House of Commons

Client Profile

The client is the House of Commons, who we supported to appoint a new External Commissioner (Non-Executive Director). We met with senior officials, including the Director General of the House of Commons, to discuss and agree the criteria for the role and to get a well-rounded picture of what ‘good looks like’. From these conversations we agreed to target a broad range of existing non-executive directors as well as those for whom this would be their first board appointment.

Client Requirement

We targeted those who could readily demonstrate significant experience of senior executive leadership within a highly complex organisation either in the public or private sector, prioritising individuals who could attest to their expertise in driving transformation and organisation change. During the duration of the search, we approached over 150 individuals, across a number of markets/industries including, Financial Services, Professional Services, Retail, Pharmaceuticals, Telecommunications, Transport, Utilities, Regulation, Government, and broader Public Sector.

Our Approach & Methodology

Through our proactive approaches, we were able to deliver 10 search candidates, all had diverse backgrounds and ranged from being seasoned non-executives to those in the early stages of building their portfolio. Following our preliminary interviews, the field was narrowed to a shortlist of four candidates, all of whom were female, and one of whom was ethno-culturally diverse. Half of the shortlist were highly experienced NEDs who had blended portfolios of both private and public sector board appointments and half were ‘new’ NEDs with impressive track records of executive leadership in Financial Services, Retail, Telecommunications and Travel.

Outcome

Having interviewed the four candidates, the panel put forth their favoured / recommended candidate to a secondary panel, Chaired by the Speaker of the House. The panel agreed with their first panel’s recommendation and her appointment was ratified shortly after. Their chosen candidate had a diverse range of non-executive appointments across both public and private sectors. Prior to going ‘plural’ she had held board-level HR and transformation roles with BMI Healthcare, Interserve, AVIVA, and Sotheby’s.