This week’s LeaderBear is Jose Quirarte. Jose had the privilege of being one of the first facilitators of both the Commerce Bank Emerging Leaders and Centennial Leaders Scholarship programs.  The Emerging Leaders program started in 2003 and Jose served as a facilitator for the inaugural year. He continued facilitating and later served as a facilitator for the inaugural Centennial Leaders program in 2005.  These two groups of leaders that Jose served with helped lay the foundation for the future of our programs that are still going strong today.

While completing his undergraduate degree Jose was also very involved in Fraternity and Sorority Life at Missouri State serving as the Director of Administration for IFC and President of his fraternity, Delta Chi. He graduated in 2006 with a bachelors degree in Human Resource Management/Administrative Management.

Jose is now a Sr. HR Advisor for CF Industries, a chemical manufacturing company whose industry mission is critical to human survival.  He is responsible for acquiring outstanding talent, developing succession plans for critical roles, and implementing a social recruiting platform to create a strong employment brand. Jose has also been privileged to have been featured in two editions of the college textbook Management by Dr. Mary Coulter and Dr. Stephen Robbins.

His top strengths are: Maximizer, Futuristic, Competition, and Significance.

When asked what about our programs impacted him the most he replied,

“I learned how to become a better leader by helping others discover their leadership potential.  The experiences gained throughout my involvement with these programs allowed me to understand others before seeking to be understood.  I truly enjoyed watching participants hone their leadership skills and following their career success in their profession.”

His advice to younger students:

“Follow your passion not the money! Do what you love and work will not feel like work.  Find a job/career that allows you to play your strengths each and every day.  One of my mentors once said to me “you should only have to interview once in a company”, meaning, if you do what you love to do every day and have an opportunity to do what you do best, career progression will come naturally. Life is too short, work somewhere awesome.  Also, never pass an opportunity to network with people in your field, you never know when you may need their help.”