Dave Yancoskie didn’t just stumble into the executive search business, he evolved into it atop a set of foundational values of hard work, precision, and integrity instilled in him from childhood. Raised in a household where purposefulness was a way of life, he learned that success is almost always found in the details.
Today, as Managing Partner at Travillian, King of Prussia, Pa., a financial services firm focused on executive search and strategic advisory, he applies that same meticulous approach to placing top financial executives across the industry.
Precision Hiring Detail in Financial Placements
Yancoskie’s bookkeeper mother and accountant father instilled in him a work ethic founded on attention to detail. That outlook was imprinted on him growing up in rural Annville Township, Pa., where the chocolate scent from the nearby Hershey manufacturing plant often filled the air year-round.
That part of the Keystone State is not far from the Amish communities of Lancaster, meaning that residents there generally hold a solid work ethic: up with the sun; toil until dark; and put in a proper day’s effort for a proper pay. Yancoskie’s parents reflected that work ethic, and it is unsurprising that some of that sense of responsibility was passed to him. He learned from his parents early on that when it came to completing tasks, details matter. From his environment, he absorbed folk wisdom such as measure twice, cut once and hasty climbers have sudden falls.
“Everything had to be done the right way,” he remembers.
The household fastidiousness ran so deep, Yancoskie believes that his parents may have been borderline obsessive-compulsives about it. “Everything we did around the house—every chore, every project, every family outing—had a right way and a wrong way of doing it. And we did things the right way. Our entire house was always immaculate. You could eat off the garage floor.”
This reliance on tried-and-true tactics sometimes led to less-than-ideal outcomes. “There was a running joke in my house,” Yancoskie recalls, “about a deck my dad built. He was so fully focused on doing things the ‘right’ way that the deck ended up being fortified enough to survive a nuclear blast. We’d tease him by claiming that it had more nails in it than wood. It was strengthened to the hilt!”
True, the construction project started merely to build an outside gathering space attached to the home. But owing to his dad’s approach, it became something more fundamental within Yancoskie, an outlook that yielded numerous benefits over time: Shortcuts were not an option.
That commitment to completeness would become the cornerstone of his career. It is evident today in his leadership style and the way he has shaped the culture at Travillian. While Dave has been at the helm, since 2005 his growing team of more than 15 colleagues has placed more than 500 executives at over 150 banks and other financial institutions in 35 states (and 15 to go).
Much of this success is credited to the work environment Yancoskie has established. “We’re not going to bow down to the negative stuff in the executive search industry—placing people just to place them and collect a fee,” he states. “We do things the right way, ethically, and that’s one of the things that sets us apart.”
Early Lessons in Talent Acquisition: Dave Yancoskie’s Journey
At 24, Yancoskie entered the world of executive search under less-than-ideal circumstances. The platform had tremendous potential, but the rules of engagement were practically nonexistent, and his boss didn’t exactly exhibit the most refined or effective approach to mentoring and leadership. Instead of floundering, Yancoskie thrived. “I had to figure it out,” he recalls.
For his first major search assignment, the eager rookie went all out. Harking back to his upbringing, he meticulously combed through the relevant universe of depository investment bankers, spending hours interviewing all the right and wrong candidates. Dave recalls the eventual hire for the role commented that “he’s never been grilled that hard in his life” … and he was an ex-marine. The search was successfully completed, but his efficiency quotient rating would have been “does not meet expectations.”
From there forward, he approached placements with a clearer understanding of client needs and a keener eye for appropriate candidates to fill them. “I’ve done thousands of interviews in my career,” he reflects. “The perspective that they’ve given me is invaluable.
“That experience has sharpened my eye so that now, I don’t need mass volumes of interviews to find the right fit for a client. I’ve been around long enough to know a great fit when I see one.”
A Strategic Approach to Growth
Travillian wasn’t built overnight. Yancoskie joined the firm in 1999. At the time, it was an affiliate of Charlottesville, Va., based, SNL Financial, a financial news, data, and analytics service provider to the Financial Services industry. It was later sold to S&P Global.
He quickly saw that most of his competition was focused on Wall Street’s high-profile investment banking firms. Instead of tackling that saturated market, he took a different path. He pivoted to cultivate relationships with investment banks and financial institutions nationwide.
“I decided early on that I’d let the big firms fight over New York,” he relates. “I focused on the other 49 states.”
This use of the blue ocean strategy, coupled with his quick ability to establish credibility, became his hallmark. “I read industry news an hour a day, every day. I could talk about mergers, capital raises, and market trends. I also made a point of knowing what all the relevant players in the space were doing from a hiring and compensation perspective. That made me more than just a recruiter. I was an industry insider.”
Resilience in Recruitment
But even a professional who prides himself on staying ahead of the news and monitoring trends can get tripped up by unforeseen circumstances.
“The first year was rough,” he remembers. “Being a straight commission employee in an industry with a long ramp up period was a challenge. The fees I was generating were infrequent at best. I was living in Washington, D.C., making my best attempt at ruining my credit. One of my best financial months was due to receiving a $2,000 insurance check from being rear-ended in a car accident. So, yes, things were dire. My dad, with the best of intentions, questioned the validity of a career in recruiting and suggested I move back home and work for him as an accountant.”
Rather than succumb to the possibility that his chosen career was a dead end, Yancoskie dug in. “The challenges and nonexistent votes of confidence actually strengthened my resolve to be a success in this role,” he states. “For some reason, I had this unbreakable belief that I had found my calling and that this little affiliate of SNL was the perfect place to build my career.”
A $50 Investment in Trust and Potential
Despite the lack of financial evidence, Yancoskie was making meaningful relationships within the banking community and even landed a couple of high quality search mandates. A flicker of light could be seen at the end of the tunnel. But he needed help. Therefore, he drove south to Charlottesville to meet with SNL founder Reid Nagle. Yancoskie’s agenda was to discuss some of the firm’s issues and make the pitch for its ongoing potential.
By then, as Yancoskie remembers, he was “…dead broke.” His financial situation at that time resulted from him “…focusing less on making a quick buck and more on building relationships by earning trust and adding value.
“I remember sitting with Reid in the conference room, trying to explain to him that there was a disconnect between his vision for the firm’s future and what was actually happening on the front lines.” he says.
Nagle processed what Yancoskie had brought to him. The meeting was not only unconfrontational, it ended on an act of unexpected generosity.
“I was a young recruiter at the time and made this trip without much planning,” Yancoskie recalls. “I was about to leave the meeting and realized I hadn’t even brought enough cash to get my car out of the parking garage or pay for gas for the return drive. Nagle gave me a crisp $50 bill straight from his wallet to pay for it,” he admits. A gesture that symbolized an investment in a young Yancoskie.
In recalling this episode of his career path, he chuckles “…come to think of it, I probably should have paid him back by now.”
The Origins of Travillian: Building a Legacy in Financial Recruitment
After the firm’s original leader left, an internal SNL salesperson was tasked to lead the recruiting firm.
It was that leader who chose to change the original name to Travillian, a family friend’s name with old-school roots in Virginia, resulting in the birth of The Travillian Group.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what to think of the name at first,” Yancoskie recalls. “I had trouble even pronouncing it correctly.”
Shaping Travillian: Dave Yancoskie’s Leadership in Financial Services
Over the next few years, a few different managers took the reins of Travillian with very mixed results. Yancoskie, however, was distinguishing himself amid the unsettledness. He had carved out a professional niche by working with SNL’s oldest and strongest client relationships at the time: bank executives and their service providers, particularly depository investment bankers.
After the unceremonious departure of his fourth leader in five years, Yancoskie’s got his shot to head the firm. In remembering that transition, he self-depreciatingly says, “Reid eventually ran out of other options, and so I was named Head of Travillian in 2004.”
Just over one year later, however, the firm went through yet another internal shift. Yancoskie, seeing a great opportunity, bought the company from SNL. Included in the purchase was the right to use the Travillian name for the ongoing business, the client list, and the commercial space lease.
With Travillian now an independent entity, Yancoskie wasted no time in shaping the firm in his image—one rooted in deep industry knowledge, ethical recruiting practices, and long-term relationship-building.
Comprehensive Talent Solutions Travillian’s Expanded Financial Services
Under Yancoskie’s leadership, Travillian evolved beyond traditional executive searches. The firm now operates as a strategic consulting partner, complementing the act of placing banking, investment banking and fintech executives. Yancoskie cites the difference, noting: “Our clients don’t just get a pile of resumes and LinkedIn profiles. They get market trends, competitive intelligence, a recommended corps of prescreened, qualified candidates, and strategic perspectives on talent acquisition.”
Gained from deep experience in recruitment, Yancoskie has become innately adept at assessing professionals and fitting them into roles that suit them, a skill that permeates through the Travillian team that Yancoskie cultivated and continues to lead. Much of this business savviness results from his experience—being thorough, nailing down details, and observing people closely.
Yancoskie notes, “It starts with listening. The two most important questions we ask in this business are:
- To the client, ‘Describe the ideal candidate profile.’
- To the candidate, ‘Describe your ideal opportunity.’
And then we go to the market to come as close as humanly possible to matching those ideals.”
Hearing the needs of their clientele is a skill that Yancoskie and his team have honed to a science.
“The first thing a candidate says—the initial comments in your first conversation—is usually the most honest he or she is going to be. Any feedback from a recruiter at this point in the process is generally counterproductive. It can cloud the issues.
At the onset of a search, I’ve always thought that it’s better to be quietly attentive than vocally forward.”
In 2020, Travillian launched its content platform, Travillian Next, further solidifying its role as a thought leader in the financial services sector. More recently, the firm expanded into conferences with the NEXT Forum, which brings together top banking and other financial professionals for insightful, impactful, and pragmatic conversation.
The Travillian Difference
What makes Travillian different? According to Yancoskie, it’s a combination of intellectual capital, relationship-driven service, and a commitment to excellence.
“We treat every client like they’re our best, and every search like it’s fully retained (upfront to secure services), whether it is or not. We don’t just find candidates—we help our clients tell their stories, position themselves better in the market, and make hiring decisions that will impact their organizations for years,” he notes.
The firm echoes the values instilled in Yancoskie from childhood: Do it right, be thorough, and never cut corners. When you are on the top of your game, it all comes together quickly and efficiently.
He clarifies: “The best talent always has options. If you want to attract and retain top performers, a bank needs a clear vision, a strong culture, and a process that respects their time and expertise.”
Best Practices: Hiring Top Financial Talent and Career Advancement
Given his deep experience on both sides of the hiring process for adding financial professionals to financial service providers, Yancoskie understandably has great insight into maximizing outcomes unilaterally.
He states that financial institutions can bolster their efforts to fill openings by:
- Be fantastic storytellers. “This professional asset,” he advises, “starts with the culture and lives through all your interactions and your marketing, website, social posts, etc. Telling your organization’s unique stories, and citing meaningful differentiators goes beyond marketing slogans, glossy annual reports, and colorful logos. This helps you attract the right candidates.”
- Be decisive. Yancoskie counsels: “Know what you want and when you see it. Pull the trigger. If a bank understands the role they are hiring for, the technical skills required, the emotional I.Q. needed, etc., finding the right candidate becomes easy if the bank is confident.”
“But when a bank is interviewing tons of people,’ he goes on, “most of the time, it is not because the people weren’t great. It is because the bank doesn’t know what they need. They don’t realize these candidates are perfect due to not truly understanding what they are actually looking for.”
Travillian’s Forward-Thinking Financial Recruitment Future
As Travillian continues to grow, Yancoskie remains focused on its founding principles. “We’ve built something unique: an executive search and strategic advisory firm that acts as a trusted partner, not just a placement agency. A year from now, we’ll be celebrating the fact that our firm didn’t just follow industry trends, we set them,” he predicts.
