Completing an executive search to identify an Executive Director Education and Research to support the development of world-class curricula in specialist medical training programs.
The Brief
With around 8,000 Fellows, and offices across Australia and in New Zealand, this organisation is one of the country’s biggest speciality medical colleges. The organisation’s Education and Research unit is the largest teams in the College. It is responsible for all areas of education, including training and assessments including CPD, developing and delivering learning resources. It also looks after new program development, training site accreditation, the specialist international medical graduate process, education evaluation and medical council accreditation.
At a time where more specialists than ever are being trained, and where the realm of teaching, learning and assessments keeps evolving, the College sought to appoint a contemporary educational specialist to become its new Executive Director, Education and Research. Beyond technical capability, there was a requirement for the new Executive Director to have a servant style of leadership, be an exceptional collaborator with strong attention to detail as well as being highly responsive and naturally humble in style.
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
The Future Leadership Executive Search team undertook a search across Australia and New Zealand, supplemented by an online media campaign. Leveraging previously completed searches, this search targeted suitable high calibre candidates with specific and relevant experience gained in education settings, predominantly tertiary bodies and speciality colleges.
In particular, the team assessed candidates for having an impeccable reputation and track record in leadership of complex, stakeholder rich organisations, in addition to technical expertise. The search process yielded a fair response with the panel interviewing four candidates in the first round. Future Leadership hosted the panel interviews at our offices on St Kilda Road, Melbourne.
Emerging Capabilities
Strategy and Purpose
Develops and leads strategy for the function/organisation, taking a broad and long-term perspective. Understands and considers context. Communicates and gains buy-in to the function/organisation goals, direction and vision, promoting change initiatives.
Adaptability and Resilience
Demonstrates positivity, curiosity, and the ability to pivot when confronted with change, pressure, adversity and disruption. Responsive to strategic environmental, social and corporate challenges and opportunities.
Culture and Engagement
Fosters a positive culture, creating a sense of belonging and inclusiveness. Creates an environment that encourages diverse perspectives and facilitates a psychologically safe environment.
Sustainability, Ethics and Integrity
Prioritises the environment in making decisions and leading others. Operates with integrity and aligns self to a high standard of social, cultural and professional standards of conduct. Adheres to moral and ethical principles. Draws on values to inform behaviour.
Stakeholder Relations
Establishes rapport with stakeholders, builds and sustains trusted and collaborative relationships. Identifies and draws on relevant and diverse perspectives and integrates them to support productive interactions.
Critical Thinking
Gathers and examines different data points, testing for assumptions and gaps in logic; reframes problems and presents well-reasoned insights considering diverse perspectives. Analyses, interprets and objectively evaluates information enabling judgements.
The Outcome
At the conclusion of the process, including reference and qualifications checks, the successful appointee was confirmed commenced in October 2024. The appointee brings a significant amount of relevant experience in education development delivery and governance spanning across 20 years within the education across multiple sectors NFP, Associations, Corporate and Higher Education. Additionally they possess a deep and thorough understanding of the postgraduate education, accreditation, training and assessment best practice frameworks. Most recently the appointee had held an executive position with an Australian based medical association, and prior to this with a professional services membership organisation.
