The Board of the Returned and Services League of Australia Ltd (RSL) contracted Mr. Andrew Sutton FCA for a new Chief Executive Officer/National Secretary in late 2014.
On behalf of the Board, I commend Mr. Sutton for having dealt with this matter most professionally and to my entire satisfaction.
Mr. Sutton quickly established the close rapport needed to give confidence that he was determined to ascertain the full scope of the position to be filled and of the personal attributes needed for that position. He was politely forthright in ensuring there was little ambiguity in his understanding of the type of person the RSL sought. He was also remarkably diligent in working to our timeframe and in ensuring the RSL was kept fully informed.
His management of the recruitment for this position was exemplary with the outcome being the successful contracting of the chosen applicant following a most professionally conducted selection process.
I have no hesitation in recommending Mr. Sutton to anyone seeking to recruit staff for demanding executive positions.
Overwhelmingly, the positive was positive. It was a complicated process because the selection model we used was one that brought multiple stakeholders into the shortlist decision. Running 50 odd applicants down to a long-list of 10 is a difficult and arbitrary process. This is probably where I felt most exposed and most in need of Andrew’s judgement. Yet Andrew only had my guiding principles to go on.
This being a new role made it twice as hard to be precise with my instructions. Creating the shortlist seemed to work well and I think Andrew again took the pressure off me.
I found Andrew to have the right mix of initiative, pushing me, and letting the process we had in place take its course. Having Andrew do make contact with the applicants and ultimately unsuccessful applicants was important – something that made life easier for me.
I would like to thank Andrew for the effective executive search, support and assistance over the past two months. All in all, many thanks and a successful experience.
As Chairman of the Board, Navy Canteens engaged Andrew Sutton to conduct/facilitate the recruitment of a replacement Chief Executive Officer. I can attest that this critically important activity was executed with absolute professionalism. Mr. Andrew Sutton presented as a very competent individual with experience in the important domains of Finance, Accounting and General Management in addition to quality recruiting expertise.
Mr. Sutton’s engaging and consultative approach as well as obvious senior level management recruiting experience was outstanding and significantly contributed to a very successful appointment. This is the second senior recruitment activity where we have utilised Andrew Sutton and I would recommend him to any prospective employer.
The National Road Transport Association (Natroad) have recently engaged Andrew Sutton for the second time to conduct/facilitate the recruitment of our Chief Executive Officer. In 2012, Andrew sourced and presented a very strong shortlist which ultimately resulted in two candidates being considered highly suitable. On the basis of the success of this process, Andrew was re-engaged late in 2014 to recruit their successor.
Again the process was run with the highest level of professionalism and resulted in another strong shortlist. On this occasion, not only did Andrew conduct the candidate attraction strategies and initial interviews, he was also engaged by Natroad to act as a consultant to the Executive of the Board when conducting the interviews with the shortlisted candidates. His input and advice were extremely helpful to the Executive and assisted greatly in making the final decision.
As Chairman of Natroad, I can attest that Andrew has a very engaging and consultative approach and demonstrated his expertise in senior level management recruiting experience. On both occasions we have utilised Andrew Sutton we have been absolutely delighted with the outcome and I would have no hesitation in recommending Andrew to any prospective employer seeking to recruit their next CEO or Senior Manager.
Ecowise Services approached Sutton Recruitment to recruit our retiring Finance Director. As a Medium Sized private company with no other senior Financial employees, we dreaded the day when our current Finance Director announced his retirement, but I must say that Andrew Sutton made the whole process seem easy. Andrew’s ability to accurately scope our need, and then quickly acquire some excellent candidates for interview, was most impressive. We could not be more happy with the resulting appointment. I am so glad that I was recommended to approach Andrew for this recruitment, and I will certainly recommend Andrew’s service onto others when the opportunity arises in future.