Executive Committee

Ann Swain is the Chief Executive of the newly created Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), which was formed in 2009 to provide a strong and united voice for the professional recruitment industry and to enforce a clear set of business standards.She served since 1999 as Chief Executive of APSCo's predecessor, the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo), the trade association for the technology staffing industry. Under Ann's stewardship, ATSCo grew from 14 founder members to over 150, with a total annual turnover of about £5bn.

Ann was the founder in 1988 of Learning Curve, the specialist training company which was acquired by the Delphi Group in 1997. She was then appointed UK Director of Computer People until early in 1999. Prior to founding Learning Curve, Ann had a career in IT recruitment, HR and training.

Ann is an accomplished international speaker, regularly representing the UK recruitment industry across Europe, the USA and South Africa, and in 2006, Ann Swain was presented with the Gary Clark Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Recruitment Profession at the Recruiter Awards.

She is co-author of a major new book on recruitment called The Professional Recruiter’s Handbook, which will be published by Kogan Page in April 2009, and was made a Fellow of the NSPCC Full Stop Campaign in recognition of her outstanding service and fundraising contributions.

Marilyn is a Director of APSCo and has been involved with the IT and Technical staffing sector since 1975. From board level appointments in the contract, permanent and retained recruitment markets, she moved on to partner Ann Swain at Learning Curve where she was a Director and later MD.

Since 2001 she has run her own business focusing on Sales, Business Development and Management skills training in the recruitment and broader markets. She has also achieved success as a Coach and Small Business Advisor working with many recruitment companies to grow and develop their businesses.

Well known and respected within the industry, Marilyn has been an active member of APSCo for several years and is passionate about raising awareness of recruitment professionalism.

Matthew Brown FCCA qualified as an accountant before holding various financial controller and treasury positions within the highly competitive tour operating industry. After undertaking consultancy roles he established a business specializing in arranging high value tax based cross border leasing transactions for blue chip clients on assets such as ships and trains. In 1992 Matthew established giant group plc specialising in providing services to recruitment agencies, temporary workers, freelancers and contractors. The range of services include agency back office solutions from giant precision – front office, timesheet management, billing, payroll, contract management, managed vendor systems, background checking and BACS disaster recovery – and giant umbrella payroll services where giant is the professional employer organisation employing and payrolling the temporary workers and contractors.

Richard Herring is Director, European Staffing Services, Volt Europe. He has more than twenty years experience in the recruitment industry with a key focus on the I.T. and engineering sectors.

At Volt Europe, Richard is responsible for driving the growth of the company's staffing business across Europe. Volt Europe is the European division of Volt Information Sciences, a $2.3 billion turnover, Fortune 1000, NYSE listed corporation and a global staffing and technology leader. Richard joined Volt in January 2006.

Having worked in the retail and financial services sectors earlier in his life, Richard joined Reed in 1988 where he worked his way through the ranks to become Operations Director of Reed Technology for more than five years. Prior to joining Volt Europe, Richard worked at data processing outsourcing company SkillsMarket, also as Operations Director. This role provided him with a very different view of the industry, the use of technology within it and the candidate experience.

Richard is passionately committed to the ATSCo values and Code of Practice and was elected to the ATSCo Executive Committee in 2006 for the second time in his career. He took on the role of Deputy Chair in 2008 and also chairs APSCo’s European Forum.

Married with two young children, Richard lives in Guildford, Surrey.

Uzair Bawany is the Chief Executive Officer of the Contact Recruitment Group.

In Jan 2003, Uzair orchestrated an MBO the company, and grew the business from a single London office with eight people, to an International Group which currently employs over fifty staff with additional offices in Singapore and India. The Group turnover for 2008 was approximately £10 million – three times more than when he acquired the business.

He has grown the business through organic growth as well as acquisitions. The Group’s two key locations are London and Singapore where the Company provides consultative recruitment services for banking and finance, technology and support services.

Uzair is based in London but spends one week a quarter in Singapore overseeing business operations and networking. He is also, until very recently been the chairman of FLAME UK, a UK based charity largely focused on making a substantial contribution to raising the rate of literacy in South East Asia. The charity creates a highly cost-effective basic literacy and model for the poorest and most disadvantaged children which can inspire others and be replicated by them

Uzair has strong thoughts on the year ahead and the needs of business to adapt to the increasingly tough market conditions. He has recently been quoted in various trade press with his thoughts on views on 2009.

Dawn is Managing Director of Capita Resourcing & Development, which includes several recruitment businesses in the professional market, Capita Group’s internal resourcing team and Capita Learning & Development - subsidiaries of Capita Group Plc. With almost 20 years recruitment experience within a variety of sectors, Dawn joined Capita in 2000 bringing with her a wealth of industry experience to the business. Dawn began her recruitment career with Corporate Services Group in 1999 after which she joined Brook Street before moving to Office Angels as Corporate Development Manager where she held the responsibility of planning, executing and delivering new contracts through leading a sales team.

As part of a company operating in the ever-changing technology staffing industry, Dawn is delighted to stand as a member of the executive committee and fully supports the values and standards represented by APSCO.

Natasha is a director of SThree Plc a group of twelve specialist staffing business and a FTSE 250 company employing around 2,200 staff in ten countries. Natasha joined the group in 1994, being initially employed as an IT Recruitment Consultant.

She subsequently launched the Pathway brand for the Sthree Group in 1997 and served there as Managing Director for 11 years successfully taking the brand to the Middle East at the end of 2007. Natasha has been an Sthree executive member for the last two years and in January last year moved into an Sthree Group directorate role.

Married with two young children, Natasha lives in Surrey.

Jon Cox has been MD at Start for 9 years, previously with PSD, first entering recruitment in 1991. Jon has been an APSCo member for 5 years, joined the Exec for the first time in 2008, and is keen to promote client awareness and compliance. He Chairs the SME Forum, the next meeting being 24th Feb ("Innovation to Cut Costs & Increase Sales", followed June 2nd with "Business Plans for Growth or Exit"). Start is a Search & Selection business in South West London for Process Control, Financial Software, Information Security, Banking, Electronics & Sales, 70% perm, 30% contract. Jon is married with two young children, is particularly interested in recruitment tools, and Start is the UK distributor of Anthony Byrne's “30 Steps in the Placement Process”.

Paul Goodman has many years experience of the recruitment industry. He is a typical recruitment entrepreneur who broke away and started on his own. He has been a recruitment consultant, a Manager and a Director. He has run both permanent and temporary businesses. He has, with his partners, built up Goodman Masson.

Paul represents the financial recruitment sector and medium sized recruitment businesses. The bulk of his experience is in these areas and he has a clear grasp of the issues we are facing.

Paul was an active member of the FPR and was involved with their campaign to delay the withdrawal of the staff hire concession.

Married, with two daughters, Paul lives in North London, supports Leeds United and am a keen cyclist. He has cycled several hundred miles across South Africa for Charity and will be cycling through India for the same cause in November 2009.

Joel started his recruitment career with Monroe Systems in 1998, working his way up in that business from Trainee to Manager of their Head Office.

In 2002 he moved on to a large construction recruiter and built an IT recruitment team for them, he then joined a boutique IT recruiter in the City and ran their operation as Recruitment Director from mid 2005.

At the end of 2007 Joel decided to set up his own business which specialises in recruitment for the Digital Media sector and subsequently joined ATSCo in September 2008. He decided to stand for the Executive Committee in order to give a view from the coalface as he is still actively consulting and as result of his election he aims to represent the "little guys".

Not only does he firmly stand by all the APSCo values, he believes that APSCo will continue to take many forward steps. Never has it been more relevant to unite as an Industry and transmit a clear message. He feels strongly about the need protect ourselves by active lobbying against harmful legislative changes and continue to re-enforce our dedication to providing an exceptional service as Professional Recruiters.

Being part of the APSCO Exec gives him an ideal opportunity to champion the cause. He says "Remember even Coventry won the FA Cup in 1987 so anything is possible!”

Following a 5 year apprenticeship in shipbuilding and heavy engineering in his native Glasgow Bill left to move in to the off-shore oil & gas sector during the very early pioneering days of the ‘swinging sixties’... very exciting times which started out in the North Sea before taking him to various regions of the Middle East, Far East, Eastern Europe, USA, before returning to the UK and my joining Pasco Engineering Ltd as Construction Manager in 1979.

Pasco Engineering was acquired by Tarmac plc in 1984 and Bill was promoted to Director level two years later and ultimately went on to become Managing Director before then going on to become Chairman of the business during his last three years prior to taking an early retirement package in 2001.

Bill was credited with leading the business away from total dependency on the oil & gas sector in to the Rail, Nuclear, and Defence industry sectors and the successful penetration of these new markets then allowed the parent company to follow in and secure major construction contracts.

He joined the Orion Group in a Business Development role late 2001 with responsibility for developing new business primarily within the M25 corridor which culminated in the opening of the first Orion Engineering office in London, in 3 years of operation it was found necessary to move offices 3 times to accommodate the levels of new business and expansion of support staff.

Bill was invited to become the companies first Non Executive Director in 2002.

Many of the CEO's and Senior Executives of the major operators (oil companies) and also the major contractor business’s within the UK , and many overseas locations, Bill is very pleased to have the ears (and the trust) of in relationships that have grown over a very long period.

He is a very keen golfer and delighted to have been the first ever Scottish Captain of Woburn Golf & Country Club where he is still actively involved... enjoying raising funds for various charities including Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

Graham has been in the recruitment/staffing industry for over 25 years and has managed in a wide range of businesses in that time, including Badenoch & Clark, Harrison Willis, HW Group, TMP Worldwide, Robert Walters and FiveTen. He has extensive knowledge of Mergers & Acquisitions, of corporate development in the sector and of managing global companies.

He has been responsible for building business both by organic growth and by acquisition and is currently chief executive officer of Faro Recruitment Group - the global staffing business of OG International, a $200m+ business - which trades from 101 offices in 16 countries with more than 700 direct employees."

Tara joined Joslin Rowe in 1990. Prior to her recruitment career Tara worked at the American Investment Bank Morgan Stanley International, in the convertibles bonds arena. Joslin Rowe has grown to be a leading, niche recruitment provider in the world of financial services, covering permanent, contract, interim and temporary recruitment. Joslin Rowe were a founding member of The Forum of Professional Recruiters in 1999 and Tara was Chair prior to merging with ATSCo and forming APSCo.

Jo started his career in recruitment thirteen years ago, and established Sellick Partnership in 2002 – which has since become a highly successful financial and legal recruitment specialist. Jo started his career working in sales in Sheffield after graduating from university – but got his first break in recruitment a year later, working for Badenoch & Clark. After moving up within the business, he moved to Hitchenor & Maher Financial, before setting up on his own.

Although Managing Director of Sellick Partnership, Jo’s role remains very hands on, still maintaining a billing capacity within the company, as well as being responsible for the establishment, strategic development and growth of the firm. Since 2002, the business has grown organically from one office and one brand in Manchester, to seven offices and five brands across the country - with plans to open an office in Derby is March 2009.

Over the years Jo has developed strong relations with St Ann’s Hospice, a charity that aims to improve the quality of life of people living with life-threatening illnesses in Greater Manchester. And his keen pursuit of sport has led to the business supporting a number of sports teams from youth to senior levels, enabling local teams to become more established within their regions.

Having met with Ann Swain and her colleagues at APSCo, Jo strongly believes that this is an organisation that can truly represent the industry with energy and enthusiasm, and provide agencies like Sellick Partnership with valuable support, advice and direction when required.

Jo believes that his passion for life, his business and the recruitment sector would add value to the strategy and direction of the new APSCo committee – providing all members with an innovative approach to the sector going forward.

Crawford first became involved with the contracting market in the early 90’s through his role in financial services.

The majority of his career has been spent in business consultancy and operational roles, working with a wide range of organisations from start ups through to multi national organisations.

He was a founder of The J. Rothschild Partnership, now know as The St. James Place Partnership, as well as a Regional Sales and Marketing Director for Zurich.

He worked closely with regulators during the implementation of The Financial Services Act and this knowledge and experience of working in a tightly regulated environment is proving invaluable as Professional Passport develops their risk management and compliance solutions for the flexible workforce market.

Crawford is married and has two children. He enjoys fly fishing and walking his two dogs in his spare time.

Phil began his recruitment career with Triage Consulting in 1995, an independent technology staffing business. After working within a number of recruiting and sales management positions Phil joined the board of Triage as a Director in 1999.

In 2002 Phil joined Hudson to develop a niche Telecoms division focusing on supplying staff within the fixed and wireless communications market. In 2006 Phil also took on responsibility for managing Hudson’s commercial IT as Managing Director for IT & T.

October 2007 saw a promotion to Chief Operating Officer, UK & Ireland, for Phil at Hudson, a role which gave him an interesting insight to many of the mechanics that operate behind the front line of recruitment sales and enabled him to gain great experience of operational matters.

Phil left Hudson in 2008 and joined Radius Recruitment in October 2008 to help grow the business and during an economically challenging period. After helping Radius develop their processes and safely navigate through a very testing climate Phil decided to branch out and start a new venture alone.

In November 2009 he created Invenio, with a vision of building a quality recruitment business providing professional staffing to the retail and technology sectors. Based in Sevenoaks, Invenio have enjoyed a strong start to trading life.

In January 2008 he joined the Executive Committee of ATSCo and has made a valued contribution and been an asset to the committee during a period that saw ATSCo transition to APSCo successfully.

He has thoroughly enjoyed being on the APSCo committee and believes he has much to offer in seeking re-nomination to the APSCo committee for 2010 and helping continue to build on the great growth and foundations laid in 2009.  With his experience in owner managed, corporate and start up environments he has a breadth of knowledge to share with the APSCo community.