FROM MAY 2015'S RECRUITER MAGAZINE

Organisers of what is billed as a “very exclusive” recruitment business leaders’ club say they’re focusing on “growing faster, harder with structure and purpose” nearly a year into its establishment.

The Recruitment Directors Lunch Club (RDCL), nicknamed the Pirates, was founded by industry veterans Gary Goldsmith, former InterQuest group chief operating officer and Computer Futures managing director, and Dean Kelly, chief executive of education support services recruiter Synarbor. 

RDLC operates as a membership peer-to-peer learning group whose 40 members “are prepared to share at least as much as they get. ‘Helping ourselves by helping others’ is a mantra within the group”, Goldsmith told Recruiter editor DeeDee Doke.

Chaired by Goldsmith and Kelly, the six to nine events held annually take place under strict Chatham House Rules. The exclusivity of the membership also is a key feature of its appeal. Because of its growth through recommendation and invitation and a “strict” blackball voting policy, Goldsmith said members tell the organisers “membership… is nearly as hard to acquire as a recruiter ever being allowed to join [private club] Soho House”. Membership costs £200 per month.

The group hopes to recruit more women into its ranks as it pursues such projects as building a ‘Pirates Only’ learning centre to share costs of bringing trainees into member businesses. Organisers say their members represent over 1,000 recruiters.