Tell us about yourself & A+F Recruitment

I am originally from South Co. Dublin, I moved to Sydney, Australia in 2013 with a goal of staying 12 months, which ended up being 8 years!  Whilst living in Oz, I met my wife Shaheen, and we got married in Watsons Bay in 2017. I have 2 kids, Noah (6) and Zarah (4).

After leaving Sydney we lived in London for 18 months before moving to Ireland and are now based in Greystones in Co. Wicklow.

I joined A+F Recruitment in June 2025 as Associate Director. A+F is a great brand in the market and having met numerous people throughout my interview process, I felt that the brand, the ethos, and the people really aligned with what I wanted my next move to be.

 

Tell us about your background?

Call it superstition but I think I probably had some early inklings that I may end up in recruitment. During my leaving cert, my school held a careers workshop evening, and multiple awards were given out on the evening, and I won the interviewer award! My parents still have this hanging in their house today!

Upon leaving school, I decided to study a newly created course which was a Bachelor’s in Business and Entrepreneurship at IADT. Whilst the theory was taught during lectures such as Accounting, Marketing, IT and what not, there was an heir of “The Apprentice” to its curriculum, for example, we would be given 2 weeks’ notice to come up with a business idea, with a small budget to start it and we had those 2 weeks to come up with a product to then go and sell in the Dun Laoghaire market. This gave me a great base to really hone in on what I wanted to do which was deal with people, think on my feet and I was always very competitive so naturally I was trajected towards sales. Pre- Recruitment, I got to work for Vodafone, SSE Airtricity, 123.ie & Chubb Insurance.

 

How did you get into recruitment?

I was told I had the makings of a good recruiter at a BBQ! At the time, a friend of a friend, who later became a good friend called Julian, worked for Hays in Sydney and we got chatting at said BBQ and I was in between jobs in Sydney at the time due to visa limitations whilst working at Chubb Insurance. He thought it would be worth speaking to their internal recruitment team and he was right! I had 9 happy years at Hays, made lifelong friends and got to internally transfer from Australia to the UK and then onto Ireland with them.

 

How has your background helped you in your role?

To me, recruitment is all about relationships and effectively talking to people. I love connecting with people and 12 years later, I still learn something new every day. I have always been an inquisitive person, and I love learning about new businesses and working across multiple different industries. When you are supporting an organisation with their hiring needs, it’s a great opportunity to really get under the bonnet of a business and I really enjoy that part of it. There is nothing better than doing a good job and at the end of the day, we are effectively changing peoples lives.

 

Why did you choose to join A+F Recruitment?

There is a couple of reasons why I chose A+F, the main one however was the vision and common goal that the business has in place. We are a growing brand within VMG. Some of the brands have been established for an extremely long time and are the leaders within their respected vertical. With the right people in place, which I believe we have already, we will organically grow in size and I firmly believe we will be the leading Accountancy & Finance business based out of Ireland within the coming years. We are seeing signs of this already by supporting our ongoing customers based in mainland Europe, the UK and the US.

 

What have you seen change in the industry over the last few years?

There have been several changes I have seen in the industry over the last few years. Probably the headlines would be the ever-increasing headcount in internal TA teams which ultimately means that long standing clients are trying to fill a lot of their vacancies directly, which I totally understand.

From the internal Finance function though, I think, the use of more sophisticated software that is being released daily at this stage is now streamlining a lot of processes in the traditional finance function and as such, we see more roles being consolidated and the demand for traditional BAU Finance professionals in very different to what it was say 5 years ago.

 

What do you like about your role?

Without being too repetitive, I like the people I work with, the customers I work with on a daily basis, the variety in which my role brings and above all else being part of VMG, the culture internally is fabulous, and everyone looks out for one another and helps where they can.

 

What makes A+F Recruitment Unique?

I think our speed to market is phenomenal and when a client needs support with a hire, there has been instances where shortlists can be provided on the same day. I think this is down to market knowledge, understanding of client’s requirements and tenure. We are a small team but between us we have a combined 44 years Recruitment experience!

 

What is your favourite mantra?

“Success is no accident — it’s hard work, persistence, learning, and a genuine love for what you do.” – Pelé

 

What’s a fun fact about you?

I have 2.

As a teenager, I had a part time role in a local petrol station and one of my regular patrons was Frank Kelly a.k.a. Father Jack. He was a lovely man who was quite the opposite to what you would have seen on Father Ted, he was extremely knowledgeable and would always love to chat and tell a story or 2.

I also used to do stewarding in Croke Park during the time that Lansdown road was shut and the Aviva was being built so everything was played there at the time, and I once walked onto the pitch with the Irish Rugby team when they were playing New Zealand and I stood on the pitch whilst the Kiwi’s performed the Haka which was pretty surreal!

 

Where would we find you when you are not recruiting?

I personally enjoy running, cycling, Golf and I’m also a Man Utd fan so I try to keep up with them as much as possible however it’s been getting harder and harder every year!

On the weekend’s I am usually out and about with my wife and kids. The kids are very active and most Saturdays I am driving them here there and everywhere for classes.

As we live in Wicklow, we are very lucky to have such beautiful greenery around us so often we like to go off exploring and whatnot.

To read more our team, get to know our Director, Sarah Kelly here and our Principal Consultant David Tuohy here.