ABOUT US
We’re driven by one goal: our members’ success.
That’s why we’ve united top-performing recruitment entrepreneurs, advisors, and business leaders—collaborating to elevate performance, streamline operations, and accelerate profitability.
This isn’t just networking. It’s real impact, measured in results.
MEET THE TEAM
- Board Members
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James Osborne
CO FOUNDERJames is an award-winning business consultant, advisor and entrepreneur, with an international board level background in the staffing and recruitment sector, ultimately as GM within one of the largest HR and Recruitment service providers in Australia. As Chairman of The Recruitment Network, James works with recruitment business leaders, helping them to achieve significant growth, performance improvement and competitive advantages acting as a Non-Executive Director, consultant, trainer and strategist for numerous fast-growth recruitment businesses.
James Osborne
CO FOUNDER
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Gordon Stoddart
CO FOUNDERGordon is a business coach, NED and consultant who has helped 100’s of recruitment businesses to achieve profitable growth and is in demand for his expertise in strategy, leadership, customer experience and building robust and scalable organisations. Gordon’s experience of profitably scaling his family business to become the largest privately owned foodservice in the UK before a successful trade sale plus years of advising award winning businesses in recruitment, hospitality, financial services, healthcare and many other sectors gives Gordon some unique insights into achieving business success.
Gordon Stoddart
CO FOUNDER
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Mike Gawthorne
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORMike Gawthorne led ARM/Serocor from its early inception as a single brand (ARM) employing 4 people to being VC backed multi-branded group (Serocor) and through to a successful MBO in 2020 by the leadership team that he led. On leaving the business, the Serocor Group peaked at a turnover of £120m employing over 200 staff, with offices in the UK, Germany and the US, and an outsourced team of 35 in India. The Group provide Talent Solutions, Perm and Contract recruitment, L&D, MSP, RPO and Project Services.
Mike Gawthorne
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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Gary King
BOARD MEMBERGary is the Commercial Director of The Global Recruiter, the world’s largest recruitment specific magazine, focusing on editorial for those involved in supplying staffing solutions both globally and within their regions. The Global recruiter is distributed to UK and Ireland, Northern Europe, Asia Pacific, Australia, Middle East, North and South America and China and was the first publisher in the staffing industry to deliver a multimedia platform across all mobile devices as an app.
Gary King
BOARD MEMBER
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Graham Palfery-Smith
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORGraham Palfery-Smith has been involved in the recruitment industry for over 35 years. He is an accomplished and highly experienced strategic senior manager who has run a wide range of specialist recruitment businesses internationally, including HW Group, Robert Walters, Faro and FiveTen Group. A highly effective communicator and a team creator, Graham brings an energetic, enthusiastic and passionate approach, international contacts and an excellent market intelligence network.
Graham Palfery-Smith
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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Tony Goodwin
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORRTony Goodwin is the Group CEO & Chairman of Antal International, a global management and executive recruitment company and one of the fastest growing business service organisations in emerging markets such as China, Eastern Europe and India. Antal now has more than 120 offices in over 30 countries around the world and celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2013. Tony has won numerous awards including Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 at the London Loves Excellence Awards and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2011.
Tony Goodwin
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORR
- Advisors
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Toni Cocozza-Bray
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORToni is an inspiring and widely respected recruitment leader. She has been recognised with multiple business and recruitment awards including E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year and Outstanding Contribution to the Recruitment Industry. Founder of IT and managed service specialist DP Connect, Toni ran the company for 27 years until a recent MBO in 2017. A role model for women in business, Toni has instigated campaigns to attract and retain women in IT and to promote IT careers to schools and universities.
Toni Cocozza-Bray
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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Mike Gawthorne
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORMike Gawthorne led ARM/Serocor from its early inception as a single brand (ARM) employing 4 people to being VC backed multi-branded group (Serocor) and through to a successful MBO in 2020 by the leadership team that he led. On leaving the business, the Serocor Group peaked at a turnover of £120m employing over 200 staff, with offices in the UK, Germany and the US, and an outsourced team of 35 in India. The Group provide Talent Solutions, Perm and Contract recruitment, L&D, MSP, RPO and Project Services.
Mike Gawthorne
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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samantha maxwell-reed
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORSamantha Maxwell-Reed is joining the TRN team of strategic business advisors to support, coach, advise and mentor TRN members. As a successful recruitment entrepreneur who founded, grew (and recently exited in 2021 via an MBO) the multi-award-winning Expand Executive Search, Sam is a brilliant addition to the team.
samantha maxwell-reed
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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Jonathan Palling
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORJonathan is an Investor, NED and Strategic Advisor to the recruitment industry with 25 years of international experience in both PLC and Start Up/Scale Up environments operating in specialist STEM markets including Tech, Engineering, Life sciences, Financial Services and Built Environment. He spent 17 years working for SThree PLC (pre & post IPO) in a variety of senior EMEA board-level leadership roles scaling its operations internationally across Benelux, France and most notably the DACH region where he oversaw as a Country/Managing Director.
Jonathan Palling
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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JONATHAN WRIGHT
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORJonathan is a Chairman and non-executive director to a portfolio of growth businesses in the Recruitment & Human Capital industry as well as a speaker on growth management. Drawing on 30 years of experience in the sector clients engage Jonathan to help them drive growth and to achieve an exit event or to raise development capital; he now has over 30 successful transactions under his belt. His transactions have realised over £350m for shareholders.
JONATHAN WRIGHT
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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dawn hampton
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORDawn is an experienced contingent recruitment director, with significant experience building contract business who offers business consultancy, personal development, leadership training and coaching & mentoring. Dawn's 'do better, be better' philosophy in all her work helps businesses of all sizes to accomplish their goals and instil invaluable leadership skills in managers. As a strategic advisor, Dawn will be conducting TRN Club member business reviews, coaching and advising members, sharing insights, best practice and her experience and expertise. After a hugely successful career at companies such as S3 and Phaidon International, Dawns experience of building teams, delivering growth, contract recruitment and leadership coaching will add massive value to the decision making, strategic thinking and strategy implementation of TRN members.
dawn hampton
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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MARC COHEN
EXECUTIVE VP OF NORTH AMERICAMarc Cohen is an industry leader with over 20 years experience in managing, building and exiting recruitment businesses. Most recently sold ConSol Partners, an award winning technology staffing company he co-founded and led to over $180m in sales with placements in over 40 countries. Having formerly resided in and led operations in the UK, Europe, Australia and USA, Marc develops a global approach to ideas from his base in Los Angeles, California with a focus on advanced recruiting solutions. Marc brings energy and true market knowledge with a passion for learning, strategy, innovation and ability to look at the details behind a business.
MARC COHEN
EXECUTIVE VP OF NORTH AMERICA
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ashley rice
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORAshley spent 10 years at Hays building and developing high-performing teams as a Manager and Director. He left Hays in 2012 to become the MD at JCW a niche risk and governance recruiter where he spent 5 years. The last 5 years have been spent building capability in leadership teams at growth recruitment and tech businesses. He is currently working with CEOS/owners and managers of 11 recruitment businesses ranging in size from 15 - 250 heads.
ashley rice
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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Keith Lewis
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORKeith has over 30 years of experience in the recruitment industry, the bulk of which was with Gattaca PLC growing their 6 brands across the engineering, technology, professional staffing and training markets, within the UK and internationally. Key positions were MD of the Matchtech brand, and COO of the Group, driving years of organic growth in the UK before four subsequent acquisitions which strengthened the UK position and established footprints in overseas markets. Since 2019 he has acted in an advisory capacity to a handful of recruitment companies, as well as one of the UK’s leading compliance and services platforms for freelancers and their hirers. His experience focuses on scalable, sustainable and profitable growth by working with managers, leaders and owners via defined plans and strategies.
Keith Lewis
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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Jon Coldridge
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORJon Coldridge founded several recruitment businesses focussing on IT, Digital and Change. The next phase of his career is setting up Perpetual Equity. They exist to help owners of small and medium-sized companies exit their businesses to pursue new projects or retire.
Jon Coldridge
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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Charlie Sell
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORCharlie Sell is the Group MD of Majar Group, a global technology and talent transformation consultancy, and Board Director across their portfolio of brands. With almost 20 years in the industry, Charlie has a wealth of experience in growing startups to £100m+ revenues, international expansion, MBOs and M&A. As an original member of Arrows Group, he led the international plan and helped grow the group to a peak turnover of £127m with offices across three continents. Charlie is a STEM Ambassador and Industry thought leader via his FutureTech podcast and published articles.
Charlie Sell
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
- Consultants
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Mike Gawthorne
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISORMike Gawthorne led ARM/Serocor from its early inception as a single brand (ARM) employing 4 people to being VC backed multi-branded group (Serocor) and through to a successful MBO in 2020 by the leadership team that he led. On leaving the business, the Serocor Group peaked at a turnover of £120m employing over 200 staff, with offices in the UK, Germany and the US, and an outsourced team of 35 in India. The Group provide Talent Solutions, Perm and Contract recruitment, L&D, MSP, RPO and Project Services.
Mike Gawthorne
TRN STRATEGIC ADVISOR
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Caroline Lansbury
LEADERSHIP COACHING AND CULTURE EXPERTCaroline is a highly experienced Leadership, Coaching and Culture Change professional who works with organisations seeking to answer big questions! With experience in operating in many industries and having previously worked in-house as a CPO, Caroline’s approach is always with ‘the system’ and organisational goals in mind. Caroline has experience of leading large teams directly, so she understands the challenges and nuances of supporting people through complexity and ongoing change. Her style focuses on creating psychologically safe learning environments, in which people can share experiences, discuss challenges, stimulate new ideas and problem solve together. Caroline brings an extensive network of learning specialists, including numerous Coaches who can build a complete faculty if needed. She works with leaders at all levels, from C-suite to emerging leaders.
Caroline Lansbury
LEADERSHIP COACHING AND CULTURE EXPERT
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Paul Glynn
FINANCE EXPERTPaul is the Owner & Director of 3 businesses: Aristar Consulting provides accounting & finance support to recruitment companies that have no internal finance function. Aspiring FDs helps accelerate the route to being an effective recruitment FD for people running a finance team in an SME recruitment business. Recruitment FDs is the network for heads of finance in recruitment & staffing; providing members with regular events, a partner directory and the most relevant quarterly bench-marking report in the industry.
Paul Glynn
FINANCE EXPERT
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Lucy Tarrant
COMMERCIAL LAWYERLucy is the Managing Director of Cognitive Law Limited, and a practising solicitor. She has over 24 years of financial and contractual dispute resolution, 20 of those years as a qualified Solicitor. As well as running the business on a day to day basis, Lucy specialises in providing commercial legal services to the recruitment sector. She assists recruitment companies in maximising their business potential and their position in the market place.
Lucy Tarrant
COMMERCIAL LAWYER
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Jamie Burrows
Gold Partner - RECRUITMENT TRAINER
Jamie Burrows
Gold Partner - RECRUITMENT TRAINER
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Rob Smith
RECRUITMENT TRAINER
Rob Smith
RECRUITMENT TRAINER
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James Gage
RECRUITMENT TRAINER
James Gage
RECRUITMENT TRAINER
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Elev8 Learning
RECRUITMENT TRAINER
Elev8 Learning
RECRUITMENT TRAINER
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Rhonda D'Ambrosio
WELLBEING AND MENTAL HEALTHRhonda is the founder of Mida Consultancy, creator of Titanic Thinking and accredited performance coach. Rhonda is the Mindset and Mental Health (MMH) recruitment industry champion, renowned for her work helping owners, leaders and managers embrace and develop an authentic approach to mindset within their organisations. She has co-developed the TRN Recruiter Resilience programme to support and celebrate mental, emotional and physical wellbeing in the recruitment sector.
Rhonda D'Ambrosio
WELLBEING AND MENTAL HEALTH
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Mike Whatman
LEADERSHIP COACH
Mike Whatman
LEADERSHIP COACH
Support, Advice, Expertise
The one thing that binds us all together is our enthusiasm and dedication to providing an outstanding experience for our members and to make a positive difference to the recruitment sector.
As well as the TRN Team, TRN Board and our Partners, we have within The Recruitment Network a huge family of strategic advisors, experts, trainers, coaches and consultants who are here to help our members achieve their ambitions.
All this, for one monthly investment.
