The Clark Partnership Assists OakNorth in Talent Acquisition Director Search
August 7, 2020 – Executive recruiters are in hot pursuit of talent acquisition leaders across the nation. Why such pent-up demand for top-flight experts? Corporate leaders want talent acquisition leaders who are sophisticated, proactive and strategic-minded, with strong business savvy to drive their people capabilities like they would a P&L, according to executive recruiters. CEOs, in particular, want their talent acquisition leaders to proactively recommend a host of forward-thinking initiatives that will provide a competitive advantage.
Recently, Monaco-based global executive search firm The Clark Partnership placed Ciaran O’Regan as senior director of talent acquisition at OakNorth. CEO Simon Clark led the assignment. Mr. O’Regan will report to OakNorth CEO Sunil Chandra. OakNorth is Europe’s first profitable and fastest growing fintech unicorn, backed by investors such as SoftBank Vision Fund.
The search took seven months from inception to joining. Mr. Clark said that when the search began he was looking for “someone who had built and ran successfully a global talent acquisition function focused on engineering recruitment and someone who can operate at pace and scale.”
Mr. O’Regan, a global talent leader with experience leading global talent strategy in technology driven organizations, fit the bill. Prior to joining OakNorth, he built and ran the global talent acquisition function for group engineering and product functions at WorldPay. Prior to that, Mr. O’Regan headed the technology recruitment division for ITV Plc, after a career of over eight years with agencies.
“Ciaran is a hands-on recruiter with deep subject matter expertise in engineering recruitment both inhouse and at external firms,” said Mr. Clark. “He is humble, driven and leads from the front.”
OakNorth is the next-generation credit platform that’s redefining business borrowing for the “Missing Middle” — the growth businesses that are the backbones of communities and economies globally but that have been in banking’s blindspot for decades. The platform leverages machine learning, decades of credit expertise and massive data sets (including unconventional and previously unavailable data) to model a forward-looking view of a borrower’s financial situation that’s informed by industry benchmarks, macroeconomic drivers and scenario analysis specific to that business.
Premier Search Firm
The Clark Partnership is a specialist retained search firm. Since its launch in 2009, the firm has led and completed searches for experienced leadership that transforms cultures, inspires teams and drives growth. The firm serves public and private tech companies, major growth equity investment funds and their portfolio companies.
Mr. Clark has been identifying and hiring leaders for over 25 years, strengthening client leadership teams and perfecting the individual candidate experience. Mr. Clark has placed a number of leading senior executives, from chairmen and non executive directors to CEOs and their direct reports, from innovative early stage, venture backed start-ups to Fortune 100 global tech giants, and high-profile private equity funds and their portfolio companies.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
