Phil Sheridan is senior managing director, UK, Middle East and South America, with Robert Half International. Sheridan trained with Ernst & Young before he joined Robert Half in 1996, where he focused on accounting and finance recruitment, progressing to regional director in 2000 and managing director in 2005. His background in finance has been instrumental in developing and executing strategy, helping the business successfully navigate the challenges of recent years.
Mikael Lindmark is SVP, EMEA, at SAP Fieldglass, responsible for overall operations across Europe. Lindmark played a prominent role in making SAP Fieldglass a major VMS provider in the region. Before joining SAP Fieldglass, Lindmark served as VP of EMEA sales at Saba Software. During his tenure at Saba, the company became a leading provider of human capital development and management solutions to the European financial services industry. Before Saba, Lindmark held sales and business development positions at Infinity Learning Systems as well as OpenText and its affiliates.
CEO of the DACH region — Austria, Germany, and Switzerland — at Randstad nv since January 2020, Richard Jager began his career in staffing at the company in 1995 in the Netherlands as a consultant. In 2010, he took over as managing director for Switzerland. Jager notes that during the pandemic, the main focus was on maintaining and securing as many jobs as possible. Jager also serves on Randstad’s global advisory board. With the DACH region having returned to its 2019 level, Randstad is again focused on extending market share. In addition to Randstad, Jager is a member of the advisory board at Nyenrode Business University in Breukelen, Netherlands.
Alexander Mann Solutions’ chief growth and commercial officer since 2017, Matthew Rodger has 29 years’ experience in staffing and outsourcing. He has been with the London-based RPO and MSP provider for nearly 20 years. Rodger wears many hats, including overseeing the commercialisation of AMS’ products and services, new logo development, significant business development of existing customers and managing all corporate mergers and acquisitions. In 2019, he led AMS to the successful acquisition of Karen AI, its first foray into proprietary direct-to-market technology now called Hourly.
Consultant Frances Lewis has been head of workforce solutions with Osborne Clarke LLP for over 13 years. She has been advising staffing businesses since 1997, including some of the first UK MSP and RPO deals in the early 2000s. She now advises gig worker platforms, staffing supply chain risk compliance businesses and payment intermediaries and employers of record. Lewis advises on commercial, regulatory and workplace tax aspects of engaging and supplying contingent workforces in the UK and internationally. She recently was a contributor for Construction News UK, calling for Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) umbrella services to be considered as part of the consultation.
Mark Verstraete is the managing director of t-groep, the sixth-largest staffing firm in Belgium and the 31st-largest in Europe with operations in the Netherlands and Poland. In 2008, Verstraete led the acquisition of the Dutch privately held human resource company Luba by t-groep, starting its international expansion and strengthening its position in the Benelux market for personnel services. In 2016, the t-groep management, alongside investor Gilde Buy Out Partners, acquired all the remaining shares held by the Flemish government. Verstraete currently sits at the management board of Federgon, the Belgian staffing association, as president of the Temporary Agency Work Commission.
As CEO of freelancing website Upwork, Stephane Kasriel drives the company’s vision of connecting businesses with talent faster than ever. Upwork connects 15 million freelancers to more than 5 million companies across more than 180 countries. Kasriel came to the company in 2012 as senior VP of engineering. In 2015, after he was named CEO, he led the company’s rebranding from Elance-oDesk. He also co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Education, Gender and Work. Kasriel’s expertise in the future of work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review and Bloomberg Review. He holds an MBA from INSEAD, an MS from Stanford and a BS from Ecole Polytechnique in France.
Stefano Scabbio was appointed president of Mediterranean and Eastern Europe for ManpowerGroup in 2015, adding Northern Europe in June 2017. He joined ManpowerGroup in 2003 as financial director of Italy. He became managing director of ManpowerGroup Italy in 2006 and was named president in 2007. In 2008, he became a member of the Europe, Middle East and Africa strategic executive team, and in 2010, with the newly created Southern Europe region, his role expanded to regional managing director of Italy and Iberia. In 2014, Scabbio also became president of Assolavoro, the Italian Association of Private Employment Agencies. He is the founder and president of LinC magazine (Lavori in Corso).
Daniel Augereau is chairman and CEO of Synergie, the sixth-largest staffing firm in France. In 2017, the group reported revenue of €2.3 billion with international operations representing more than 50% of Synergie’s revenue during the year. Augereau trained as a technical blue-collar worker in the aeronautic industry and soon after founded his first staffing firm, Europe Technique Assistance, in 1969. After merging with another staffing firm 10 years later, the company rebranded as Synergie. It has continued to expand throughout Europe, including with the acquisition of HR firm Völker in Austria. Its Acorn subsidiary is at the core of the group’s expansion strategy in the UK and Australia.
Since 2017, Alessandro Ramazza has served as president of Assolavoro, Italy’s national association of employment agencies, whose member companies comprise 85% of revenue linked to the provision of work in Italy. He is also deputy counselor of Randstad Group Italia, president of Intempo, staffing agency leader in the logistic and port sectors, and director of Randstad Research, a research centre focused on providing insights into the future market trends and employment issues. From 2005 to 2017, he served as president of Obiettivo Lavoro Group.
