Recruitment consultancy Nakama Group (NAK: AIM), today announced the appointment of Rob Sheffield as Chief Executive Officer, with immediate effect.

Mr Sheffield jointly established Nakama Ltd in London and its subsidiaries in Australia (Melbourne and Sydney) and Hong Kong with Paul Goodship in 2009. The company was acquired by IT recruitment specialist Highams Systems Services Group plc, creating Nakama Group plc in October 2011.

Mr Sheffield has a strong knowledge of business, legal, and operational requirements in Asia, Australia and Europe, successfully building teams to service the recruitment, digital, marketing, creative services, and advertising industries. 

He took an early lead in expanding Nakama's operations into the Asia Pacific region and in June 2012 relocated to Australia to build the Company's APAC service offering across Asia and Australia. He has established and profitably grown the offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Hong Kong, and Singapore and expanded trading into Shanghai and Bangkok.

Mr Sheffield has grown Nakama's APAC contract revenue over the past three years by an average of over 40% year-on-year and APAC's permanent revenue by 55% on average year-on-year. The APAC region now represents 29% of the Group's revenue. 

Prior to 2009, Mr Sheffield spent six years as Head of Technology at Aquent, an international staffing firm specialising in the creative and marketing fields, where he worked with a wide range of UK and International clients. 

Ken Ford, Non-executive Chairman of Nakama Group, commented: "I am delighted that Rob has agreed to expand his CEO role in APAC to now comprise leadership across the Group as a whole.” 

"Over the past six years, Rob has played a key role in developing the Group, both in terms of our strategy, establishing focus, driving performance and embedding a disciplined and results driven approach that is serving us well.  I am confident that Rob will lead the Group very effectively and that his drive, motivation and experience will deliver both value and results," he added.