EXECUTIVE RECRUITMENT
source specialist technology skills as the City’s biggest banks curbed pay and cut jobs.
Our search however was for a pragmatic individual who could challenge the paradigm and find better ways to accomplish the goals of the organisation, less about someone whose transferable skills centered around numbers and technology. We needed to find a culturally sensitive individual too. With over 26,000 employees representing 26 countries, Sands China were after a culturally adept candidate who was highly adaptive to new ideas.
With such as extensive brief it took 12 months to hone the possible candidate list down to three potentials. We were even starting to wonder whether this type of ‘ideal candidate’ actually existed. But compromise was not an option.
By the time we met Olaf Gueldner we had a short
list of two candidates, both had excellent credentials and a wealth of gaming expertise. Gueldner on the other hand was with Sportingbet PLC in London which happened to be his only experience in the gaming industry, and which totalled two years.
What Gueldner lacked in gaming expertise he made up for in overall industry breadth. Prior to Sportingbet he worked his way from Andersen Consulting in Switzerland to Bain & Company in New York, DHL in Brussels and Avis in London. It was
brief it took 12 months to hone the possible candidate list down to three potentials
With such as extensive
actually this wide range of industry expertise that first drew him to us. Years in the business of finding the perfect candidate tends to give you a feel for the right individual. As soon as we got to know Gueldner on paper we wanted to meet him.
curve for us despite our years of expertise
It was a major learning His education had been just as varied and multi-
cultural as his career, starting with University Paris Dauphine, then University of Muenster in Germany and finishing off at Leonard N. Stern School of Business in New York. Of course this means he has languages, English, German and French and passable Spanish, but more importantly he is used to working across cultural divides, he was brought up spanning cultures.
Neal Wyman
Now that Gueldner is in Asia we have had a chance to review the entire search process and assess how the project evolved. It was a major learning curve for us despite our years of expertise, the world of gaming is entering a new era and their recruitment requirements need to keep pace, in fact they need to stay several steps ahead.
If we thought that the banking sector made easy pickings for the gaming sector to sift threw, we were only just starting to scratch the surface. The world economy may have been through some torrid times but as the dust settles new talent opportunities are emerging which industries such as gaming are fast to zoom in on.
James Theodore
JULY/AUGUST 2013 29
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