Smart Solutions Recruitment, the fast-growing recruitment consultancy, has appointed two leading business people to its board to help drive expansion.
Entrepreneur Paul Ragan has been appointed as chairman, and Gary Ridewood as financial director.
Paul Ragan established insurance brokers Motaquote in 1991 aged just 23, and sold it for approximately £20m in 2008. Gary Ridewood was financial director at ProtectaGroup, and was part of the management buy-in led by Ragan in 2004. Ragan and Ridewood now concentrate on investing in up and coming Welsh companies.
Smart Solutions Recruitment (Smart) was set up in 2008 by CEO Nathan Bowles as an alternative to the way many recruitment agencies are run and offers a number of value added services not offered by traditional recruitment agencies. Its management team is made up of former professionals in the waste and recycling industry.
The company has plans to achieve significant growth, and expects to see turnover grow by £8 million in 2010. South Wales-based Smart employs nearly 60 people at 11 sites around the UK, and aims to open a number of on-site locations in 2010.
Ragan said: “Smart is a young dynamic business with an extremely ambitious management team. Over the past two years it has achieved really impressive growth, and it has the ambition to sustain that level of success. I can see Smart being one of Wales’ top fifty businesses, in turnover, growth and profit.”
Bowles said: “I used to work in industry, and felt that the people who came through recruitment agencies often weren’t engaged in their roles, subsequently recruitment agencies just didn’t offer the level of service I would have expected.
“It made me passionate about developing a new way of working, which is the foundation of the way Smart works.”
Ragan will work alongside Smart CEO Nathan Bowles to help take the company through the next stage in its growth. Ridewood’s expertise will be used to shape the structure and financial systems of Smart to assist the company achieve its strategy of organic and acquisitive growth.
Ragan continued: “It’s good to be involved in a business which isn’t based in Cardiff. Wales needs more entrepreneurs and businesses to flourish across the country, and seeing a success story like Smart grow out of Gwent is particularly satisfying for me.”
Bowles continued: “Having Paul and Gary’s expertise has already proved to be invaluable in shaping our strategy for the next five years. Not only do they have experience of implementing strong corporate governance their entrepreneurial flair will assist us in achieving our future goals and ambitions.”