Chief Executive Officer
Watkin Jones
The Brief:
Find established executive ready to embark on a major growth project
Watkin Jones Group PLC required an established and industry recognised FTSE 100/250 leader from the accommodation and/or residential real estate sector.
They wanted to identify a candidate that would be attracted to a newly listed and lower public profile organisation, seeking to embark on a journey of growth, modernisation and cultural transformation in a highly competitive industry.
The Approach:
Use in-depth Real Estate knowledge and profile building insights
We developed the candidate profile and the briefing narrative with the Non-Executive Chair, members of the nominations committee and the outgoing Chief Executive Officer. The search utilised our in-depth knowledge of real estate development and the key emerging leaders in the UK able to fulfil the position. The Hogan Assessment Systems leadership series allowed us to identify and profile candidate strengths and weaknesses during the shortlisting phase.
The Result:
A strong and strategic leader with deep market knowledge
Richard Simpson was successfully appointed in January 2019 and has aided the business in developing a new strategy and driven significant growth and diversification into closely aligned asset classes benefiting from the changes in social and economic drivers around property. He has also embedded modern listed business standards, corporate governance and formed a strong executive committee with succession in the broader senior management team.
“Edward was recommended by a Senior colleague in the House Building industry, I was keen to move away from the generic ‘head-hunters’ and find someone with a deeper understanding of the Property Sector and Senior individuals in it.
I am delighted to say that we had at least 3 credible candidates to choose from for the role and we were able to agree terms with our No1 candidate, who remains in post today and has been very successful. Watkin Jones continued to work with Edward and Granger Reis on further roles which is testimony in itself”
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