NATIONAL recruitment firm McArthur has been hired to find suitable candidates for the CEO’s job at Mornington Peninsula Shire.

The nearly $400,000 a year position has been held by Carl Cowie for the past four years.

When council decided in June to advertise the CEO’s position Mr Cowie said he had “been strongly encouraged to reapply and I have advised that I will be doing that” (“Market test for CEO’s job” The News 19/6/18).

Mr Cowie’s predecessor, Michael Kennedy, held the position for nearly 16 years, but did not make the short list of applicants when the job was advertised in 2014.

Details of the terms under which South Yarra-based McArthur has been hired have not been released, but the company will be paid between $30,000 and $40,000 to find suitable candidates.

Councillors will meet with the company this week to discuss a position description and the mayor, Cr Bryan Payne, said he expects job advertisements “to go out next week”.

McArthur’s head of executive search Nick Kelly will work alongside another consultant hired by the shire, Topsy Petchey of TePee Pty Ltd. Ms Petchey compiled a list of nine recruitment companies from which McArthur was chosen.

McArthur’s website says Mr Kelly “has more than 17 years’ of recruiting experience in both Australia and the UK. His sophistication and knowledge within the industry provides an invaluable insight to the team”.

The company – motto “Best People Fit” – says it can “connect Australia’s best public and private sector employers with the country’s top senior executive and management talent”.

Its experienced executive consultants “know your day-to-day business challenges, legislative, technical and practical requirements. In other words, they speak your language allowing them to deliver quick and quality solutions”.

McArthur says it discreetly finds “appropriate candidates” from such sources as “networking, general interviewing, data base and network trawls”.

Its National Client Relationship Management System “allows us to build a map of relevant candidates for consideration”.

The shire’s governance manager Joe Spiteri, in a report to a special council meeting on Tuesday 7 August said McArthur had “relevant experience and proven success in recruiting for Victorian public sector organisations and is a specialist firm with a national network of consultants in this space”.

First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 14 August 2018