Meet the face2face Team
Kate Prior
Managing Director
Founder
Over 30 years ago, Kate entered recruitment, quickly rising to a senior consultant. She opened face2face in 2005 and continues to take the business from strength to strength.
Kate Prior (Managing Director)
Kate began to work in recruitment industry over 3 decades ago, quickly rising to become a senior consultant, working for large international firms. Highly motivated and a lateral thinker, Kate could see the recruitment industry slowly but surely becoming de-humanised and impersonal. The change drove Kate to open her own recruitment business in 2005. Even the name of the business – face2face Recruitment – reflects Kate’s overriding business philosophy.
face2face grew quickly and now has more than 80,000 candidates on its nation-wide database, with 1,500 new registrants each month. The agency works for over 100 government departments and has worked over 20,000 positions.
Throughout her career, Kate has personally placed more than 3,500 candidates in the right job. She has worked for hundreds of Australian Government, public sector, private sector and not-for-profit organisations. Kate has built a long list of loyal, satisfied employers, many of whom provide face2face with repeat business.
Kate’s knowledge of ICT and business support recruitment is extensive. She has over 30 years in the industry, including as a Director of an ICT professional services company. Kate has personally placed 2,000 candidates.
face2face has gone from strength-to-strength with Kate’s drive, innovation, skills and knowledge. The agency has won a prestigious National Recruitment Services Awards at the Australian Small Business Champion Awards and has placed finalist at the Telstra Small Business Awards, Medium and Making Wave Category, ACT.
So what does Kate love most about recruitment?
‘Identifying a candidate’s attributes, regardless of what they’ve included in their resume, and placing them in a rewarding position,’ says Kate.
Charlene Gardiner
Finance and Operations Manager
Operations
Charlene, with a strong background in finance, professional services and recruitment, ensures face2face’s operations and processes run smoothly, efficiently, effectively and accurately.
Charlene Gardiner (Finance and Operations Manager)
Charlene (Charlie) has a strong and diverse background in finance, operations, professional services and recruitment.
As Finance and Operations Manager, she leads the way in creating systems, processes and procedures that ensure face2face runs seamlessly and efficiently.
In finance and operations, Charlie leverages her excellent attention to detail, well-developed time management skills and strengths in crunching numbers and figures.
Preparing accurate, timely and detailed forecasts, financial statements and business activity reports is essential. Also essential is analysing and reconciling cash flow, enabling face2face to move from strength-to-strength in a fast-paced, continually changing market, and with confidence.
Importantly, Charlie meets the myriad of legal requirements inherent in the multi-faceted recruitment industry. She provides proactive, evidence-based, strategic advice to the Managing Director. This includes recommendations from her research on new state-of-the-art, with innovation key.
Overall, Charlie does whatever it takes to make life better for the team at face2face and the employers and candidates it services.
Charlie is dedicated to getting everything done right the first time, and always on time. That includes paying employees and contractors.
Charlie is known for remaining calm under pressure. She always applies sound judgement and never skips a beat.
What does Charlie celebrate most about her position at face2face?
‘Streamlining processes, developing tools for efficiency and going all out to make it happen,’ says Charlie. ‘I’m motivated to do whatever it takes to streamline operations and make life better for our dynamic team, employers and job seekers.’
Cathy Benson
Office Manager
Operations
With over 20 years in administration, Cathy embraces the high-energy world of recruitment. As a productive team member, she shares a common goal of helping others, always with a smile.
Cathy is backed by more than 30 years of experience in administration and providing second-in-charge services to management. At award-winning face-to-face, Cathy embraces the high-energy world of recruitment.
At face-to-face, Cathy thrives on ensuring operational and administration matters run smoothly in Payroll and Administration. This includes handling a high volume of standard phone inquiries to provide information, redirect calls to Account Managers when needed, and solve problems. In doing so, Cathy streamlines operations and saves time for face-to-face account managers so they can focus on matching candidates to employer needs.
Cathy applies exemplary management skills to ensure backend operations are efficient and effective. She assists with payroll and timesheet management and supports the Finance Manager. She also supports Account Managers with daily recruitment activities, monitoring workflow and screening potential candidates for roles. Cathy also paces job advertisements on face2face’s social media accounts. Her role centres on sorting the small things on behalf of team members.
At face2face, Cathy’s experience is backed by her years as an administrative assistant in large organisations, and her sharp focus on quality customer service.
Teamwork is a hallmark of Cathy’s performance. She is self-motivated, energetic and has exceptional interpersonal strengths. Cathy is also fully collaborative and makes major contributions to a positive workplace culture.
Why is Cathy so passionate about her new career in recruitment?
‘I’m motivated by working in productive, high-performing teams that share a common goal of helping others and caring about how their days are going,’ Cathy says.
‘Building and maintaining strong and productive relationships with employers and candidates over the long-term, for the best understanding of their needs,’ says Carolyn. ‘It’s rewarding to place talent to desired positions, so everyone benefits.’
Dylan Macleod
Senior Account Manager
Business Support
A highly developed, outcome-focused consultant, Dylan specialises in government recruitment. With in-depth understanding of recruitment, he sources the best solutions.
Dylan Macleod (Senior Account Manager)
Specialising in government recruitment, Dylan is a highly developed, outcome-focused consultant. He is passionate about building strong working relationships and partnering with organisations to achieve their business objectives.
At face2face, Dylan leverages his extensive experience as a recruitment consultant and Senior Account Manager to work collaboratively with employers to gain an in-depth understanding of their needs. Key is understanding business needs in detail. Armed with this knowledge, Dylan then gets to work sourcing talent to support organisations to drive their all-important goals.
Before recruitment, Dylan was a General Manager of an ICT training company for 11 years. As the external face of the company, he developed strong relationships and his exemplary people-engagement skills. Dylan, in this role, created and provided solution-based results for the Australian Government and state and territory government departments. He also achieved this for large private sector corporations and small business employers.
Dylan brings to the recruitment world a passion for people, relationships, and personable, excellent service – all essential attributes when finding employers quality staff and candidates valuable roles. He genuinely cares about helping candidates to achieve their career aspirations and is inspired by the opportunity to positively impact their lives.
How is Dylan energised by recruitment?
‘Being able to recognise the differences of every one of us is hugely important.’ says Dylan. ‘So too is understanding diversity, which helps build rapport, better communication and trust.’
Lisa Whitehorn
Account Manager
ICT
Extensive ICT knowledge sees Lisa exceed expectations for both employers and candidates in this specialised recruitment area. She builds strong relationships for quality results.
Lisa Whitehorn (Account Manager)
Lisa is a professional in the information and communication technology sector, with a wealth of experience gained from diverse and extensive experience in diverse roles across both the public and private sectors.
With a combined Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and Science, specialising in Psychology and Social Research Methodology, Lisa brings a unique blend of analytical skills and human understanding strengths to her reputable recruitment services.
Throughout her career, Lisa has held roles in information technology (IT) project management, including at senior project management level. Lisa holds a Prince2 Certification and Diploma in Project Management, supporting her to successfully deliver large, complex IT transformation projects. At face2face Lisa also leverages earned proficiency in service management and quality management.
Lisa, as Account Manager, ICT, is dedicated and committed to fostering strong relationships with employers and candidates to uncover needs, conduct sophisticated searches for quality talent and ultimately delivering top-notch recruitment solutions. Her commitment to recruitment excellence is unwavering.
In the fast-paced world of recruitment, Lisa supports employers and candidates through active listening, clear communications and a pursuit of quality outcomes.
Ultimately, what inspires Lisa about ICT recruitment?
‘Understanding the needs of employers and candidates, establishing strong working relationships and finding the perfect match,’ she says.
Emma Pointon
Account Manager
Business Support
Emma leverages excellent time management, coordination and customer service skills to secure the right skills for the right positions, helping organisations excel with a motivating approach.
Emma Pointon (Account Manager)
With excellent time management and coordination skills, Emma Pointon is a perfect match for her Account Manager role at face2face.
Emma loves working with people and applies her excellent customer service skills to the hectic world of recruitment. She thrives on helping jobseekers find stimulating positions and employers secure the best talent for the role at hand.
Why is Emma so passionate about recruitment?
“It’s a real buzz to secure the right skills for the right position,” says Emma. “This helps organisations be the best they can be.”
Zarn Forner
Account Manager
Business Support
An analytical thinker and problem solver, Zarn adopts a detailed, methodical and creative approach to recruitment when seeking positions for candidates and talent for employers.
Zarn Forner (Account Manager)
Zarn is an analytical thinker and natural problem solver who diligently leads and manages major projects and accounts and high-performing teams – all great skills with recruitment.
At face2face, as Account Manager, Business Support, Zarn applies his go-getter attitude and strong interpersonal skills to nurture relationships and secure new recruitment business. His flair for stakeholder engagement, combined with his methodical approach and attention to detail, leaves no stone unturned as Zarn seeks positions for candidates or talent for employers.
Zarn meticulously executes face2face’s detailed methodology in his senior recruitment role, ensuring end-to-end recruitment and top-shelf customer service. He excels at sourcing and screening talent, building candidate relationships, securing talent, building trust, and successful hiring-manager partnerships.
At home in the fast-paced recruitment environment, Zarn works productively in a high-performing team. He has in-depth recruitment experience with the Australian Government, including with Defence, and in the private sector.
Zarn’s strengths include project delivery. He is thorough, detailed and driven to enhance operational efficiency, comply with strict legislation, policies and regulations. This includes in fast-paced and ever-changing environments where meeting deadlines is essential.
Throughout his career, Zarn has been highly effective in assessing and analysing employer needs, using knowledge gained to develop and deliver the best services possible. He takes a calculating approach to recruitment, ensuring all variables are carefully considered before action is taken.
Why is Zarn so passionate about recruitment?
‘I thrive on taking a personal, yet professional approach to matching talent to business needs,’ says Zarn.
Alina Iran
Senior Consultant/Trainer
Recruitment and Operations
Alina always knew her dream job would be in recruitment and she now has 12+ years’ experience. As Senior Consultant and Trainer, Alina supports recruitment, development and operations.
Alina Iran (Senior Consultant/Trainer)
Alina has a degree in Political Science and Sociology but always knew her dream job would be in recruitment.
With over 12 years of hands-on experience in the recruitment industry, Alina brings to face2face a wealth of knowledge across both private and public sectors. As Senior Consultant and Trainer, Alina plays an important role in supporting staff development, so face2face operates at best practice level. Detailed training is a core competency with Alina applying clear and concise communications.
At face2face, Alina also supports refinements and improvements in operations, so clients, candidates and all face2face team members benefit from smooth and efficient processes and procedures.
Alina also devotes her recruitment expertise to surge requirements at face2face, backing senior recruiter with major high-volume, national accounts. She acts as a float between teams, ensuring that all steps involved in successfully placing a candidate with the best employer are well managed, including for compliance and legislation.
As a Senior Team Member, Alina is face2face’s ‘go-to’ for any issues requiring responsive resolution. Alina leverages her exemplary communication and strong interpersonal skills when dealing with all stakeholders (internal and external).
Alina’s professional career includes Senior Talent Acquisition Consultant for one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms, and Director at ACT Government (Canberra Hospital, Canberra Health Services).
With a passion for the recruitment industry that is second to none, Alina is a motivational, inspirational professional and a productive team player.
What gives Alina a real buzz?
‘Helping candidates find the job that’s best for them and inspiring people to be the best version of themselves,’ says Alina.
Urvish Kahar
Senior Service Delivery
ICT
Urvish specialises in ICT roles, applying a deep understanding of Australia’s complex job market (public and private). A lateral thinker, Urvish works creatively on all recruitment.
Urvish Kahar (Senior Service Delivery ICT)
Urvish’s education includes a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Development and several professional recruitment certificates. An experienced recruiter with more than 6 years in the industry – working nationally and internationally – Urvish now focuses on ICT roles at award-winning face2face.
As Senior Recruitment Support, ICT, Urvish applies his deep understanding of Australia’s complex job market (public and private sectors). A lateral thinker and problem-solver, Urvish works with passion to support candidates to land their dream roles. In doing so, he proactively provides candidates with valuable career guidance and pinpoints diverse opportunities. Urvish excels in building relationships and connecting with candidates at all levels and across all industries. He gets a buzz out of meeting such diverse talent.
Urvish also excels at providing employers with dedicated support, so they fill the roles required for organisational success as efficiently and seamlessly as possible.
Resilient, positive and customer-focused, Urvish is also dedicated to continual professional development. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) and a Master’s Degree in Supply Chain Management and Project Management.
Before focusing solely on the dynamic world of ICT, Urvish built deep knowledge and experience in recruiting in the areas of Accounting and Finance, Administration and Office Support, Government Policy, Program and Project Management, Human Resources, Business and Business Analysts, and Procurement. With the Australian Government, he recruits across all APS, EL 1, EL 2 and SES roles.
What drives Urvish’s enthusiasm?
‘I find immense fulfillment in helping candidates secure positions that suit their skills and personalities,’ says Urvish. ‘It’s a joy to help every candidate shape their future.’
Emma Curran
Service Delivery
ICT
Skilled in talent acquisition, training and management, Emma is strategic-thinking, detailed and thorough in her Service Delivery role for the ICT team. She works with motivation and passion.
Emma Curran (Recruitment Consultant ICT)
Emma brings extensive knowledge – crossing talent acquisition, training and management – to her role in Service Delivery for the busy ICT team award-winning face2face. She plays a vital role in a dynamic team, putting her all into finding recruitment solutions for employers and meaningful roles for candidates.
With strong communication skills and attention to detail, Emma conducts thorough talent searches for top-tier candidates on face2face’s national database. She carefully aligns candidate experience and qualifications to employer position requirements.
Emma has held multiple leadership roles in the fast-paced fast-food industry, including as Assistant Restaurant Manager responsible for overseeing the running of 3 departments. She understands how to motivate teams to drive success and how to build strong, trusted connections. Backed by this skill set, Emma is depended upon as an effective liaison between employers and candidates at face2face.
Emma crafts compelling job descriptions and strategically places ads on the right advertising platforms to attract the best candidates. She keeps records up-to-date and treats information with full respect for confidentiality.
An excellent administrator and a productive, motivating team player, Emma supports the ICT recruitment team for smooth operations and maximum recruitment efficiency. This is essential given recruitment in the ICT industry is fast-paced and never stands still.
What drives Emma to excel in recruitment?
‘I’m a people person who strives for full customer service satisfaction and sees recruitment processes through start to finish for 100% positive results,’ says Emma.
Vicki Ferrett
Finance Officer/Scribe Coordinator
Operations/Recruitment Solutions
Vicki is passionate about recruitment administration, services and scribing. Backed by strong administration skills, she ensures seamless delivery that adds value every step of the way.
Vicki Ferrett (Recruitment Solutions Coordinator)
Vicki is passionate about her roles in recruitment administration, recruitment services and scribing. At award-winning face2face Recruitment, Vicki’s professionalism, attention to detail and reassuring demeanour adds tremendous value.
Throughout her career, Vicki has developed strong administration skills, including as an Executive Assistant in Defence. She works quickly and efficiently in the fast-paced recruitment environment at face2face. With scribing, Vicki leverages her skills to support the Scribe Manager and ensure seamless delivery.
“Scribing is an inspirational service,” says Vicki. “It plays a key role in helping employees find star talent and candidates find dream jobs. It’s a privilege to be part of such an important process.”
Mikala Cornwell
Recruitment Solutions Consultant
Recruitment Solutions
A dedicated, results-driven professional, Mikala brings energy and enthusiasm to her role as Recruitment Solutions Consultant, Recruitment Solutions, and extensive experience in the training industry.
Mikala Cornwell (Recruitment Solutions Consultant)
Mikala Cornwell excels at efficient time management and problem-solving, key attributes required in the detailed, multi-faceted recruitment industry.
At award-winning face2face, as Recruitment Solutions Consultant, Recruitment Solutions, Mikala leverages extensive experience in training. She is a meticulous administrator who informs sound decision making with accurate, timely data entry and analysis.
Mikala is clear, concise and fully accountable when supporting face2face to drive recruitment solutions. Coordination is a core competency.
Mikala thrives on establishing productive stakeholder relations, with employers, candidates and team members at face2face. She continually exhibits a professional, refreshing and friendly approach.
With best-practice communications, Mikala works at a senior level to maintain excellent client relations. She is responsible for scribing, outsourced recruitment services and unbundled requests.
Mikala, with scribing—a key requirement in public sector recruitment particularly—ensures face2face follows best-practice in line with Australian Public Service merit principles. She quality assures scribe reports, monitors scribing processes, and build the face2face pool of talented, experienced scribes.
Training skills and experience come to play as Mikala mentors team members on important industry information, so face2face is on top of its game.
Motivated and with strong and impressive interpersonal skills, Mikala contributes to a positive workplace culture, enabling face2face to share its energy with all stakeholders. She is proactive, enthusiastic, strategic and creative.
Why is Mikala so passionate about recruitment and scribing?
“I thrive on ensuring compliance with the complex requirements of both recruitment and scribing roles, on behalf of employers and scribes,” says Mikala. “It’s all about successful and rewarding results.”
Ana Hicks
Senior Recruitment Support
Business Support
A customer service superstar, Ana has over a decade of experience in working on dynamic teams. She is highly skilled at multi-tasking and ticking all recruitment boxes on every job so nothing is missed.
Ana Hicks-Clarke (Recruitment Support)
Ana is a customer service superstar who brings 10 years of experience gained in the competitive and demanding hospitality industry to the face2face Business Support team. With high-quality customer service skills, Ana thrives in her Senior Recruitment Support role, helping candidates discover their potential when searching for their dream job.
At face2face, Ana executes her multi-tasking and training skills to complete the many steps involved in recruitment. In addition to backing face2face Account Managers with reliable, efficient support, Ana mentors junior staff members.
Ana’s role involves setting up new jobs, creating job overviews for candidates, screening candidates, placing job ads on relevant platforms and conducting candidate searches on the face2face national database, Recruit Wizard database and SEEK Talent Search.
Other responsibilities essential to successful recruitment include completing reference checks, ongoing communications, answering queries, facilitating contractor onboarding and organising general contract extensions.
Ana, with a bubbly personality and positive attitude, is an energetic member of the face2face team. She continues building her knowledge and refining capabilities through her Business Administration studies.
Clear and concise, Ana maximises her excellent communication skills to drive organisational goals, prioritising heavy workloads and working to tight deadlines without compromise. Ana is a motivational team player who goes the extra mile to drive recruitment goals.
What inspired Ana to make the career change to recruitment?
‘I thrive on working with a dynamic team that is passionate about matching candidates to positions,’ says Ana. ‘A successful match is rewarding for everyone involved.’
Jas Bedi
Senior Recruitment Support
Business Support
Jas is a postgraduate professional with over a decade of experience in recruitment and human resources. Leveraging her skill base, Jas supports Account Managers with strategic, dynamic recruitment.
Jas Bedi (Recruitment Support)
As Senior Recruitment Support, Business Support, at face2face Recruitment, Jas leverages her extensive skill base to assist Account Managers on multiple fronts. This includes assessing client needs, sourcing high-quality candidates and placing the best person in each and every role. Jas has over a decade in recruitment and human resources across many sectors and industries, enabling her to think laterally and creatively.
Jas, in her role as Senior Recruitment Support, collaborates with team members to ensure processes and workflows are smooth and efficient, and that compliance requirements are all ticked off without compromise. Responsibilities include preparing job descriptions to attract the best candidates, placing ads on the right platforms, conducting extensive talent searches, and completing screening, reference and other required checks.
Thorough and methodical, Jas thrives in fast-paced work environments where change is constant, and deadlines are tight. Across multiple previous roles, including as Recruitment Consultant, Senior Human Resources, and Human Resources Executive, Jas has learned the importance of clear and concise communications and a motivating approach.
Jas has worked in organisations providing national services, always striving to make her mark in supporting her employers to drive goals and meet targets. She is proactive in introducing new ideas for improvement.
At face2face, Jas demonstrates strong coordination skills, paying attention to detail. She multi-tasks with confidence and offers excellent office administration and time management strengths. Jas is also passionate about coaching and supporting others, to make a positive impact and inspire.
Jas’s education includes a Masters in Human Resources Management, and her skills see her handle 360 recruitment needs without skipping a beat. Her enthusiasm and dedication at face2face are embraced by team members, management, clients and candidates.
Kelsea Leighton
Recruitment Support
Business Support
Kelsea is passionate, productive and proactive with recruitment support, always striving for the most meaningful results. She multi-tasks with precision and is a productive team player.
Kelsea Leighton (Recruitment Administration)
Dedicated to striving for the best, while helping people along the way, Kelsea is a passionate, productive and proactive member of the dynamic face2face Recruitment team.
In Recruitment Administration, Business Support, Kelsea leverages her strengths in multi-tasking and managing high volumes of work. She triages responsibilities and high volumes of work to meet deadlines without compromise.
Kelsea, before joining face2face, worked in the fast-paced and often stressful world of hospitality for 4 years, including in 5-star restaurants. Here she developed major skills in listening, assessing and solving issues.
With attention to detail, Kelsea ensures correct set up of new jobs, prepares job descriptions, formats resumes and conducts reference checks. Importantly, Kelsea also updates face2face’s RecruitWizard system so all contact details are up-to-date. She also maintains paperwork and monitors busy, high-volume inboxes. Kelsea quality assures her work to ensure accuracy.
Kelsea also relies on her exemplary communication strengths to answer queries from the public, with clear and concise information that candidates can rely on with confidence.
Proactive in every way, Kelsea provides support throughout face2face with a motivating, positive approach.
What motivated Kelsea to seize a role in recruitment?
‘I enjoy getting to know peoples’ stories and love helping people achieve their career goals,’ says Kelsea. ‘There’s nothing more rewarding than supporting candidates to find the job of their dreams.’
Neil Valecha
Recruitment Support
Business Support
Neil has a Bachelor of Business Administration and exceptional customer service strengths. In Recruitment Support, he provides quality support to Account Managers sourcing the best talent for employer needs.
Neil Valecha (Recruitment Administration)
At award-winning face2face Recruitment, Neil backs Account Managers with detailed, quality support, as they focus on sourcing the best talent for employer needs, often on an urgent basis.
High-level customer service and superior coordination and organisation skills are core competencies Neil brings to the table in his role as Recruitment Support in Business Support.
With attention to detail, Neil prepares job descriptions, formats resumes, completes reference and other checks, organises interviews and facilitates contractor onboarding. He also writes and places ads on various platforms to attract the widest possible talent pool and conducts candidate searches matching talent with positions.
Neil, throughout his career, has developed a sharp customer focus, across diverse industries including in sales, retail, and advertising and marketing.
Backed by a Bachelor of Business Administration, Neil has worked in project administration on 2 large-scale transport projects (in New South Wales). He demonstrated strengths in handling multi-faceted requirements to tight deadlines and showed initiative in driving new processes. A key achievement as Business Administration Coordinator, SIEMENS Mobility, for example, was building an automated timesheet system that saved up to 5 hours a week and significantly reduced discrepancies.
Neil is a dynamic and productive team player with exceptional interpersonal skills. He is a proactive listener, a clear and concise communicator and highly motivated to drive the best recruitment results at face2face. He is flexible, adaptable and professional through and through.