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, APSCo grew from 14 founder members to over 250, with a total annual turnover of about £6.5bn.

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.  In 2006, Ann was presented with the Gary Clark Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Recruitment Profession at the Recruiter Awards.

She is co-author of the highly acclaimed book on recruitment called The Professional Recruiter’s Handbook, 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.

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.

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”.

Graham has been in the recruitment/staffing industry for almost 30 years and has managed in a wide range of businesses in that time, including Badenoch & Clark, Harrison Willis, HW Group, TMP Worldwide, Robert Walters, FiveTen and Faro.  He has extensive knowledge of Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), of corporate development in the sector and of managing recruitment companies across the world.

He has been responsible for building businesses both by organic growth and by acquisition and is currently an Independent Director on the boards of a number of businesses in or allied to the sector.  He is also CEO of gjps.net a specialist M&A and Corporate Development consultancy.

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.

 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.   

Entrepreneur with a leadership background in staffing and recruitment. Having worked as a director for several of the top global staffing companies, founded Best International Group which grew to £130million turnover in 18 months. Sold to Spring Group in 2003. Now NED and strategic adviser to several carefully selected companies in the recruitment sector. Also MD and owner of Elite Leaders Limited.

Specialises in achieving rapid and sustainable growth, both organic and by acquisition, in people related businesses, thereby maximising shareholder value.

Stephanie Elliott is the Managing Director and Sr. Vice President at Volt, responsible for all operations in Europe and Asia.  Volt has been trading in the UK and on the continent since 1978. Stephanie’s responsibilities include both the recruitment services division of Volt, along with Volt Consulting MSP, which provides managed service programs.   Volt currently has operations in 10 European countries, with six offices in the UK, Belgium, Germany and France.

Emma Brierley started Xchangeteam in 1999 from a bedroom in her house having spotted an opportunity to establish a freelance PR recruitment agency as nothing so specialist existed. Today, she has created a £6m+ company which now offers both freelance and permanent recruitment across marketing, media and communications. Xchangeteam is an award-winning company, most recently being crowned the 2009 Recruitment Agency of the Year at the London and SE Recruitment Awards.

Alan has ‘enjoyed’ the last 2 challenging years as MD for Parity Resources with the sound belief that he can always find the silver lining to any cloud. With 16 years IT recruitment experience, he has a solid understanding of the industry, but is always seeking to understand more.

Raymond Pennie is Commercial Director for Kamanchi Ltd, a professional IT service company in the recruitment sector. He qualified as a CA in 1991, training with KPMG Aberdeen. Upon qualifying, Raymond was seconded to Toronto for 2 years. Having returned to Aberdeen for a short spell, he then moved south to become the London Training Manager for ICAS, significantly increasing the number of training places for CAs in England and Wales. In his final year Raymond completed the research for the 1998 education review.

Raymond is married to Simone with no children, Raymond enjoys his weekends in the Cotswolds where he runs, cycles and plays golf.