Liam Ovenden

Hi, you've made it to my bio. I'll try to pad it out a bit to make it worth your trouble.

My early professional experience was in the Financial Futures market, following a university degree in international finance.

My career in recruitment and HR began some years later with an international consultancy. I spent 3 years helping to grow the local operations of this firm, from a headcount of 5 to 130.

More importantly, I became intimate with the professional needs of an influential cadre of CFO's and Operations Managers throughout the Investment Banking and Funds Management community in Asia.

Experiencing the staffing and performance challenges within large companies at first hand, as well as the internal workings of global corporate structures was incredibly stimulating. As fascinating was understanding the demands of managing both upwards and downwards for executives . I was hooked, and still am.

In January 2000 I founded a consultancy with my two closest professional colleagues, and called it GOW. A specialist banking and finance recruitment consultancy, in five years it grew to 60 professionals across Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore. I decided to sell to my partners ( who continue to grow it) at the end of 2005, as I had started an entirely new HR consulting and outsourcing business and wanted to throw 100% of my energy into it.

That company is RPO Group, and we create and operate professional recruitment teams INSIDE large companies on their behalf.

I personally also consult and do speaking engagements for CEOs and HR Directors on how to get more from their workforces, and how to use recruitment and retention to drive business performance and growth.

Outside of that, I live near the beach with my wife and 3 children. I am tragically addicted to being involved in their lives, which has involved taking crash courses in gymnastics, dancing, and basketball to go along with the more familiar ground of swimming, surf lifesaving and rugby.

I am happy to talk about any challenges you may have in business, particularly around staffing, as well as hearing good news stories about your successes.

I get back to everyone who emails me, and of course you can comment on the blog.

To check out my company, visit: www.rpogroup.com.au