HR high flyer for Balhousie Care

Human resources expert and former RAF officer Tricia Stewart has been parachuted into Perth-based Balhousie Care Group as the firm bolsters its senior management team in time for an expansion campaign.

Stewart was formerly head of HR for Scotland and Northern Ireland at Southern Cross Healthcare. The company employed around 8,000 people in the two nations before it collapsed last year.

Her previous roles include eight years in senior HR positions with Scottish & Newcastle and several years as a management development manager for Waitrose, where she designed a graduate training programme.

The University of Strathclyde graduate, who is married and has two children, also spent several years as an officer with the Royal Air Force, leading teams in catering, training and administration roles.

She said: “Recruitment and retention is an issue across the whole sector. I believe working in the care sector is a vocation rather than simply a job, so it’s my responsibility to help ensure there is a career pathway in place, whether that is a care assistant training to become a nurse or becoming a manager.”

TWMA’s new man digs sales strategy

Oil and gas man Rob O’Neill is joining drilling waste firm TWMA as sales director, charged with driving the continued global growth of the Aberdeen-based company.

He joins the firm with more than 15 years’ experience working in the oil and gas industry, most recently holding the position of director at Workstrings International.

Based at TWMA’s Aberdeen head office, O’Neill will develop a strategy targeting the firm’s existing markets in the Americas, Norway, Middle East and North Africa, while also seeking out opportunities in new locations.

Ronnie Garrick, managing director at TWMA, said: “Mr O’Neill’s extensive overseas experience will be an important factor as we focus on international expansion in the coming year and beyond.”

Gleam in the north from Infinity trio

Oil and gas recruitment specialist Infinity Resources International is seeking to add “new depth and experience” to its service with three new members of staff.

Senior recruitment consultant David Gibb has several years’ experience in sales, business development, account management and recruitment within the oil and gas industry. The Robert Gordon University graduate is focused upon subsea-related disciplines.

Isabel Macvicar is an experienced senior recruiter in the industry with an extensive track record in the sourcing of offshore and onshore personnel at all levels. She joins Infinity as a senior recruitment consultant.

Andrew Urquhart joins as a recruitment consultant after returning to the North-east following 15 years in Edinburgh, where he worked in the leisure and hospitality sector.

The appointments take Aberdeen-based Infinity’s team of recruitment professionals to ten as it looks to grow around the world.

Chief executive Martin Finnie said: “We have in place a talented, committed and knowledgeable team that is central to our 2012 growth plans.”