Case Studies

AVESCO

	Harvey Nash is always quick on the case, grasps what you need and comes up with a very strong shortlist quickly.
	John Christmas, Group Finance Director, Avesco plc

AMERICAN DREAM

Over the past 18 months John Christmas, finance director of international media services group Avesco, has used Harvey Nash to find three senior finance people. He first got to know Harvey Nash and one of its directors Justin Hobday in his former role as group finance director of Boosey & Hawkes, and when Avesco needed a new financial controller in the UK, Hobday was his first port of call.

“Justin and his team did such a great job that they secured Harvey Nash’s position as our preferred supplier for this level of financial recruitment around the group,” says Christmas.

International media services group Avesco needed to appoint a commercially-minded CFO to its American business

Harvey Nash found four strong candidates, despite a tendency among some US accountants to be less commercially focused than was required

Avesco appointed a British accountant who had been living in the US, and she is now helping the chief executive drive the newly-turned-round business forward

Christmas then turned to the consultancy to find a CFO for Avesco’s US business, which represents 40% of the group’s turnover. He explains: “We had seconded a UK financial controller to the US for two years to help the chief executive turn the company round. Once they had done that and he decided he wanted to come back to Europe, we needed to find a permanent replacement. I didn’t know how strong Harvey Nash’s international network was, but Justin put me in touch with Alistair Robinson, the managing director of the US business - who also happened to be British. Meeting him when he came over to England clinched the firm’s appointment for the US assignment.”

Robinson then met the US chief executive of Avesco, conducted a search and delivered a shortlist of four candidates, one of whom, a British woman who had been living in the US, Avesco appointed at the end of last year. The search was challenging, says Christmas, in that some US accountants can be less commercial than their UK counterparts. “We needed someone who would help grow the business, improve margins and so forth, not someone who just focused on reporting. Another search firm might have found that requirement more difficult to understand.”

Christmas concludes: “Harvey Nash is always quick on the case, grasps what you need and comes up with a very strong shortlist quickly.”