After a pivotal year, where Arctic Shores celebrated its 10th anniversary, assessed half a million candidates, grew their next-generation assessment platform ARR by 77%, and released a pioneering new assessment model, Arctic Shores is excited to announce a new leadership structure to drive its next stage of growth.
Arctic Shores Co-founder, Robert Newry, will take on a new market-facing role as 'Chief Explorer’ while Estelle McCartney –– most recently the businesses’ Chief Growth Officer, and a part of the senior leadership team at Arctic Shores for four years –– will step into the role of CEO.
Robert and Safe Hammad launched Arctic Shores in 2014 with the mission to change the way talent teams and hiring managers were able to uncover candidate potential. The founders’ vision was for a world of recruitment in which potential –– a person’s core strengths and capability –– were valued just as much as skills or experience, and in which every person, whatever their background, had the opportunity to demonstrate what they were capable of.
In recent years the adoption of skills-based hiring over CV-based and experience-centric hiring, and the advent of an AI-enabled workplace, has accelerated demand for the Arctic Shores assessment as organisations look for new ways to broaden their talent pools to uncover high-potential talent.
Since the arrival of GenAI tools like ChatGPT, recruitment teams have become increasingly swamped by auto-generated applications and lost in a ‘sea of CV sameness’ as AI-enhanced CVs are customised to match job adverts. Alternatives to the CV and language-based applications, like Arctic Shores’ task-based psychometric assessment, have become essential to identifying who to interview and who not.
Since Robert co-founded the business, he has been a passionate advocate of scrapping the CV, which has been the last bastion holding back the realisation of equality of opportunity with equality of hire. By taking on this new role as 'Chief Explorer,' he will be able to spend more time driving the company’s demand generation efforts (including in his role as host of the TA Disruptors Podcast), fostering strategic partnerships, advancing enterprise sales, and shaping the roadmap for Arctic Shores next financial milestone.
Of the leadership evolution, Robert commented:
“I am so proud of the progress that Arctic Shores has made in the past 10 years, and Estelle is the perfect person to take on the CEO role. I am excited that this new structure will enable me to once again focus on the areas that inspire me most –– promoting and amplifying Arctic Shores’ mission, and working more closely with our many pioneering customers like Siemens, Molson Coors and Amazon to uncover potential in a more scalable and more equitable way.
I also look forward to continuing to work with many leaders in the talent acquisition industry to shape what good looks like for recruitment in this new era.”
Estelle McCartney has been at the centre of Arctic Shores’ growth and transformation over the last four years. Leading the marketing, sales, and customer success teams she has been central to the 300% growth in revenue from the business’s next-generation assessment platform and the achievement of an NPS score of over +70.
Before moving into the HR tech sector, Estelle held leadership positions in the professional services sector. She co-founded a political communications company, which was acquired by a PE-backed international consultancy and was named by Cranfield School of Management in their annual list of ‘100 Women to Watch’. Estelle has also chaired the boards of charity, The Campaign to End Loneliness, and award-winning dance theatre company, ZooNation.
Estelle commented:
“For a decade, Arctic Shores has transformed recruitment –– making it more accurate at identifying potential, more scalable saving TA teams 1000s of hours, and more equitable by helping previously overlooked high-potential candidates create opportunities and organisations diversify their talent pools.
As AI reshapes how candidates present themselves and skills-based hiring gains momentum, we’re uniquely positioned to empower businesses and candidates alike. Building on the strong foundation Robert and the team have built, I’m excited to lead our next chapter of growth and innovation.”
With Estelle at the helm and Robert’s continued contributions as 'Chief Explorer,' the company is poised to build market leadership in the rapidly evolving AI-enabled recruitment and selection segment.
If you have any questions about the appointment, please contact info@arcticshores.com.
About Arctic Shores
Arctic Shores is the leading task-based psychometric assessment provider helping organisations uncover potential in recruitment and see more in people. It has won 5 industry awards and featured in the Financial Times, the BBC, the Times and The Guardian. Working with more than 350 organisations, it has helped assess more than 3 million applications in more than 45 countries.