, Marshall, and her daughter, Roma, to build a new type of recruiting solution for companies.
Marie was named the 2023 Wisconsin SBA Women's Business Champion for her work with women and diverse founders who are building startups in the Southeast Wisconsin region. She is an expert at the Business Model Canvas and Lean Startup methodology.
Polaris Talent is named after the yearbook of William Horlick High School (Racine, WI), which Marie and Marshall attended. Go Rebels!
Roma started karting a week before her 5th birthday. She drove the #99 Radical Honu kart in Kid Karts and Junior 1 in So Cal at Apex Raceway, where Dave Dimond coached her. In addition to being a co-founder of Polaris Talent, she is the owner of Apex Antics . An accomplished ballet dancer, Roma teaches Classical Ballet to teens and adults and coaches dancers for YAGP.
Before joining Polaris Talent, Marshall owned a pilot car business for 12 years and escorted oversized loads all over the US. He is also a talented singer/songwriter who can be found on Spotify under the name The Coffee Brothers and on iRacing as “marshallfolger”
Marie's first startup was Romawat Racing (c. 2002-2005) which had licenses to produce NASCAR driver and car images in stained glass. Notable licenses were Dale Earnhardt Inc, Brett Bodine Racing, and Michael Waltrip Racing. Business success was limited by the fragility of shipping custom stained glass across cross-country. Technically the business failed, but the lessons learned have been implemented in Polaris Talent. Marie also blogged for the TeamDEI fan site from 2002-2005. When she isn’t working or watching racing, Marie is a committed bookworm with multiple TBR piles.
The founding team at Polaris Talent is supported by a larger group of amazing humans that we leverage to scale the work we will do on your behalf. This allows us to have maximum agility, contain costs, and pull in subject matter expertise as needed.