The co-founder of mining and resources recruitment company Hunter Executive, Ben Oakley, has started a new agency, Gather Recruitment.

Hunter Executive was acquired by GO2 People in 2021, and the brand later became part of IntoWork, which acquired some of the GO2 People assets

Oakley has been recruiting in the resources and environment sectors for nearly two decades and is well connected in the WA mining industry.

He says the name "Gather", as well as being a play on words from the name of his former business, is an apt description of what good recruiters do.

"To gather is to bring people together and to collect from a variety of sources... We talk as though it's really difficult to find people in recruitment, but it really isn't.

"Any good recruiter can find hundreds of people for any role on their database or LinkedIn within 24 hours, but the hard part is bringing them together and contacting them, and selling the role and the company, giving them a reason to move from one company to another... That's what Gather is all about."

Gather will focus on executive search in the mining and resources, and engineering sectors, as well as environment and water recruitment, and while the business is in its early days, Oakley has been making placements and re-establishing relationships in the busy market.

Environmental specialists for the resources sector will also be a key focus for the business, says Oakley.

"There has been really high demand for environmental scientists, engineers, hydrogeologists, hydrologists, botanists, zoologists, among others, and there's just not enough people to do the work."

Thanks to Shortlist Magazine - https://www.shortlist.net.au/