RCSA welcomes new President Sinead Hourigan
Sinead Hourigan FRCSA was today elected the first female President of RCSA.
Sinead was elected at RCSA’s AGM after Robert van Stokrom stood down from the position after four years as President.
Mrs Hourigan said she was very humbled by the vote of confidence by her peers and has three key goals for the next 12 months, including:
Increase engagement with RCSA’s regional members to ensure they have a stronger voice
Develop strategies to harness and retain promising young talent within the sector
Continue to enhance the profile and professionalism across the industry.
“Regional employment is a major theme here in Queensland and is critical to the ongoing economic success of Australia as a whole,” Mrs Hourigan said. “I’m really keen to engage with the regions more to ensure our members in regional areas are more represented and have a voice.
“As for the next generation within our industry, we have so many wonderful young members coming into the industry who are doing remarkable work and driving new practices with technology and the future world of work.
“I want to ensure that we are engaging and supporting them; it’s fundamental to the ongoing success of the industry that we support the development of talent and listen to their voices as they have so much value to add.
“One of the reasons I joined the RCSA was to support the association in continuing to enhance the professionalism of our sector. I am wholly committed to ensuring that we are viewed as a partner in professional services by our clients and our employees are recognised by both their clients and candidates for the exceptional work they do.
“I am also incredibly proud of the fact that I am the first female president of RCSA,” Mrs Hourigan said. “Although our industry is predominantly female, we have such a strong male representation at a leadership level.
“It’s really important that females in this industry know that they are respected for the work they do and that there are opportunities to progress into to leadership.”
Mrs Hourigan said she also plans to continue to raise the profile of the recruitment sector within the broader business community.
“The recruitment industry is a true barometer of how the rest of the business world is doing. If we’re doing well, the rest of the economy is doing well,” she said. “We are very fortunate to work closely with our clients who trust us as advisors and work with them on building their business, via their team and capabilities. When we find them the right talent we provide them with the tools to build their business and take it to another level.
“For that we should be incredibly proud of our industry.”
RCSA CEO Charles Cameron said Mrs Hourigan was an excellent choice to take on the position of President. “This year we went through a re-branding process where we renewed our commitment to empowering our members to improve the lives of people, communities and the families which are impacted by our work,” Mr Cameron said.
“I think Sinead’s new position is an extension of this in that she brings with her new energy, ideas and enthusiasm for what we do as an industry body.
“Sinead has the experience, energy, passion and talent for helping to steer RCSA on a course of continued success as she has proven during her time as a member of the board. We are privileged to have her as President of the organisation,” he said.
“I also want to take this opportunity to thank Robert for all of his great work over the past four years as President.”
At today’s AGM, Peter Langford and Nina Mapson Bone were both voted in as Vice Presidents and Steve Heather the Finance Director.
Sinead is the Queensland Director for Robert Walters and has been recruiting in the Brisbane market for more than 16 years. Prior to entering the recruitment industry, she worked within the ‘Big 4’ in Sydney, and prior to this, worked in executive positions within the Irish Government.
