Conducting an Executive Search for Two Senior Leadership Roles in a Peak Body for Catholic Education. Supporting Strategic Governance and Educational Integrity Statewide.
The Brief
Future Leadership™ partnered with a peak body for Catholic education in Victoria to appoint two key senior leadership roles: Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Education Integrity Officer.
As the single state commission for Catholic school education, the organisation is responsible for receiving and distributing funding from state and federal governments, providing strategic leadership, and ensuring proper governance for Catholic schools statewide.
These pivotal roles required experienced leaders to support the organisation’s transition and drive its strategic objectives. The Chief Strategy Officer focused on strategic leadership and policy development, while the Chief Education Integrity Officer ensured educational integrity, compliance, and quality assurance across the system.
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
Future Leadership™ employed a rigorous and targeted recruitment strategy:
- Briefing and Role Definition: Conducted detailed discussions with the Acting Executive Director and the Transition Project Manager to define the roles’ requirements and ideal candidate profiles.
- Search and Advertising Campaign: Leveraged recent experience in the education sector to engage candidates through targeted outreach and a comprehensive print and online advertising campaign.
- Candidate Assessment: Interviewed shortlisted candidates to ensure alignment with the organisation’s values and cultural fit.
This process attracted a strong field of candidates from public, corporate, education, and faith-based sectors.
Emerging Capabilities
Strategy and Purpose
Develops and leads strategy for the function/organisation, taking a broad and long-term perspective. Communicates and gains buy-in to organisational goals and vision, promoting change initiatives.
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.
Governance and Compliance
Establishes, champions, and measures the effectiveness of an organisation’s regulatory and reporting systems. Identifies and evaluates risks and develops strategies to mitigate risk.
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.
Communication and Influence
Communicates with clarity and impact to facilitate individual and collective understanding, inspire action and enable information exchange. Leverages human-centric communication and storytelling to effectively influence stakeholders across the physical and virtual realms.
The Outcome
Future Leadership™ successfully appointed highly capable leaders for both roles:
- Chief Strategy Officer: A senior professional with extensive experience in policy leadership, process implementation, and strategic planning within Catholic education. The appointee brought a wealth of experience advising on new school funding arrangements at both national and state levels.
- Chief Education Integrity Officer: An experienced leader with a legal background and extensive expertise in school quality assurance, international education, and regulatory oversight.
Both appointments reinforced the organisation’s mission to provide strategic governance and educational integrity for Catholic schools across Victoria.
As a recent applicant, I had an exceptional experience with Future Leadership. Each of the Fisher team members that I engaged with demonstrated high EQ and empathised with the emotional journey that I was on as a candidate. They took time to build rapport and ensure there was alignment between my experience and interests and the role on offer.
They were encouraging and supportive, gave practical advice as to how to understand the role and clear instructions. Each person made me feel my application mattered to them and that they wanted to work with me to present myself in the best possible light.
As results came through from each stage of the process, the feedback was very prompt and insightful. Support onsite for my presentation was also thoughtful and attentive. This meant I was able to focus on what I was saying and not be stressed about the technology. These small details made a huge difference to my ability to focus on engaging with the panel.
A special thanks to Liz Jones, for her encouragement and support. I feel like a have made a true friend. Thanks also to Kirsti Hitz-Morton, Larissa Langley and the ever-efficient Katherine Smith.
