The Brief
Goldrick was engaged by a privately owned, European-headquartered technology company, a leader in industrial IoT and mining automation, serving the global mining and resources sector, to place a Perth-based global sales director.
The business was mid-way through an ambitious global growth strategy, with its CEO relocating to Australia. It needed a Perth-based executive to lead global sales, working directly with the CEO to drive solutions across Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific.
The challenge
This was a high-trust, newly created role at the intersection of deep technical complexity and commercial sophistication. The technology itself—mining automation—sits at the frontier of the sector, sold through a consultative, solutions-based cycle rather than a transactional one. The right candidate needed to translate that complexity into commercial outcomes, hold cross-cultural range, and work in close proximity with the CEO with the confidence that role demands. The brand had little market recognition in Australia, and the business was concurrently navigating a confidential acquisition process—adding further organisational and contractual ambiguity to the search.
Our approach
Goldrick applied its Leader Discovery & Definition Model with strategic precision. Our research methodology went beyond the standard headhunted search: we mapped the market analytically for proven sales leaders with a track record in high-value technology sales and implementation, weighing not just performance history but the relevance and depth of each candidate’s client network.
That rigour lets us balance pace, discretion and alignment, and identify the right candidate through a search grounded in values alignment and future-fit capability.
We built a tailored narrative and candidate pack that conveyed the company’s mission, mapped the complexity of the role, and supported early trust-building. Once introduced, Goldrick Consulting stewarded the relationship on both sides, creating clarity of expectation and maintaining momentum across borders and time zones.
The CEO later reflected that Goldrick’s approach stood apart from other firms he’d worked with—noting a willingness to listen, understand and challenge rather than simply process a brief. Where other firms had offered a curated shortlist that matched the stated brief, Goldrick brought candidates that challenged it, surfacing a view the CEO hadn’t considered.
Reflecting on the experience of working alongside our team, the CEO said:
“I’ve worked with many executive search firms, from Canada, the UK, Germany, most just go through the motions. But Alex and his team were different. They don’t cut corners. They take the time to listen, to understand, to challenge. And they deliver quality.”
The outcome
The candidate was appointed Global Sales Director and integrated quickly, relocating to the company’s European headquarters within his first week to work closely with the CEO on professionalising and scaling the commercial function globally.
The candidate brought four decades of technical and commercial leadership across mining, mineral processing and petrochemical environments to the role. Trained across a range of structured sales methodologies, he paired that toolkit with a Lean and Six Sigma background in process improvement, giving him a rare ability to move between technical, commercial and systems-level thinking depending on what the moment demanded.
He inherited a sales function coming off two consecutive underperforming quarters. Rather than a slow rebuild, he focused the team on execution and conversion of late-stage opportunities; delivering 12% revenue growth in the first six months, then accelerating to 46% year-on-year growth in 2025, a record result for the business.
He also opened a new market, establishing a sales channel in China that secured a major contract with a Tier 1 iron ore operator in West Africa, alongside a significant new customer win in mainland China.
Beyond the commercial numbers, he rebuilt the function itself, templatising best practice across regions, recruiting and training new sales talent, and embedding a structured lead-qualification methodology into the CRM to professionalise the sales motion globally. When the business was acquired, he led his team through the transition into the acquirer’s regional structure without losing commercial momentum.
Within six months of his own appointment, he returned to Goldrick to build out his team; hiring two further business development professionals during a period of acquisition-driven uncertainty. A process that could easily have stalled under M&A pressure was handled without disruption; Goldrick stayed engaged through delays in sign-off from the acquiring entity rather than treating the placement as complete once the offer was accepted.
He went on to successfully support the CEO and ownership team through the company’s eventual sale to a global resources technology group; a significant achievement in its own right, delivered alongside the commercial turnaround above.
This appointment shows Goldrick’s ability to deliver where others cut corners—earning the trust of both candidate and client, and holding a level of quality that survives real pressure: acquisition ambiguity, cross-border complexity, and a CEO who’d been let down by transactional search consultants before. It’s what a values-led, human-centred search process looks like when the stakes are genuinely high.
Providing a further reflection on their experience, the CEO added that “Most executive search firms are like real estate agents—they want a quick close and move on. Goldrick actually listened. They treated the process like it mattered. That’s why we kept working with them.”
And that’s the kind of leadership that makes a difference.
If you are interested in learning more about the work we do, please contact the Goldrick team directly.
