
The rigour of our judging process, and the authority, credibility and expertise of our judges make Recruiter’s Awards well worth entering and winning. Through our Awards, we support and cheer on recruitment professionals, and those who supply them, in driving standards ever higher in what is arguably the UK’s most dynamic and exciting sector.
From previous Recruiter Award winners to leading experts in all aspects of ‘best practice’ and innovation in recruitment and resourcing. Experts in the recruitment M&A arena and finance also play critical roles in our judging process, to closely examine the financial soundness of recruitment businesses considered for Recruiter Awards.
Join our ‘celebration of innovation’, along with our judges and myself, and showcase your achievements.
DeeDee Doke
Editor
Recruiter/recruiter.co.uk
Chair of Recruiter Awards judges
Meet the 2022 Recruiter Awards Judges

Harald Ackerschott
Managing Partner
Harald Ackerschott GmbH
Harald is the founding partner of Harald Ackerschott GmbH, innovation leader in assessment and psychometrics in Germany. He is the architect of abcή, ackerschott basic cognitions indicator ®, a measure of ability, behavioral styles and motivation. With its unique approach for requirements analyses, abtI®, ackerschott basic task inventory he brings online and scaled assessments to a new level. Harald co-authored the German standard work on proficiency assessment based on the DIN 33430 and teaches psychometrics and assessment at DIN Academy. Harald has over 30 years of experience in personally auditing, assessing and screening candidates. He has consulted and facilitated the staffing of tens of thousands of professionals, specialist employees and executives ranging from entry-level positions to C-suite management on all five continents. Harald serves on international panels and represents Germany in ISO Standards Development on Human Resource Management.
https://abci.de/en/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/harald-ackerschott-eignungsdiagnostik-assessment/?locale=en_US

Ryan Adams
CEO
Signify Technology
Ryan is the CEO of Signify Technology, he has worked in the recruitment industry for over 15 years and is a well respected figure in the industry. Signify is a fast growth and multi-award-winning staffing agency, over the last 6 years, they have grown by 100% year on year, successfully securing employment for 2500+ Engineers, with 400+ tech companies across 22 countries globally. Currently a team of 60+ across four locations in London, Manchester, LA and Austin. A big motivation of Ryan's is to help diversify the recruitment industry. Signify are a minority-owned business, 50% of the team are women and 30% of the team are from minority backgrounds. Recent awards include Recruitment Industry Entrepreneur of the year 2021, Recruitment Leader of the year 2020, Most Inspiring recruitment agency leader 2021 and 2020, Small Recruitment Agency of the Year 2021 and 2020 and Diversity and Inclusion champion 2021.

Helen Baron
Chartered Psychologist
Independent
Helen Baron is a Chartered Psychologist with over 35 years’ experience in the design and implementation of effective selection and assessment systems for organisations. She has a particular interest in equal opportunities policy and the promotion of fairness in selection. An independent consultant and leading UK psychometrician, she has developed many leading edge tests, questionnaires and other assessments. She contributes to the development of policy and standards in the area of assessment sitting on a variety of committees both in the UK and internationally. She has contributed to professional and academic literature and is regularly invited to speak to both professional and academic forums.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-baron-cpsychol/

Jim Berrisford
Sales Director
VONQ
25 Years in the world of Recruitment, Agency, In House and Recruitment Technology Vendor - REC Regional Director in 2011 and Agency Owner - Rectech Advisor, Mentor, and Ambassador - Business Ambassador for Ambitious about Autism Charity and Currently Sales Director for VONQ - Recruitment Marketing Solutions and Services

Katrina Collier
Author, Facilitator & Speaker
Katrina Collier Limited
Katrina Collier is on a mission to end the collaboration chaos that ruins recruitment and candidate experience; exacerbated by hybrid working. Her inclusive workshops help companies fix the real issues preventing successful talent acquisition, and her unique shared-learning Mastermind programme develops the skills HR & recruiters need to partner effectively with the business and candidates. She is also a Mentor, Author of The Robot-Proof Recruiter, a global keynote speaker, and host of The Hiring Partner Perspective (Unedited) podcast. Katrina is an Ambassador for Hope for Justice charity, and you’ll find her on LinkedIn and on Instagram & Twitter @KatrinaMCollier. katrinacollier.com

Daniel Cornwell
Managing Director
SPE Resourcing
Industry veteran and founder of SPE Resourcing, an award-winning hospitality and retail focused search business. Investor and Advisor in the hospitality sector. Previously trustee for large animal charity and supporter of a number of good causes.

Ruella Crouch
Managing Director
Ruella James
In 1999, Ruella launched Ruella James to focus on the Recruitment to Recruitment sector in the London market.
We place Trainees looking for their first role in recruitment, Experienced Recruiters and Managers/Directors of Recruitment businesses.
Ruella is the host of ‘Ruella Talks Recruitment’ Podcast and ‘Recruitment Hacks Live’ Linked in Live Show. She aims to motivate, inspire and educate current and future Recruitment Leaders. Joined by her team and a variety of guests, Ruella explores all things recruitment - giving SMEs top tips and new ideas on every episode. Recordings of these shows are on YouTube/Spotify/iTunes.
www.ruellajames.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rec2reclondon/
https://www.instagram.com/ruellajamesrecruitment/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7VM-KdKWEynsqdVZ1tdjig/featured

Nadia Dashti-Edwards
Chief Customer Officer
Harrington Starr
Nadia Edwards-Dashti co-founded the Harrington Starr Group in 2010, which has grown into the leading FinTech recruiter based in London with offices in New York. In 17 years in the financial services technology sector, she has been responsible for helping over 2000 people find jobs and has grown from a trainee to a Managing Director and now Chief Customer Officer of a global technology recruitment business. She runs her own successful ‘Women of Fintech’ Podcast Series where she has interviewed more than 150 women in leadership within the Financial Technology community to celebrate and showcase their successes. She created a ground-breaking podcast series exploring the ‘Maternity and Paternity of Fintech Stories,’ ‘The Humans of FinTech’ and ‘The Talent Surgery’ podcasts and has brought together these four podcast series under the banner of ‘FinTech with Nadia: The DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) Discussions.’

Sarah Gaughan
Chief Operating Officer
Finlay James
Sara is co-owner of Finlay James and works as the company's Chief Operating Officer. Finlay James are a tech sales and marketing recruitment company with offices in Manchester, London, New York and Chicago. After training initially as a solicitor then six years in PR and Communications, Sara began work at Finlay James in 2013, helping them to improve business processes as well as external relations and employee engagement. She returned to university as a mature student in 2015 to complete a Masters in Human Resource Management whilst continuing to work for FJ. Since March 2018, Sara took on full responsibility for the Marketing, HR and Office management divisions. She also works alongside her husband John, FJ’s CEO, planning the company business strategy both in UK and US. As a parent of 22 year old twins Sara is particularly passionate about employee engagement and mental health and wellbeing. In her spare time, Sara loves walking, watching her favourite bands and running the couple’s holiday cottage business.
www.finlayjames.co.uk
www.talentskowt.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saragaughan

John Hayes
Managing Partner
Constantine Law Limited
John Hayes is the founder and Managing Partner of Constantine Law https://www.constantinelaw.co.uk/ and one of the UK's leading employment lawyers. He acts for a number of the UK's largest privately owned employment agency businesses, especially in the areas of healthcare, education, tech and construction supply.
He provides strategic guidance to the boards of employment agencies businesses and regularly enforces restrictive covenants for his clients in the High Court, achieving a number of injunctions every year.
Constantine Law is currently advising on an employment status case for a client which is likely to go to the Supreme Court.

Lysha Holmes
Owner
Qui Recruitment Ltd
Lysha Holmes, owner of Qui Recruitment, Specialist R2R since 2005 placing experienced recruiters across the Northwest, Yorkshire and London. Host of The Recruiters Recruitment Podcast.
quirecruitment.com
@LyshaHolmes across all social media

Maxine Janali
Talent Acquisition Manager
Govia Thameslink Railway
I am a committed, passionate and motivated person with a strong work ethic. I joined the rail industry 14 years ago and haven’t looked back; I started working with Southern Railway in 2007 as the Skills Co-ordination Manager and my railway career progressed from there. Working closely with the Customer Services and Operations training teams, as well as various stakeholder and client groups across the business, gave me a solid understanding of the business’s operational and training requirements.
In 2016 I was appointed Govia Thameslink Railway’s Talent Acquisition Manager, working across GTR’s four brands (Southern, Thameslink, Great Northern and Gatwick Express), which I was very proud to achieve. In this role working collaboratively is fundamental; this has enabled me to put in place the key strategic approaches and recruitment processes required to achieve our desired outcomes.
I have gained a wealth of experience in people management and managing a varied workload, exceeding the expectations of my stakeholder and client groups has further enhanced my capabilities, and ensures I operate at a strategic level. I have a natural coaching management style and am really passionate about developing people to help them achieve their full potential in life.

Matthew Jeffery
Head of EY UKI Recruitment
EY
Matthew has a long & distinguished career in the Recruitment Industry. He is currently the UKI Head of Recruitment at leading professional services firm EY. Matthew oversees a team of 120 recruiters and responsible for service delivery operations from Manila, (team of 81). EY is on track to exceed 7,000 hires in FY22. Previous to EY Matthew was at SAP for 7 years running their Recruitment Sourcing & Employment Brand teams.

Julia Kermode
Founder
IWORK
Julia is a podcaster, network builder and campaigner with a passion for the rights of independent workers. Before setting up IWORK Julia single-handedly grew FCSA, a compliance standard for accountants and umbrellas, from an unheard-of niche organisation to being ubiquitous within the recruitment supply chain. Julia became increasingly frustrated that those most affected by tax and employment law are also those with the least control in their own status, i.e. the workers. So Julia is now on a mission to empower the UK’s independent workers so that they get the fair deal they deserve.
www.iwork.co.uk
Twitter: @JuliaKermode
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliakermode/

Ian Knowlson
Founder & Director
Talence
Ian Knowlson, Recruitment Industry NED, Growth-Coach and Business-Mentor, utilises his 35+ years’ experience establishing and growing businesses in the recruitment sector, assisting clients create, develop and deliver hi-growth strategies and visions for their companies. Ian has become an “Employment Futurist” with his insights into how the employment and recruitment sectors are changing. Recently named by Onalytica, in their Top10 Global-Influencers on the #Future-of-Work and #Talent-Recruitment, he is regularly asked to speak about the impact of technology changes on the employment-sector at conferences. An NLP-Master-Practitioner Ian’s passion is helping individuals/businesses achieve their true potential and he consults, coaches, and educates recruitment businesses on leadership, business development, MSP/RPO and relationship selling. Ian lives in Cheshire and is married with four children all of whom are Millennials and 'digital-natives'. He’s a keen golfer gardener, a Liverpool supporter.
Twitter - @ianknowlson
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ianknowlson/
Instagram - IAN_KNOWLSON

Thomas Leister
Partner
Osborne Clark
Thomas heads the employment practice, supporting German and foreign companies in all matters relating to individual and collective employment law. He has a particular focus on developing strategic concepts for companies in the recruitment industry, in particular employee leasing, independent contractors, HR compliance and cross-border projects for contingent workforce management (MSP, RPO).
https://www.osborneclarke.com/lawyers/thomas-leister

David Leyshon
Investor & Board Advisor
Bulletpoint Consult
David spent 30+ years in specialist technical recruitment as billing consultant, senior executive and business founder. His experience ranges from large US multi-national NASDAQ firm to SME’s, across both domestic and foreign markets. Latterly he was CEO of multi-award winning firm, CBSbutler, which he sold in 2017. Affording an impressive past ‘trophy collection’, David is passionate about best practice and innovation, whilst also raising the standing of the staffing sector. He know spends his time as an investor and advisor with diversified business interests, and as a trustee of charitable organisations.

Ricky Martin
Founder
Hyper Recruitment Solutions
Ricky is Biochemist, Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and founder of the Life Sciences recruitment consultancy Hyper Recruitment Solution (HRS). HRS was bult on the siple vision of "changing lives". Something Ricky is passionate about doing and as such is the past chair, and current board member, of the REC's Life Science sector committee and is the host of the Recruiter Ricky "How to get Hired" podcast.
Website: www.hyperec.com
Twitter / IG: @RickyMartin247 Twitter: @Hyperec_HRS

Paul Maxin
Founding Director
Max Intalent Ltd
A talent and talent acquisition leader who focuses on transformation, talent management and talent acquisition strategy. Held key positions at Publicis Sapient, Zalando, Unilever, and PwC.
maxintalent.com
LinkedIn.com/in/PaulMaxin

Wendy McDougall
Firefish Software
Listed as the UK’s topmost innovative women by recruiter magazine 2021. Wendy has been making waves and influencing the recruitment technology space for almost two decades. Once a top-performing recruiter and recruitment business owner, Wendy moved into the Tech space over ten years ago. Her company, Firefish Software, is a high growth recruitment software that combines your recruitment CRM and marketing activities enabling recruitment teams to turn their existing processes into an active growth engine.

Sharon McKinley
Managing Director - Specialist Services
Staffline Recruitment Ireland
Sharon has over 21 years experience in HR Management and Consulting Services in both public and private organisations. Sharon specialises in recruitment and selection, employee relations, performance management, employment law and generalist human resources assignments. Sharon has significant experience in managing high volume and specialist recruitment campaigns within the public and private sectors, and with Staffline Sharon has managed a number of large outsourced contracts simultaneously, in Transport and Logistic, IT and Public Sectors.
Sharon specialises in outsourcing from both a client and provider perspective, particularly in Managed Services and assessment centres, incorporating job evaluation and psychometrics.
https://www.staffline.ie/
https://twitter.com/StafflineIre
https://www.linkedin.com/company/stafflineireland
https://www.facebook.com/StafflineIreland/

Paul Modley
Director, Diversity Equity & Inclusion
AMS
I have worked in the talent acquisition space for the last 29 years, working in agency, search, inhouse and latterly in RPO. I have run large global TA teams in financial services and global sports events. I started moving in to DEI space 15 years ago when working on the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games. I'm now AMS's Director of Diversity Equity & Inclusion, responsible for leading our internal strategy as well as working across our business to ensure that we continue to optimise DEI in our core outsourcing products and services.

Dan Newton
CEO
Parkour GB
Dan is no newcomer to Parkour UK. Since September 2019, Dan has held the role of Interim CEO whilst on part-time secondment from his 9-year role as Development Director with Rounders England. During this period, Dan has worked closely with the Board of Parkour UK, the wider Parkour community as well as partners and stakeholders, to develop a strategy, built on solid governance foundations, that will enable the NGB to drive growth and sustainability.

Jim Richardson
Director
Megella Limited
Jim is a qualified chartered accountant and an experienced senior HR consultant specialising in delivering people and employee-related workplace solutions across a broad range of business sectors. Prior to consulting, his career included working in senior HR positions within Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, RBS and Santander. At RBS he was responsible for the global hiring of c.25,000 hires per annum alongside diversity & inclusion and at Santander he ran the talent, learning and resourcing function. He has a particular “sweet spot “in reviewing talent acquisition strategies and devising bespoke solutions based on global best practice across all industries.

David Roust
Retired Banker
Previously at Barclays Bank
Former Banker. I retired in mid-2018 after 40 years with Barclays and before that, 4 years in the Civil Service. During my banking career, I had a variety of roles within International, Credit, Shipping Finance, Corporate and Investment Banking. I spent over 20 years as a Relationship Director managing large publicly listed and privately owned clients within several different industry segments. In my final 10 years, I also led the Barclays industry focused approach to the banking requirements of recruitment sector clients of all sizes. Acting as an internal knowledge reference point and advocate for the sector within Barclays, I was the Bank’s face to market for the sector in the industry press and with selected trade and industry bodies. I also managed the Bank’s lending and operational relationships with many of the largest listed and privately owned industry players.

Robert Sharp
CEO
Orca Pay Group Ltd
I have worked within the Umbrella and Payroll Industry for nearly 17 years now. Starting in the industry back in 2004 I have seen the industry evolve and grow from being 5 Umbrella Companies to well over 1000 Umbrella and Payroll entities.
I work closely with businesses helping ensure their supply chains are fully compliant whilst educating businesses on how to implement proper due diligence processes through a forsenic audit approach in turn ensuring complete supply chain security.

Victoria Short
CEO
Randstad UK
Victoria Short joined Randstad in 2000, becoming the Managing Director for the Public Services division in 2017, before taking the helm as UK Group CEO, in January 2021. As part of the world’s largest HR services provider, Victoria delivers on Randstad’s customer centric approach - ensuring organisations benefit from high quality, diverse and agile workforce solutions.
Victoria has a strong track record of leading where people, innovation, customer experience and performance are key success cornerstones. She is a leading authority within the world of work, carefully balancing commercial performance with technology and the power of the human touch. Victoria is an ED&I champion and an advocate for seeing the possible in people - transforming Randstad’s employee experience and ultimately powering growth and success.
Victoria is a regular press commentator, featuring on the BBC and Sky News, covering topics including: workplace culture, mental health, diversity & inclusion, labour shortages and tech & touch.
www.randstad.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-short-1454861b/

Crawford Temple
MD
Professional Passport
Crawford Temple is the CEO and founder of Professional Passport which is the largest independent assessor of provider compliance in the UK. Established in 2007, Professional Passport provides an independent compliance standard for the payment intermediaries market in an attempt to create a more level playing field across the sector and provide a positive differentiation for those providers operating in line with those standards. Today, Professional Passport is widely recognised as the benchmark of provider compliance with many in the supply chain now insisting on using Professional Passport accredited providers.
Independent of any provider, recruiter or client allows an objective view of the market and the Professional Passport compliance review is the only one on the market that is insurance backed by a blue-chip insurance company providing £5m of cover.
As an expert and veteran of the industry, Crawford Temple works closely with many key Government departments on all matters relating to supply chain compliance in an effort to support and promote the sector and drive up compliance standards.

Annukka Tervo
Group Director
Mercuri Urval
Work psychologist (EuroPsy Specialist Certificate in Work & Organisation), certified coach (ICF ACC), one of the business leaders at Mercuri Urval, a global Executive Search and Leadership Advisory company.
linkedin.com/in/annukkatervo

Sue Weekes
Journalist
Curly Pow Media Limited
A journalist for more than 35 years, Sue Weekes has closely followed the recruitment and HR technology sector since the rise of dotcoms and early job boards through to the present day. She has been a regular contributor to Recruiter for 15 years and specialises in writing about the practical application of technology in the recruitment process. She writes the publication’s regular technology news, services and products page.

Colin Woodward
Part time Football Coach
Self Employed
Founded Contract Scotland back in 1990 growing the business to a peak turnover of c£20m with over 40 staff before selling the business through the MBO route in February 2021.