Bridget Cooksley

Manager Specialist Recruitment, Department of Corrections

Bridget has a wealth of recruitment experience within both agency and in-house environments in both New Zealand and Australia. She is currently the Manager Specialist Recruitment with the Department of Corrections (in New Zealand) where she looks after a national team of Senior/Recruitment Advisers, focussed on providing high quality recruitment support to the business and profiling the Department externally to excite people about the range of opportunities we have available.

Bridget manages the Department’s relationships with external partners including psychometric testing, advertising and pre-employment screening providers, recruitment agencies and is the main point of contact at Corrections for the All-of-Government recruitment solution. During her career she has worked tirelessly to increase the professionalism of industry, both when leading teams within recruitment agencies and building the in-house team at Corrections. She recognises that the best results are achieved when recruitment agencies work in partnership with their clients, where there is transparency, mutual respect and understanding. She expects to receive professional service from the recruiters the Department engages and is often heard reminding her hiring managers to ‘be a good customer’.

Rebecca Clarke

NZ Manager, RCSA Australia and New Zealand

Rebecca joined the recruitment and staffing industry in 2001 and has been passionate about it ever since. 

In her current role as NZ manager for the RCSA (Recruitment Consulting & Staffing Association of Aotearoa and Australia), Rebecca is a conduit and champion for RCSA member voices across Aotearoa. She works closely with the wider RCSA team of specialists to support and empower their members to lead in the world of work through promoting the recruitment profession, enabling better business, providing networking and celebration opportunities, growing the next generation of recruitment talent, and fostering pathways to professionalism.

Rebecca is founder of the AskARecruiter meetup and #everydaycreative community in NZ, a volunteer at 10x10 Auckland philanthropy and recognised for Outstanding Contribution to the Industry in 2019. She has also previously judged the NZHR Awards and has been on the other side of preparing awards submissions.

In her own words: "There is no better time to be proud of the contribution recruitment, talent acquisition and staffing professionals make – we’re in the industry of jobs and getting people into employment and giving businesses the confidence to grow. What we do as an industry matters, and we should all be louder and prouder of the valuable contribution we make."

Kate James

Head of Organisational Development - Pacific, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners

Kate is Head of Organisational Development for the Pacific at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners – the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottler with over 30,000 employees across 25 countries. In her role she and her team develop initiatives that lead to exceptional employee experiences at each stage of the employee journey and ensure organisational effectiveness across inclusion, diversity, and community-based initiatives throughout the Pacific regions. 

Prior to this, Kate led the Talent function at Air New Zealand where she supported enterprise-wide business and people transformation as a result of the impacts of Covid-19 and redefined the airline’s talent management framework. 

Kate has had the privilege of working with some of New Zealand’s most successful and impactful organisations, such as The Warehouse Group and Auckland Council, to build and deliver bespoke talent frameworks. 

She started her career in search-based recruitment in Australia and the UK many years ago and passionately believes that successful, wholistic talent management begins with the ability to identify and bring together critical talent, business, and purpose. 

Amaria Osman

Senior Manager Recruitment and Talent Acquisition, Stats NZ

Ko Hikurangi te maunga, ko waiapu te awa, ko horouta te waka, ko Kakariki te marae, ko Ngati Porou te iwi.  Nō Te Whanganui a tara ahau, Ko Amaria Osman toku ingoa. 
 
Kia ora! I am a recruitment and talent acquisition specialist with 15 years in the industry. In that time I’ve worked in recruitment agencies, RPOs, as a contracter and in internal recruitment. I’m currently Senior Manager - Recruitment and Talent Acquisition at Tatauranga Aotearoa Stats NZ. 
 
I believe recruitment agencies and service providers play an important part in the employment eco-system. They can add real value by providing different options, market information and an honest candidate viewpoint, which is really insightful and important to understand candidate behaviour. People are an organisation’s biggest asset and in order to excel we must have the right people contributing at all levels to the cause. 
 
I really enjoy my career in recruitment and there is a whakatauki (Maori proverb) that beautifully summarises this: “He aha te mea nui o tenei ao? he tangata, he tangaga, he tangaga” What is the most important thing in this world? It is people, it is people, it is people. For me, there is nothing truer in the world.

Grant Burley

Past Co-Founder and Director

Grant commenced his IT Recruitment career in 1993, a few years on he’s helped establish and build a few of New Zealand’s better-known recruitment brands including Absolute IT. 

Grant keeps himself busy by investing in new ventures, business mentoring and advisory positions. He’s always open to a chat and can be reached via most social media channels. 

Aman Dhaliwal

Talent & Culture Development Manager, AA New Zealand

Aman is the Talent & Culture Development Manager at AA New Zealand, where he oversees nation-wide Talent Acquisition, Retention, Culture Development, and Immigration support services.

Since joining the recruitment industry in 2006, Aman and has worked for several successful NZ brands, including Fisher & Paykel Appliances and Fonterra. 

Aman's key driver is to ensure recruiters continuously deliver an exceptional candidate/employee experience. He loves seeing people grow in their careers and believes the recruitment industry has a unique role to play in enabling people to feel empowered at work. 

Judd Fowler

National Talent & Workforce Planning Manager, Fulton Hogan (AU)

Judd is a strategic recruitment leader with over 15 years' experience across a broad range of construction-based industries. He has worked within both agency and in-house environments. 
 
Judd has held various management roles within which he has led resourcing strategies, international recruitment campaigns and has managed workforce planning across the operations in his remit.    
 
Judd enjoys working in recruitment as there are few other professions that allow the chance to interact with as broad a range of people. This unique opportunity allows you to see the diversity of thought in the talent market which can help to drive both business and individual success.

Pauline Marshall

Talent Acquisition Manager, KiwiRail

Pauline is the Talent Acquisition Manager for KiwiRail, leading a sizeable internal recruitment function delivering talent to the business to achieve the business strategic objectives and meet growth targets, and is part of the HR Leadership team. 

With over 20 years’ experience in recruitment and working within internal functions in high profile organisations such as Downer, Air New Zealand and Telecom (now Spark), and in a previous life several years within agency, Pauline has a wealth of experience as an HR Leader, leading recruitment teams to develop strategies that attract and engage a wide talent audience. 

Pauline is delighted to be a part of the judging panel for the SARA awards again and is looking forward to seeing the best of the recruitment industry.