Specialist creative and graphic design recruiter Aquent has embarked on a major expansion program, and has hired 15 more staff in the Asia Pacific region to spearhead its move into mainstream advertising and marketing recruitment.

Aquent CEO Greg Savage told Shortlist the appointments were part of a repositioning for Aquent, which will see it expand from its traditional design-focused niche to provide a much wider range of personnel and recruitment services to the broader advertising, marketing and communications industries.

Savage said this would bring Aquent more into competition with the traditionally strong players in the advertising and marketing niche such as Michael Page, HJ&B and TMPW.

He said the appointment of around 15 new experienced specialist recruiters to Aquent's offices throughout the Australasian region represented a "major investment in money and time" for the company. The new staff were recruited in a campaign which has run over the last three or four months.

Savage said he recognised that the advertising industry and marketing budgets had been depressed over recent years but he said he hoped the industry was "as depleted as it can be" and would stage a resurgence over the next couple of years.

He said Aquent's good contacts in marketing companies and advertising agencies and its 10 offices throughout Asia would provide a springboard for the expansion into its wider role.

Among the new staff at Aquent in Australia are Paul Slezak, a former senior staffer with HMA George Patterson and Hays, who becomes area manager in the Sydney office; Nick Dean, ex KPMG and Equatorial Recruitment; Tjalja Schaaf, who worked with Philips Design in Hong Kong; and Kim Smith, who was previously with Julia Ross.

The appointments, "are part of our regional initiative to position Aquent as a professional services firm that delivers total staffing, consulting and outsourcing solutions for marketing communications," said Savage.
"We saw an opportunity to provide clients with a more efficient marketing and creative development process by providing them with a total staffing solution," he said.