Rachid Zahidi, CEO, Sentinel Screening

Grab a latte and pull up a chair and join us for a great interview with Rachid Zahidi, CEO, Sentinel Screening.

Prior to starting Sentinel Screening, Rachid worked and managed people in the hospitality and banking industries and one of his last roles was leading a team of anti-money laundering investigators at Citigroup. Given the focus of his role in dealing with anti-money laundering investigations, research and investigations were not completely foreign to him and the background check industry made sense to him.

Rachid added that he enjoys enlightening customers about the need and importance of background checks as well as the importance of going about them in a proper, legal and ethical manner. He also enjoys solving problems and simplifying processes that can otherwise become easily complicated.

The company’s vision is: “To have a positive and transformational impact on the lives of our customers, employees, vendors and community” and their mission is “To provide our customers with professional background screening results that are obtained through consistently reliable, accurate and timely court research and due diligence while maintaining the highest of ethical and legal standards.”

In addition, Rachid emphasized that “Sentinel believes in cooperation within our industry and that competition is a zero sum game; collaboration enlarges the pie for all involved!” He noted that Sentinel is committed to supplying other responsible background check companies with reliable and affordable court research and sharing the benefits of having built a very good research network.

He is very proud of what the Sentinel team has accomplished and shared that the company was named among the Tampa Bay Business Journals Fast 50 companies in 2012 and a Finalist in the GrowFL Companies to watch awards for 2014.

Rachid announced a forthcoming book – The Business Immunity System: The Pitfalls & Side Effects of Data Handling, Privacy Issues, & Background Checks. The book helps to alert employers to importance of not only screening out bad hires, but also to make sure the right tools are used to screen in the good and productive ones.

Moving the discussion to my favorite question about what the future has in store for the background screening industry Rachid pondered and then said he expects “Further consolidation as the economy gets better, more digitization and faster access to records and a more leveling of the playing field.”

In closing, he offered on the personal side that he had recently read ‘The Advantage-Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business’ and the person he would most like to meet is Bono from U2. He said “While most of his peers just enjoy the riches and the spoils, he chooses to work hard for humanitarian causes plus he rocks of course!”

He shared his favorite quote: “We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” Jim Rohn

You can contact Rachid at rachid.zahidi@sentinelscreening.com.