The Brief
Beacon Rail Leasing are a rolling stock leasing company providing locomotives, freight wagons, passenger trains and operates leasing and portfolio management services. They retained our services to recruit an Engineering Director as a key strategic position reporting directly into their CEO. They sought a candidate with a good understanding of commercial and contractual issues related to rolling stock; an interest in managing a highly diverse range of rolling stock assets, and the ability to lead and develop Beacon’s in-house engineering team. Moreover, they required a candidate who would succeed during a period of rapid growth for the business.
The Process
We developed a longlist of senior professionals with a depth of experience in rolling stock engineering. We then discussed this longlist with our client who were already aware of many of the candidates and able to provide early feedback. The talent pools we researched for suitable candidates were:
- Other ROSCOs
- TOCs – within operating companies, group level and within bid teams
- Rolling stock manufacturers and maintainers
- Consultancies with rolling stock expertise
This role garnered a good level of interest as our client had ambitious growth plans. A key factor was to promote the highly entrepreneurial qualities of the business and to appeal to candidates at “Head of” level looking to take their next step up. The client wanted a chartered engineer which narrowed the field as some good candidates in appropriate roles had yet to achieve this status. Nonetheless, all the candidates put forward were either already qualified or set to be within a reasonable timeframe. Another key factor was timescales, as the client was looking to replace an incumbent who had resigned so we moved at pace to provide them with a shortlist within four weeks of starting the search.
The Outcome
We were successful in recruiting a candidate from a direct competitor with 15 years engineering experience in rolling stock across TOCs, manufacturers and ROSCOs. A candidate who had risen rapidly in his career to date, he was an excellent fit with our client and remains in the role.
Why Us?
This is what Beacon Rail’s Chief Operating Officer said:
We worked with Newsom Consulting to recruit a key Senior Director of Engineering position. Our timescales were urgent and they worked at pace to deliver a shortlist of candidates very efficiently. They know their market, understand our business, and delivered the right calibre of candidates quickly.
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