David Leigh has been chosen to succeed John Bateson as chief executive of assessment company SHL Group.

Leigh steps up from the role of chief commercial officer, which he held since joining the company more than a year ago. Bateson is leaving the company after nine years to pursue other business interests.

Leigh said: “I joined last year to assist SHL’s global expansion plans and that is still very much our focus. Our passion is to provide assessment tools to help our customers have the right people in the right place at the right time. In the past year, SHL has delivered more than 2m assessments online. This is as important today, anywhere in the world, as at any other point in the economic cycle and our mission is to ensure we help customers by providing them with the highest quality talent management solutions.”

Leighjoined SHL from Steria, a pan-European IT and business process outsourcing company where he was group BPO director and a member of the executive committee. Other previous roles include the group business development and commercial director at Xansa.

LG Electronics has appointed Peter Stickler, formerly with 27 years’ HR management experience at Ford Motors, as the new chief HR officer (CHO). Stickler will assume the role of CHO and executive vice president for LG from July.

Drake International, recruitment and HR outsource specialist, has appointed Angela Stewart as strategic HR consultant to head up the UK RPO division. Stewart is a qualified lawyer with 12 years’ recruitment industry experience, having worked previously as an international recruitment strategy manager at Ernst and Young Global, Transport for London and at the Olympic Delivery Authority.

Kevin Dougall has been promoted to managing director of AP Human Resource Solutions, the specialist construction and property recruitment firm. His mandate will be to expand the recruitment and selection division, but he will also be focusing on developing the successful executive coaching division. In addition, Gina Henderson has been appointed interim operations director and business performance expert Paul O’Donnell has been appointed non-executive director.

Philip White, a former director and head of legal business with global recruiter the IHR Group, has joined the East Midlands-based search and selection company, Blusource Professional Services, as a director of the company’s legal division, Blusource Legal.

First People Solutions Group has appointed Scott Horne as principal consultant based in its Manchester office. He joins the company’s supply chain and procurement division.

Will Blohm has joined Energy Talent — the technical oil & gas division of language recruitment consultancy ILC — as a senior consultant.

Tunbridge Wells-based multisector recruiter Blue Pelican Group has made two new appointments. Lauren Purvis (above left) has been promoted to consultant and Caroline Goodey (below right) joins the company as senior consultant to set up a new division in
government and defence.

Colleague Software, the recruitment software provider, has appointed David Kingston to its UK sales team with particular responsibility fordriving new business in the white-collar recruitment and executive search sectors. He joins from Trisys Software Solutions.

Damon Thomas (below left) has joined Sue Hill Recruitment as recruitment manager to establish and develop a new area for the business — marketresearch, insight and analysis.

Steven Hyde has joined rec-to-rec firm Atlantic Executive Search as associate director. The firm specialises in the IT and energy sectors.

Barker Ross director Ruth Appleton has been appointed to the board of the Derbyshire Enterprise Agency (DEA). Appleton is operations director of the East Midlandsbased recruitment agency which supplies personnel to a wide range of sectors including construction, industrial, energy, office services, social care, engineering and building services. A subsidiary of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Chamber of Commerce, the DEA supports local business by delivering start-up services on behalf of Business Link, a government-funded advice service for businesses.

Darwin Rhodes, a specialist in professional financial services and insurance recruitment, has announced a new appointment to its Irish management team. Matthew Doyle has been appointed regional manager in the Dublin office.

Amy Lloyde has been chosen to manage the newly-formed commercial division in the Cardiff branch of multi-sector firm gap personnel.

North Wales recruitment specialist Supertemps has appointed Steve Griffiths as branch manager for its Colwyn Bay Branch.

Lee Dempster has joined specialist office support recruiter Crone Corkill as operations director. Dempster will be working on Crone Corkill’s customer delivery plan to further consolidate the recruiter’s position in the market. Dempster was previously a director at recruiters Michael Page and Badenoch & Clark.

The former chief executive of Ipsos MORI in the UK, Mike Everett, is to become global HR director for the Ipsos Group and join the global management board. His remit will include responsibility for recruitment.

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