7twenty launch marks expansion for 4c Executive

4c Executive, Northern Ireland’s leading provider of true executive search services, is investing in a further expansion of the business with the launch of an exciting new division. 7twenty Professional Search (7twenty) was officially launched recently at a ‘Building Winning Teams’ event at The MAC in Belfast.

Compèred by the BBC’s Holly Hamilton, speakers at the event included Ulster Rugby’s CEO Jonny Petrie, and Bryn Cunningham, Head of Rugby Operations and Recruitment, alongside 4c Executive’s Managing Director Gordon Carson, and Gareth Hanna, Head of Professional Search for 7twenty.

The latest new division from 4c Executive, 7twenty was established in response to a notable gap in the market for a dedicated service specialising in the recruitment of middle management roles within core business services, such as HR, finance and marketing.

According to Gordon Carson, its launch stems from “significant and increasing demand” from 4c Executive’s diverse portfolio of clients. “Since 2013, 4c Executive has been retained to fill over 300 senior-level, business-critical roles in a wide range of businesses across the private, public and third sectors,” he explained.

“On many occasions, we have been approached by clients asking us to partner with them in searching for candidates to fill their middle management roles, but we have had to politely decline simply because this service didn’t align with our existing business model.  However, growing client demand has led to the development of a new service and that’s how 7twenty has come about.”

Gareth Hanna continued: “7twenty will focus exclusively on finding the best available talent to fill middle management level roles in the core business services through search.

“With only a very small proportion of the labour market proactively seeking a new role at any one time, recruiting employers stand to miss out on the best candidates – most of whom will naturally be succeeding in their current role and therefore not looking elsewhere.

“It stands to reason, then, that depending solely on traditional methods of recruitment that rely on the candidate seeking out an opportunity are fast becoming outdated. 7twenty offers an innovative new solution to this problem by proactively tapping into this ‘inactive’ talent pool to seek out the best candidate for your role, complemented by advertised selection.

“We already have a number of live assignments ongoing and have completed several appointment with clients across Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.”

Jonny Petrie who was himself placed in his role as CEO at Ulster Rugby by a process delivered by 4c Executive in December 2018, said: “We have already started working with 7twenty to fill a middle management role at Ulster Rugby. The launch of this new division for 4c has been very timely for us in helping to ensure that we have the right people in the right place.”