Executive Search Partner Takes Note of Music Project

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After one year at USC, Darin DeWitt decided to quit school in 1988 and start a business with a friend. The two launched a health care management services firm that focused on the obstetrics and gynecology sectors.

“I was always one of those kids who worked because I wanted to,” DeWitt said of his personal drive and entrepreneurial spirit.

He and his friend sold the company three years later, and DeWitt decided to return to school. He enrolled at a Pepperdine University program for working adults with the goal of pumping up his business skill set.

“As an entrepreneur you can figure things out, but it’s very helpful to have a common framework and vocabulary by which to assess and analyze problems and opportunities,” said DeWitt, who earned a bachelor’s degree in business management.

Now a partner at executive search firm Caldwell Partners International, he is working to assist young people with their education through the Harmony Project. DeWitt was recently named to the board of the Hollywood non-profit, which promotes music instruction to at-risk children in families below the poverty line.

While drawn to the organization because of its mission to promote the socializing and educational benefits for children of studying music, he also said it was the relative newness of the Harmony Project and the chance to build it from the ground up that attracted him.

“In five or 10 years, I can look back and have some fulfillment in helping the project reach where it is,” he said.

While he appreciates music, DeWitt has little experience playing it. He briefly studied bass in elementary school, but practical concerns brought his instruction to a quick close.

“I thought bass was pretty cool, but I didn’t think about getting it home on the bus,” he said.

DeWitt lives with his wife, Alison, in the Hollywood Hills. The couple has been busy with their first child, Avery Jacqueline, who was born Sept. 28.

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