A confidential, retained search to confirm the strongest four executive appointments for the SoJourney bid, in time for the 3 September tender.
Hen's Teeth is a retained executive search and talent advisory firm with more than two decades in construction and infrastructure. Our rail relationships run deep across Melbourne and Sydney, and the decade we spent inside John Holland's resourcing function built connections that still reach across the industry. We're happy to share references on request.
Executive appointments are our stock in trade: the senior operational and functional leaders who decide whether a programme delivers. Our most recent rail assignment was the $5B Sydney Metro SSTOM package (Webuild, RATP Dev and Siemens), where we built the leadership team and the workforce beneath it, taking headcount from roughly 20 to 560.
We also know two of your three consortium partners from the inside. At John Holland, Peter Anderson led resourcing for Rail and then Major Projects, while Luke Jones held national accountability for the recruitment function. So RATP Dev and John Holland are not names we are meeting for the first time. They are organisations we have already appointed into and mobilised.
You have internal nominees for the franchise executive team. With the submission close, you want an independent, discreet read on the market: confirmation that you're putting the strongest possible team into the SoJourney bid, with stronger options in hand if they exist.
Four roles sit beneath a confirmed CEO: the two most senior operational appointments, plus two further seats on the executive team.
The clock governs everything. Submission is 3 September, which means candidates progressed far enough to commit to the role in writing, ahead of final contracting.
Discretion is absolute. The no-go list rules the search: anyone inside the current MR4 franchise is off-limits, alongside any names you nominate, and nothing moves without your sign-off. We also understand your steering committee has engaged two firms in parallel, and we're entirely comfortable working that way.
The search covers four seats on the franchise executive, each reporting to the confirmed CEO. Two are the most senior operational appointments in the business; the other two complete the leadership team. Once we're engaged and the NDA is in place, the nominated CEO briefs us directly, and we build a written success profile for each role.
This is precisely the leadership layer we appointed on SSTOM: senior operations and infrastructure leaders, hired against a live delivery clock, in the most competitive rail market in the country.
This is a retained search, run to a proper process and to your clock. We appoint against a written success profile, assess every candidate on the same terms, and keep you sighted on each name before we move. Working back from 3 September, preferred appointees are signed to the role in time for the submission.
This is a retained assignment. Our fee is 18% of each appointee's total fixed remuneration, a reduction on our standard retained terms in recognition of the four searches.
It is paid in two parts. A fixed engagement fee opens each search and funds the success profile, market map, assessment and shortlist through to a signed commitment for your submission. A completion fee falls due only if the bid is won and the appointee starts, and the engagement fee is credited in full against it. If the bid is unsuccessful, or an appointee does not start, nothing further is payable. You never pay a full fee simply to name someone in a tender.
If an appointee leaves or is terminated within six months of starting, we run the replacement search at no further professional fee.
Success profile, confidential market mapping, no-go-list management, discreet approach, structured assessment, calibrated shortlists with written appraisals, referencing, and interview coordination across all four searches.
Advertising spend, and relocation or contracting costs. Any roles beyond the four named. Advanced psychometric instruments are available on request.
Engagement fee on instruction. Completion fee on the appointee's start date, following award. All figures exclude GST.
Pete runs each search personally, from the executive brief to the appointment. He has spent more than two decades in construction and infrastructure talent, across retained search and workforce advisory. His most recent rail assignment was the $5B Sydney Metro SSTOM package (Webuild, RATP Dev and Siemens); before that he spent a decade inside John Holland, leading resourcing for Rail and then for Major Projects.
Deep HR and talent leadership experience across Australia, Asia, and the United Kingdom. His engagements span acting Head of Talent, workforce strategy for critical infrastructure operators, and talent function transformation for contractors scaling through growth. His strength is connecting the strategic to the operational: he can present a three-year workforce plan to a board and then walk downstairs and fix the recruitment process.
Three moves and the search is underway: your NDA, a brief from the nominated CEO, and the no-go list locked together. First market map back to you inside 48 hours.