Our Story
Val and Tom met while attending Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. They craved the mountains so they moved out west and married in Boulder, Colorado in 1982. The snow drove them south again, and they raised their three children (Bucky, Tyler, and Torie) in Plano, Texas. After managing independent careers in sales, recruiting, and business operations, they decided to start their own business centered around Val’s passion for recruiting and promoting inclusion. ValMed Careers LLC was formed in 2019 and, after the hiring of Torie and Tyler, has evolved into a true family business.
President, Valerie Brannen (she/her)
Val spent 17 years moving up through the ranks of a manufacturer of medical capital equipment, devices, and disposables. Her roles varied from selling directly to hospitals to managing teams responsible for sales and marketing. As Marketing Manager and Director of Sales at Quest Medical, Val learned how to identify and nurture talent. In 2008, Val decided to leverage her healthcare industry knowledge, sales skills, and passion for recruiting and joined a small recruiting agency. Val excelled over the next 11 years but had a strong interest in changing the status quo. She started her own recruiting agency to focus on candidate goals, client requirements, market changes, and a different way to recruit. Val’s approach to sales and recruiting has remained the same throughout her career – high energy, positive optimism, thorough follow through, integrity, and enthusiastically celebrating success.
Vice President, Tom Brannen (he/him)
Tom began his career in sales as well. Tom’s 35-year career was spent in the wholesale wine and spirits industry. After seven years in sales, Tom’s interest in wholesale business operations allowed him to transition to a general management role responsible for sales, operations, and finance in North Texas. Tom was then promoted into corporate Mergers and Acquisitions spending 10 years travelling the Midwest integrating newly acquired businesses into the larger enterprise. Tom retired in 2017 as VP, Corporate Sales Operations. Tom’s energy at ValMed is focused on business development, finance, and human resources.
Director of Recruiting, Tyler Brannen (he/him)
Tyler graduated from Austin College in 2012 with a B.A. in Economics and Mathematics. Tyler’s first job after graduation was a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs. He spent almost four years supporting associates on the NY Stock Exchange. His time at Goldman Sachs included a 6-month stint in Bangalore, India standing up an offshore analytics team. Tyler’s next 6 years were with Sysco, a national food distributor. His role at Sysco began as a market analyst in the corporate Revenue Management team and ended as a Regional VP of Finance in their Midwest division. His next step was with Stanley Black & Decker where he served in the role, Director Revenue Growth Management, North America. Tyler joined the family business in early 2022 as Director of Recruiting. Prior to joining ValMed, Tyler learned the value of forming strong relationships and honing his communication skills – the basics for recruiting. He also has a strong background in identifying and hiring talent and leading strong teams.
Digital Data Manager, Torie Brannen (she/they)
Torie graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 2019 with a B.A. in Psychology. After becoming an accomplished Barista during and immediately after college, she joined ValMed Careers late in 2021. The role of Recruiting Coordinator supported Val by managing candidate intake and cleaning up the company contact records in our Candidate Tracking System. In January of 2023, Torie was promoted to Digital Data Manager. They are busy developing the ValMed Careers website, continues to support our Candidate Tracking System, and manages ValMed’s business and social media site postings.