Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?
Before launching Storm4, I started my recruitment career with SThree, one of the largest STEM recruitment companies in the world. I was lucky enough to work across both technology and energy recruitment brands in my 10 years there, giving me a great knowledge foundation for this venture. Whilst with SThree I was also lucky enough to have the opportunity to start a business division from London covering Africa and Europe so regular trips to Paris, Geneva and Nigeria really expanded my appreciation of global recruitment. After that I spent 2 years with Gravitas, a scale up recruitment company focusing on technology recruitment and there my teams covered Engineering, Product and Data. I’ve been managing people for 9 years now and love it, I take diversity and inclusion very seriously not only for my clients, but I practice what I preach within my own business. Having studied Actuarial Science at University I still love using statistics not only to analyze my own performance but also to really help clients get to root causes behind hiring challenges and help them set clearly defined targets to achieve their goals.
What are you most proud of professionally?
There are 3 things that jump out in my mind on hearing this question; firstly, my first ever hire as an “official manager” went on to be the global top trainee recruiter out of over 1000 in his first full year in recruitment, this made me extremely proud but also let me know I was doing the right things by him! Secondly, in the same year I won two “Out of industry” awards, I won The Times 100 Rising Stars and the WISA award for Sales Manager of the year. Winning a non-industry award really meant a lot to me. Thirdly, I was able to play a part in the nationalization of the Energy industry in Nigeria and Angola. This was a government initiative to allow more nationals to hold the higher paying and more senior roles in their country. I led the nationalization plan alongside the governments as a recruitment partner and managed to make a huge impact for independent and international companies operating in the country.
What inspired you to launch Storm4?
A number of factors played a part in this. Firstly, the investment being made into the sector cannot be ignored from a commercial standpoint. At the same time the agenda is becoming important not just to governments, but individuals as they are ready to commit to change in order to make something amazing happen.
The Covid-19 pandemic meant that for the first time in decades the Venice canals were clear and people in India could see the Himalayas. I think people around the world sat up and realised that in such a small amount of time, huge changes and reversals in climate change were able to occur.
In the same year as the Pandemic, David Attenborough released his documentary “a life on our planet” his Witness statement for the natural world. Joe Biden is elected President and immediately sets out his bold plan for a Clean Energy revolution – Green New Deal. With all of this happening in a 9-month period how could I not be inspired to launch a Greentech recruitment company!
What is the vision of Storm4?
Storm4’s vision is to be the most recognized brand and fastest growing GreenTech recruitment specialist globally. We are launching in London covering the European markets in the morning and US in the afternoon and in the not-too-distant future will be open offices in US, Europe and Asia. I also believe in sales through service and this will feature heavily in how we become the number 1 Greentech recruitment company in the world.
Are there any particular areas of GreenTech that excite you the most?
Honestly, every area! The more I research the more exciting I think it is! Future mobility is really cool, and relatable because we are seeing it. Walking around Rome there were electric scooters everywhere, I now own a hybrid car which I just couldn’t have imagined 15 years ago when I started driving. I think for me any product I can relate to excites me. In saying that every single company in this market are doing such game changing things it’s hard to narrow down!
What makes Storm4 different from other Greentech recruiters?
Firstly, we are actually a Greentech recruiter, we will not work with any clients outside of this industry which means our knowledge base will be so much more specialized and in turn we can add much more value to our clients and candidates that are looking to move into the Greentech space, if not already in it. Every person I hire for Storm4 must believe in the mission and be passionate about the important role this industry is playing! Secondly, I am a diversity and inclusion champion and have set Storm4 a target for 50% of placements being diverse talent. Finally, due to a recent funding round we have been able to invest heavily into the best technologies and tools on the market to allow us to do our jobs with absolutely no barriers, we also have an amazing VP People who is looking after our hiring and training.
What can we expect to see from Storm4 in the coming months?
Lots of new faces, we are currently in the process of hiring an exceptional team across Product, Data, Engineering and Commercial! We will also be bringing you the most up to date, relevant, exciting Greentech news and will shortly be launching “The Green Room” This is where you can discuss the latest developments, innovations and news in Greentech LIVE with industry experts.
To get in touch with the team you can submit your enquiries here, or email info@storm4.com.