Mark Gonska is a Senior Career and Executive Coach for CMA and has assisted thousands of individuals in career acceleration. Mark is the career accelerator who loves to demystify “what do I really want to do next?” and “how do I get a better job faster?” His unmatched relationships with clients and candidates are built on candor and commitment to address problems head-on and solve them. He’s action-oriented in all roles: teacher, mentor, and coach.

Mark’s personal trainer approach to coaching: “You can have excuses or results, not both.” He is living proof you can create a great new chapter after a job loss.

  Passionate about strategic coaching, he has helped clients advance, obtain new positions, and explore other career or entrepreneurial options. Mark is recognized as a master coach on leadership development. He has substantial experience with group projects— plant closings and job relocation initiatives throughout the United States.

Mark brings a significant network of contacts from business, industry, and not-for-profit organizations. His background includes international marketing and product management positions in a Fortune 200 corporation, and participation in the successful start-up, and development of a technology-based company. He holds a BA in communications from Bowling Green State University (Ohio) and has completed additional human resources study at Baldwin-Wallace College (Ohio).

Mark has been a member of the Board of Trustees for the local Society for Human Resource Management. In addition to being a nationally certified professional resume writer, he contributed to the book The Five O’Clock Club Guide to Building a Great Resume. He has presented hundreds of webinars, podcasts, television, and public addresses.

Chris Cluff is the President of Paper Trails, a payroll & HR firm located in Southern Maine. A fierce advocate for his clients and the small business community as a whole, Chris closely monitors legislative and regulatory changes at the federal, state, and local levels. Ensuring that his clients are on top of these regulatory changes has become a passion project. Each month, Chris hosts an educational webinar, disseminates countless blog articles and infographics, and works directly with clients to help them shape their internal policies and procedures to maintain compliance with regulations and laws while maintaining strong company cultures.

Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Chris advocates not only for small businesses but also for his community. A lifelong resident of Kennebunk, Maine, he has served as the youngest-ever elected member of the Select Board, serving as Vice Chair for two years. Currently, Chris serves as the Vice Chair of the Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, and Arundel Chamber of Commerce and leads its young professionals group.

While payroll and HR are boring yet necessary evils for small businesses, Chris considers his firm to be one of the trusted advisors on every client’s team. Gone are the days of just your attorney, accountant, and financial advisor being your triad of advisors; the HR role is increasingly necessary for small businesses to succeed. Adding value to just the normal, transactional payroll relationship, the team at Paper Trails, with Chris’ leadership, continues to wow their clients with exemplary client retention and satisfaction ratings.