CAROLINE THORLEY-
FARRER GROUP GLOBAL MOBILITY DIRECTOR, WORLEY
INNOVATING SUSTAINABLE
TALENT MANAGEMENT Caroline Thorley-Farrer, group global mobility director at Worley, is at the forefront of innovating inclusive approaches to recruiting, retaining and developing internationally mobile talent. Drawing on her own global experience, Caroline is finding ways to make the benefits of a multinational career available to all.
F
or Caroline, a “mobile life was in the blood from day one”. The child of a Forces family, Caroline moved frequently with her father’s postings. These early formative experiences,
coupled with a burning desire to find an international role straight from university, have seen Caroline take calculated risks, pivot and seek opportunities to develop her own international career with self-initiated moves and employment with some of the world’s largest and most mobile companies, including Eni, BAT and Mott MacDonald. In her current role at engineering company, Worley,
Caroline is firmly on the frontline of aligning global talent with strategic goals. She is innovating progressive and sustainable approaches to overcome significant talent shortages in the sector, including a pilot programme for engineers with refugee status, and positively influencing what is possible in global mobility.
EARLY-CAREER GOALS “I can’t remember the number of primary schools I went to,” says Caroline. “The shortest we lived in any house was 7 weeks before my dad got another posting. As soon I left university, I knew I desperately wanted to work overseas and looked for opportunities to do this immediately.” This early-career wanderlust saw Caroline put herself
forward and be selected as a graduate recruit with Arthur Andersen as one of two people assigned annually to its US expat tax office in Brussels. It was during this time
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that Caroline started to work on how she could realise her ambition of moving into global mobility. “When you work in tax, you are reporting what’s
already happened,” says Caroline, explaining the appeal of global mobility. “In mobility, you get on the front end of it. That was my interest in moving to mobility: to try and get more involved in the front end, foresee the challenges and try to resolve them before they happened.” This realisation continues to shape Caroline’s personal
leadership in the sector, which is creating positive ripples of change and growing more inclusive talent pools.
REVERSING TRADITIONAL ROLES “Being in Brussels was a wonderful experience,” says Caroline. “But I really wanted to be on the mobility side. It was difficult to make that change in Brussels. So, I figured I would come back to the UK and make the change from expat tax to mobility, which is quite a well-trodden path.” After a sabbatical in Vietnam, a client-side role at
Deloitte followed in 2005. These were to provide the springboard for Caroline’s next in-house roles into some of the world’s largest fast-moving consumer goods and energy companies and a self-initiated move to Singapore with her husband and two young children in 2013. “I had a couple of different roles in Singapore,” says
Caroline. “It was quite easy moving when I was 21 to Brussels. I had a suitcase and I got on a train. But all the challenges and life admin that needs to happen to make it work and move my family to the other side of the world
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