Personal Assistant

• Highly professional but “family feel” environment
• Sydney CBD Location

Watermark Search International has an outstanding opportunity for an experienced Personal Assistant to one of our Senior Partners.

In this fast-paced role, we’re seeking a candidate who can work closely alongside the Partner whilst being an integral part of the overall team. We are very much looking for a candidate who can both handle a volume of day-to-day office/report typing work as well as being forward-thinking and assisting with project related duties.

Days will be varied and consist of the following:

• Producing candidate reports and client proposals
• Screening of incoming telephone calls
• Client liaison
• Diary management
• Travel coordination, often to tight deadlines
• Working as part of the close-knit PA team and helping out with overflow
• Assisting with invoicing
• Occasional function management 

To be successful in this position you must have considerable experience as a PA within a corporate environment supporting at senior level and have outstanding organisational skills.

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a successful organisation and be part of a growing, enthusiastic team.

Please contact Caroline McAuliffe at Watermark Search International on cmcauliffe@watemarksearch.com.au

Watermark Search has expanded its Interim Practice with Greg Hayes joining the team as Associate Partner.

Greg’s recruiting experience began in London working for a leading public sector recruiter. He managed teams recruiting policy and project professionals to the UK government and not for profit sectors. Moving to one of the UKs leading Executive Search firms, Greg specialised in providing executive level interim managers to the public and private sectors.

Now at Watermark, Greg will be working with established career interims as well as executives considering interim as an option for the next stage of their career. He focuses upon ‘C level’ and senior executives across a variety of functionalities including CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, HR and change and project management.

Watermark is constantly looking to develop our network of senior executives available for interim management assignments. If you are interested, please email: interim@watermarksearch.com.au

Five (quick) thoughts on leadership in (highly) volatile times… Nick Waterworth, Managing Partner of Watermark Search has some musings on being a CEO in the most volatile business environment in 20 years.

I’m not setting out here not necessarily provide 5 halleluiah moments – but possibly some ‘revision’ based on success stories I’ve picked up from our client portfolio.     

1.       Make haste slowly: think about your own personal investments – how many things that you’ve gone in to quickly have turned out great? Just because it’s volatile, doesn’t mean your decision-making has to be!… BUT…

 2.       Put the right person, in the right job, right now: back your gut feel with people. Delaying these moves rarely turns out as the right thing. Back your stars, give them more. Let the underperformers disappear in to the sunset. (And I would add: get the mix right – innovators; implementers; youngsters; baby-boomers). 

 3.       Maximise your IP: how well does your business share knowledge? Do ideas and feedback make it up to the executive level? Do you actually listen to what your customers are saying?

 4.       Focus or fail: “highly successful conglomerate multinational…”; not a phrase we hear so much today. It’s more about Apple, or Google, or Target (in the US), or Nike: companies that do a very small number of things best in class.

 5.       Cut costs, not value: customers will still pay for value; enough said.   

“Rare leadership opportunities with Environment Protection Authority; Chair, Board Members, plus Chief Regulator. ”

For further details first click the title link above and then click here.

Watermark Search International managing partner, Nick Waterworth, quoted in The Australian newspaper today, discussing why high-flying expats are returning to Australia.

CALL it market karma: after Australia endured the loss of executive talent for decades, a flock of up-and-coming Australian high-flyers are winging their way home amid the economic strife afflicting Europe and the US.

Few of our corporate migratory swallows are re-nesting here directly because of the woes, especially in the banking sector.

Keep reading the full article here.

Press release: Press release: Press release: Press release: Press release: Press release

8 December 2011

Commitment to Board diversity - Watermark Search International adopts Code of Conduct

Nick Waterworth, Managing Partner, Watermark Search International today announced that his firm had unilaterally adopted a new Board of Directors Code of Conduct.

The Code is focused on board appointments aimed increasing emphasis on board diversity and at delivering real and effective change.

“One of the key elements of the Watermark Code is that on long lists of possible directors in Search engagements, at least 30% of the names presented will be women, and if they are not we will explicitly justify why there is a lower percentage,” said Mr Waterworth.

Watermark is committed to the idea that organisations are more successful if they field a highly effective board.

“The research indicates that diversity is an important contributor to effectiveness,” said Mr Waterworth. “Involvement by search firms in board appointments has risen significantly over the last five years as organisations strive to improve the governance in the process of appointments.”

He noted that this is widely regarded as a positive development and that he believed that the Watermark Board Search Code takes this to the next level.

“The issue of women on boards is top of mind for most boards around Australia – we support this and are committed to adding to the momentum already achieved in increasing the representation of women.”

About Watermark Search: Watermark is the pre-eminent Australian-owned executive search firm.

First established in 1979, the firm conducts searches nationally and internationally from our headquarters in Sydney. Operating across the private and public sectors we specialise in executive search, board appointments and interim management.

www.watermarksearch.com.au

The Watermark Board Search Code of Conduct

Introduction

Watermark Search has unilaterally adopted recommendation 8 of the UK-based Davies Report which proposed that the executive search community should draw up a voluntary code of conduct to address gender diversity on corporate boards and best practice for the related search processes.

The Report proposes challenging targets for improving the representation of women on the boards. Watermark Search is committed to help our clients increase the effectiveness of their boards and we acknowledge the value that diversity can bring.

We strongly endorse the important role that executive search needs to play in supporting chairs and nominations committees as they take steps to increase the proportion of women on their boards, in both the private and public sector.

The Watermark Board Search Code, outlined below, lays out steps that we follow throughout the search process, from accepting a brief through to final induction.

The Watermark Board Search Code of Conduct: Provisions:

• Succession Planning: We support chairs and their nomination committees in developing medium-term succession plans that identify the balance of experience and skills that they will need to recruit for over the next two to three years to maximise board effectiveness. This time frame will allow a broader view to be established by looking at the whole board, not individual hires; this should facilitate increased flexibility in candidate specifications.
• Diversity Goals: When taking a specific brief, we look at overall board composition and, in the context of the board’s agreed goals on gender balance and diversity more broadly, explore with the chair if recruiting women directors is a priority on this occasion.
• Defining Briefs: In defining briefs, we work to ensure that significant weight is given to relevant skills and intrinsic personal qualities and not just proven career experience, in order to extend the pool of candidates beyond those with existing board roles or conventional corporate careers.
• Long lists: When presenting long lists, we strive to ensure that at least 30% of the candidates are women – and, if not, we explicitly justify to the client why there are no other qualified female options by demonstrating the scope and rigour of our research.
• Supporting Candidates: During the selection process, we provide appropriate support to candidates, in particular to first-time candidates, to prepare them for interviews and guide them through the process.
• Emphasising Intrinsics: As clients evaluate candidates, we ensure that we continue to provide appropriate weight to intrinsics, supported by thorough referencing, rather than over-valuing certain kinds of experience.
• Induction: We provide advice to clients on best practice in induction and ‘onboarding’ processes to help new board directors settle quickly into their roles.

PDF version

A sound bite on a burst of activity in Australian executive recruitment: Nick Waterworth, Managing Partner muses some positive indicators amongst the doomsayers. 

Overnight the Dow and the Nasdaq up over 4%.

The Australian all ords is up 2½%.

Capital expenditure jumper a record 12% in quarter 3, the fifth rise in a row. Very positively, it was not driven solely by mining with manufacturing and other sectors also up.

Central banks around the world are trying to work in a unified manner to reassure the financial markets.

And there is life in the executive search market in Australia. Over the last 8 weeks, we have experienced a spike in demand in a variety of areas. The focus on corporate governance and board diversity has led to a considerable range of appointments for chairs and non-executive directors.

State and federal governments have been busy with a number of significant projects and there has been much movement on this front, including a number of executives moving from the private sector in to the public sector.

In the private sector there has been demand in three areas of note:

• ·         hard-nosed CFOs
• ·         manufacturing general managers
• ·         mining services executives in many disciplines

Finally, interim management continues to grow, especially in the areas of HR and major programme management. This is in part fuelled by the desire by baby boomers not to retire but undertake portfolio careers and also by employers seeking alternative potions to the use of traditional management consultants.

So, don’t necessarily believe what’s in the media: clearly there are still many problems in the world, but it certainly isn’t all bad news.

Topic – Board composition, selection and the Australian board scene   

Date – Wednesday 30^th November 2011 

Speaker – Jillian Segal

Currently, Jillian is a Director of the ASX Limited, the National Australia Bank and The Garvan Institute of Medical Research.  She is a Member of the Federal Government’s Remuneration Tribunal.   She is Deputy Chancellor of the University of New South Wales and a Member of the Sydney Advisory Council of the Centre for Social Impact. She is also Chairman of the General Sir John Monash Foundation, a national scholarship organisation.

Previously she has held a range of other corporate and government board positions. From October 1997 to June 2002, Jillian was a Commissioner and later Deputy Chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Prior to this, Jillian was a partner at Allen Allen & Hemsley (now Allens Arthur Robinson).

She is also a member of Chief Executive Women, Co-Chair of the Australian Chapter of WomenCorporateDirectors and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Jillian has a BA LL.B from UNSW and an LL.M from Harvard Law School.

Two speed job market: Nick Waterworth, Managing Partner of Watermark Search muses on the varying employment scene. Read his views, click on the link above then click here.

This week we are highlighting our current search for the next Clean Energy Regulator, CEO/Chair and Members, to see our advert click the title above then here