Published on the 16/03/2016 | Written by Newsdesk

Halcyon Knights touts itself as Australia’s highest performing IT recruitment firm with a network that is “second to none”, and values of “sincerity, hard work, honesty and respect for other people”, according to its website. It has offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra, and as of this week, Auckland – its first expansion into an overseas market – as it cashes in on what it sees as a booming tech economy in A/NZ.

Lincoln Benbow, Halcyon Knights’ co-founding director said the company Halcyon Knights is uniquely positioned to leverage trans-Tasman talent pools to deliver on local companies’ IT hiring requirements. “The strength of our IT network in the Asia Pacific region enables us to readily access high calibre, international tech talent and is further supported by our strong social media footprint, which drives our reach on a global scale”.

Auckland-born Brooke Campbell-Town has returned to her home city to run the Halcyon Knights New Zealand branch. Prior to this appointment she spent more than seven years in Singapore where she was responsible for the recruitment of mid to senior level IT professionals across Asia Pacific.

Halcyon Knights described Campbell-Town as a prime example of the New Zealand talent drain that occurs when local talent seeks more alluring work opportunities abroad, and which it says is particularly prolific in the technology sector.

Co-founding director Marcus Lynch said; “Brooke is the perfect advocate for promoting candidate attraction to New Zealand, where both a fulfilling career and work-life balance is attainable.” (Although he did refer to the Tasman as “the great divide” which gives us an insight into how Australians still perceive New Zealand, and interestingly at present prospective job hunters can only register their interests for roles in New Zealand on the website, with no roles appearing to be listed at time of writing.)

According to Lynch, Campbell-Town has a style of “quality over quantity” and was hired for her knowledge of best practice in hiring executives, senior sales, presales and delivery/consulting personnel for leading technology vendors and service providers.

Campbell-Town says that she is aware of the challenges companies face in hiring and retaining top talent as is often the case in New Zealand, thanks to her experience working within large multi-national companies as well as start-ups in the B2B/B2C environment. “Being able to consult businesses through periods of growth or change is something I’m really passionate about”.

Her LinkedIn profile also says she has experience working with companies facing cultural or diversity challenges. She began her career in BI sales before becoming a recruitment specialist.