Harvey Richmond

Co-Founder | Managing Director, Grow Talent AU

I didn't set out to be a recruiter, I came into this industry sideways through my passion for emerging technology and a multitude of conversations with people building in the tech arena. Then I spent years growing frustrated with watching organisations hire leaders who looked right on paper yet continuously failed to move the needle.

I spent a decade in tech recruitment developing my understanding of the people building and leading technology organisations. Learning to read the difference between someone who understands a system and someone who can redesign it. Discerning a leader who talks about transformation and one who has led teams through it.

The organisations I worked with didn't have a technology problem. They had a leadership problem. They couldn't see the bridge between where they were and where they needed to be, and how the people they were hiring couldn't get them there.

The big search firms can find someone qualified. They can surface a credentialled candidate with an impressive career and a safe answer to every interview question. What they can't do and what their process lacks is pinpointing the person who would actually close the gap.

I take a small number of mandates. Every search has my direct involvement, not a junior researcher working from a brief I wrote. I use my network, my read on people, and my understanding of what technology fluency actually looks like in a leader to find the specific person, not a broad field of candidates.

I'm also genuinely committed to diverse shortlists. Not as a compliance exercise, but because the evidence is clear: The best leadership teams are not homogeneous ones. I won't present a shortlist that contradicts this principle.