The Brief
Our client, headquartered in Singapore, is Asia’s leading agribusiness group. Ranked amongst the largest listed companies on the Singapore Exchange, they employ 90,000 people globally and have a substantial presence in Africa.
The range of African currencies in play within the group’s treasury is wide and highly volatile. To manage this risk, the company needed a treasurer for their African operations, based in Johannesburg with accountability to the financial director, Africa and the group treasurer in Singapore.
Challenge and Outcomes
So what was the big challenge? Finding a super treasurer – with sufficient exposure to African markets and currencies, with matrix management leadership experience AND who could meet the South African operation’s BEE requirements. Clearly, a daunting task.
The Jack Hammer research team realized that the source pool of potential candidates would be relatively small, and as expected, it was an intense and vast search. 109 (yes, one hundred and nine) individuals were researched and, of these, 75 were approached by the headhunting team. Jack Hammer presented a shortlist of six to the client and after a relatively long and arduous interview process, an appointment was made.
To be honest, the process took longer than we’d all hoped. Thankfully, patience and teamwork paid off. The candidate has ‘landed’, and within a relatively short time has started adding value to systems and processes, and providing advisory support to the trading team on conditions across the sub-continent.
He’s been glad to find a great deal more autonomy than expected.
And he’s (happily) putting in a lot of extra hours.
