Social justice organisation that works to prevent and alleviate poverty across Australia.
The Brief
This social justice organisation sought Future Leadership’s consummate social impact Consultant, Kate Wheeler, to be a trusted partner in the executive search for a new Director of Finance. Joining a newly formed senior leadership team, this organisation sought to appoint a strategic finance leader, a CPA with exceptional commercial acumen, integrity and the leadership intangibles to manage a high performing team in a NFP environment.
Candidate net Promote Score
Future Leadership combines truly personalised relationships with innovative technology solutions to ensure an approachable and efficient process for all our Net Promoter Score across clients, successful candidates and unsuccessful candidates is well above industry standard.
Candidates supported every year
We maintain genuine relationships with past candidates and continue to support them with leadership solutions long term, after they land their role.
Senior Women Appointed since 2002
Over half of the executive search assignments undertaken by our team have resulted in the appointment of outstanding female or LGBTQI+ leaders to high profile roles.
Candidate Retention Rate for 12 months since 2002
Our thorough briefing process and ability to engage passive candidates mean that we go to great lengths to find the right person for the role – long term!
The Process
Critical to the success of this search process was Future Leadership’s strength of networks, currency of project knowledge and talent search expertise. Alongside national advertising on Seek, LinkedIn and the Future Leadership website, the team was able to swiftly identify a strong pool of seasoned and emerging finance executives who were not only ‘top-tier’ talent, but who unequivocally fit our clients brief. Following rigorous and methodical assessment of their skillsets, competencies and attributes, four candidates were presented to our client. They were subsequently subject to interview rounds and thorough reference and probity checks.
Key steps included:
- Briefing and Strategy Development: The Future Leadership team led by Kate Wheeler, engaged with the organisation to understand the role’s strategic priorities.
- Targeted Candidate Search: Future Leaderships team leveraged national advertising, proprietary databases, and referral networks to identify candidates with high-impact experience across the social sector.
- Candidate Assessment: A shortlist of highly qualified candidates was presented to the client with candidates progressing to panel interviews.
- Final Evaluation: Future Leadership undertook full referencing checking and supported our client through final negotiations.
The Outcome
Following panel interviews, which ensured optimal alignment of fit between candidates and the organisation, an appointment was made with the successful incumbent commencing in the role in August 2023. The successful appointee brings over 15 years of operational, commercial, and financial leadership experience from working in IT, Technology and Energy sectors in Europe and in Australia. Most recently they had served as a Finance Director, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Company Director for a company looking after Australia, New Zealand and Pacific entities.
The appointee started their career in Finland and quickly found their passion in building and leading highly performing finance teams, operating across Eastern Europe. In 2016 they moved their young family to Melbourne and continued their executive career. With a deep personal commitment to equity and social justice, they had previously volunteered their time in the sector.
