My story
I started my career in the human capital programme at Ernst & Young. It jumped out at me as it promised a focus on what shapes and delivers the part of business strategy that depends on people. I moved around between share scheme design, executive compensation, M&A and global mobility, and had a portfolio role in graduate recruitment. Despite successfully qualifying as a tax accountant, I realised that this career wasn’t focused enough on the individual for me, so decided to think again about my strengths and where I would be best placed to make a niche for myself. I knew someone who worked in executive search and will always be grateful that he introduced me to this!
My focus
For the last eight years, I have been lucky enough to help build first-class teams in a range of different businesses around the world. Human resources is an area of deep personal interest, so, six years ago, I decided to focus solely on this. I have worked across every facet of HR and am lucky enough to help leaders solve their people challenges through making introductions, leading assessments, or even just thinking out loud together about team structure or offering market insight. Alongside working for clients, I put a lot of time and energy into helping people think through their own careers and how they can best grow and develop as individuals.
Katie Chevis has been wonderful to work with. She made the entire process positive. She is informative, thoughtful and a sincerely kind individual. But the most impressive thing about her is her attention to follow-up. No matter what time of day or what the topic, she always kept me informed. She is second to none in this category as it has been my experience that this is where search professionals generally fall short. I would reach out to Katie in the future and highly recommended her to others for executive searches.
– Susan Nutson, Vice President Human Resources – Global Operations, Tate & Lyle
My motivation
I love asking questions, listening and learning, so feel in a very privileged position to be able to spend my days talking to talented HR leaders who are at the heart of business decisions. To be able to tap into a global network that I have worked hard to build and know that I can pick up the phone and have insightful conversations with people from different cultures and backgrounds is something I find very rewarding. No two days or interactions are the same!
Why I like working at Savannah
I joined Savannah because I really believe the company’s approach is unique. When we say we care deeply about our work, we mean it! We take our work seriously, but not ourselves, and we are constantly challenging and supporting one another to be the best professionals that we can be.
Lisa and Katie worked with us on a very challenging and critical senior HR leadership role. They were partners and advisors from the very early stages of refining the brief through to a highly successful conclusion. Our role was very specific and we knew there would not be many in the market with this skillset, so we needed a global approach. The added complexity of the search was the accelerated pace we asked them to work at, which they successfully did without compromising on quality. What really stood out was the deep market knowledge and candidate insight they have. They had an excellent understanding of each candidate and what they could bring to our business and culture. We would not hesitate to work with them again.
– Maria Kokkinou, Vice President, Talent Acquisition, Management and Development, Coca-Cola European Partners