Causing a Storm: Recent Episodes
Levin
We are giving you a sneak peak under the hood of the fastest growing recruitment business in the world right now, Levin.
Each episode we will be sitting down with one of our incredible team at Levin, to talk about their journeys, learnings and advice on what is takes to be successful in a business like ours.
Katie and Max, VPs of Storm2 and Storm5 UK, respectively, based in London, both joined the business in August 2020 as fresh graduates and as part of our first academy.
In their first year they finished in first and second spots of our global top billers and went on to lead highly successful teams and then brands. Both are prime examples of organic growth at Levin, rising to the ranks of VP in only three years.
Today we talk about their key moments over the last few years, and the importance of driving the right type of competitiveness in a recruitment team.
Kesi, VP of Commercial of our US business, based in New York joined in April 2021 just three weeks before we went from a 40-person start up to a 200-person multi-brand business. No stranger to hard work, Kesi proved herself time and time again, not only hitting every target but regularly exceeding and doubling them. When I say this is who most of our commercial standards are modelled on… I'm not joking.
In just two years she has had two major promotions taking her to VP level, was the first of the UK team to relocated over to the US to launch functions in both Dallas and now New York, and somehow she still finds time to launch and run two of our employee ED&I networks in Parity and Nexus.
Today we talk about what Commercial actually is in a business like Levin's, and what's next for someone who's already hit the goals they put in place when they joined.
This episode features Arik Pröving, VP of our DACH business, based in Hamburg.
Arik joined us in the middle of 2022 following a successful recruitment career at Sthree. He is the first to say that despite being completely sold of the vision of Levin, he was still a bit taken aback when he met the team in Amsterdam and London and realised just how fast paced we were doing things here. Fast forward to today and Arik has created this own fast paced, high performance team out of Hamburg and has already got plans for further growth across Germany and beyond.
This episode features Kay Bottomley, CEO and Founder of Storm4.
Kay joined in February 2021 after a serendipitous coffee chat with JB developed into an entire GreenTech Recruitment business plan aimed at the US market, and thus Storm4 was born. Kay is a self-confessed recruitment nerd, and with 13 years experience across multiple markets, her passion for the industry and impact someone can have in it shines through. Today we talk about the journey of Storm4, how she's grown the business to over 100 people in just 2 years, and why a strong work ethic will always make you stand out in this field.
Today we are talking to our founding team, James Brown, George Trewhella and Jamie Robinson.
JB launched what was just Storm2, back in 2019 having had a grad to greatness journey of his own at Phaidon, and being inspired to do something even bigger, and even faster. Within months he'd roped in GT and JRob to join the team and in August 2019 they officially launched Storm2 with a team of 20 graduates.
Today, we're going to hear the story of those first 90 days, the challenges they faced and the some of those key moments that shaped Levin becoming the business it is today.
Rachael Broomes, Global Operations Director for Levin,based in London.
Rachael joined Storm2 in August 2020 as OperationsManager of a 40-person business. In under three years, she’s been responsiblefor onboarding over 700 new hires, facilitated the launch of 5 new locations,organised a further 7 office moves (most of them remotely) and built a team of15, all after being told during Covid that there was no future in ops andoffice management… I mean if that’s not how you prove the naysayers wrong thenI’m not sure what does. Today we’ll be talking about the stuff that most peopledon’t see in businesses; the behind the scenes work that keeps everythingmoving.
Yann was one of our first hires when we launched our EU headquarters and in the space of 2 years, has had a level of career progression many would aspire to. Yann came to us with an incredibly entrepreneurial background and used that approach to master this new challenge of recruitment. Having spent the last year leading the Storm2 team, he is now adding Storm3 to the mix and I am so excited to see the team flourish even further under his guidance.
Welcome to a special IWD-themed episode of Causing a Storm.
Last week at Levin, we recognised the day through internal events, hosted by some of our amazing leaders as well as a video featuring our team from around the world telling us what characteristics make them great leads.
In today's special episode we have a slightly different format. Over the last two weeks, we asked the team across the world, to send in questions they had for IWD to be answered by leaders across our offices, as an opportunity for them to share their lessons, learnings and experiences.
Seb Northrup, our VP of Storm3 Dallas.
Seb joined in September 2021 after a very successful career moving up the ranks from grad to VP in another recruitment business. After being contacted by Clare to launch our first US Storm3 team, Seb set to work hiring and building an incredible founding team in Dallas. Fast forward to today and Storm3 Dallas is thriving. The team have had an amazing first year in business, working with some awesome HealthTechs, hitting promotions and building a really special team culture. We talk about what it takes to be a successful recruiter and manager, and what’s next for our founding US team.
Lauren Ellis and Ross Byrne, Directors for Storm3 and Storm4 in New York City.
Both Lauren and Ross joined us in August 2020 as fresh college grads and got stuck into the FinTech recruitment straight away. Lauren talks to us about the challenges of being a billing manager, while Ross dives into his first year in the business and why time management is the arguably the most important skill in a recruiters toolkit. Two and a half years after joining Lauren and Ross are now in our New York City branch, awaiting their first teams’ imminent arrival.
This episode marks a key milestone in the growth of our US business and what is going to be a very exciting six months ahead.
Iona joined us straight from University in August 2020 as part of our second ever academy. She spent her first two years developing her craft and then in August 2022 was given the opportunity to move to Singapore to launch Storm4. Iona’s journey has been a great example of internal mobility and what you can achieve joining as a graduate at Levin.
Find out more about us - https://bit.ly/aboutlevin
Iona Stacy-Marks - https://www.linkedin.com/in/iona-stacy-marks-84a144172/
Chelcie Harry - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelcie-harry/
Stay up to date with future podcast release dates - https://www.instagram.com/lifeatlevin/?hl=en-gb
Clare Cooper, our CEO and Founder of Storm3. Clare joined in February 2021 after a coffee chat with JB led to a full business plan for expanding our recruitment services into the exciting world of HealthTech. Clare’s passion for people is infectious, from her lifelong relationships with candidates and clients, to her incredible leadership skills, she’s taken Storm3 from start up to booming global business in just 2 years.
Today we talk about her journey to now, the importance of female leadership in building diverse teams, and what's next for Storm3.
Find out more about us - https://bit.ly/aboutlevin
Clare Cooper - https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarecooper1/
Chelcie Harry - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelcie-harry/
Stay up to date with future podcast release dates - https://www.instagram.com/lifeatlevin/?hl=en-gb
Walking into an empty Amsterdam office on day one in April 2021, Yoana Leusin would have been forgiven for thinking this might have been the biggest career risk for her to date. Leaving her successful 360 recruitment role to be part of the founding European team at a FinTech recruitment start up meant that she really did get ‘hands-on’ experience of start-up life, literally unpacking tech equipment and setting up desks for the two weeks before her first academy started.
Fast forward to today and Yoana has flown up the ranks to lead our People and Performance team in Europe, running some of our most successful academies and training and developing some of our top performers. And what is it that she says drives high performance in graduate recruiters? …Donuts.
Find out more about us - https://bit.ly/aboutlevin
Yoana Leusin- https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoana-leusin/
Chelcie Harry - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelcie-harry/
Stay up to date with future podcast release dates - https://www.instagram.com/lifeatlevin/?hl=en-gb
After two decades working with international leadership team across FinTech and Tech sectors, Sonia Peters was ready for a new challenge. She was sold on Levin’s steep ambitions and growth plans and in June 2022 took the leap to join us as our first Global VP of HR.
Just seven months into her new role and Sonia is making strides, working alongside our international leadership teams to implement an HR strategy that puts our people and culture at it’s centre.
Find out more about us - https://bit.ly/aboutlevin
Sonia Peters - https://www.linkedin.com/in/soniadevipeters/
Chelcie Harry - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelcie-harry/
Stay up to date with future podcast release dates - https://www.instagram.com/lifeatlevin/?hl=en-gb
Jamie Cook, aka JC, is the poster boy for success at Levin. Joining as one of the first-ever hires back in 2019, his career has been catapulted to dizzying heights in just three and a half years.
In today’s episode we talk about his journey, from making his first deal on Christmas eve, to relocating to New York as our SVP of East Coast just 6 weeks ago. What advice would our youngest ever SVP give to people starting in recruitment? Trust the team around you, fail fast but adapt quickly, and don’t be afraid to put in the graft.
Find out more about us - https://bit.ly/aboutlevin
Jamie Cook - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiiecook/
Chelcie Harry - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelcie-harry/
Stay up to date with future podcast release dates - https://www.instagram.com/lifeatlevin/?hl=en-gb