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People Director

Private-Equity Owned Turnaround Business

The Brief

Appoint an experienced Board-level HR professional with the capability to lead our client's business through major change.

Our client was about to embark on a major turnaround programme and needed to appoint a senior and highly experienced People Director able to formulate and execute a programme of strategic change.

Ultimately the objective was to lead the people agenda to contribute towards a hugely improved customer experience; and thus drive a considerable step change in commercial performance. The client's business is heavily unionised so experience in this area was a prerequisite for the role.

The Process

This assignment was executed on a strictly confidential basis without any details being disclosed about our client. A Pan-European search was carried out, resulting in the identification of more than 250 potential candidates for this role.

Extensive background research led to a candidate longlist being presented to and approved by the client. Each target candidate was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement before meeting with Fortune Hill and references were thoroughly checked prior to the client interviewing the shortlist.

The Result

Fortune Hill identified a People Director who brought a wealth of experience, covering all areas of the brief, and had a phenomenal track record of successfully leading change in similar businesses.

The candidate and their career aspirations matched the client's requirements perfectly. Fortune Hill have since been retained on another senior search for the client as a direct result of the quality of work delivered on this assignment.

Defining success

We have a very simple measure of success – that our Partners appoint the very best possible Leader for any given role. We love watching the performance of a business, and the lives of people, improve as a result.