Managing Partners Michael Morell and Ali Behnam are always working hard—not only on behalf of Riviera’s clients and candidates, but also for themselves. When not tending to business or other family obligations, the company’s founders can be found exercising and staying in shape; they run the gamut when it comes to a varied approach to fitness and take on everything from power-lifting to yoga. The Wall Street Journal shadowed them for one of their workouts and together they discuss all-things-fitness: their workouts, nutritional habits, exercise gear, and even the music that keeps them motivated.
(WSJ) – Michael A. Morell and Ali Behnam, founders of Riviera Partners, a global recruiting firm based in San Francisco, share more than just a company: They share Big Ricky, a personal trainer who has them swinging kettlebells, tossing medicine balls and doing whatever drills he yells out.
Big Ricky, or Ricky LaRocca as he is known, leads them in workouts three days a week during their lunch break. Mr. LaRocca is one of two trainers they work with on different days at Body Mechanix, a fitness cooperative in the San Francisco Bay area.
Morell and Behnam met in 1996 while playing on a recreational rugby league and started Riviera Partners, which specializes in recruiting executives in the technology industry, in 2002.