Compliance Leadership, Settle Paradigm
Following the merger of Settle and Paradigm, the newly combined organisation was working through the challenge familiar to many merging housing providers: bringing together different teams, operating models and priorities while simultaneously delivering greater operational efficiency. Within Assets and Compliance, this challenge was particularly acute. Responsibility for compliance had recently moved into Antoinette Quinn's portfolio, alongside an already complex asset landscape. The organisation needed to determine the right long-term structure while addressing more immediate concerns around leadership, service delivery and consistency across the two legacy organisations.
The Challenge
The challenge was not simply a shortage of technical expertise. The combined organisation already had strong technical capability within its teams. What it lacked was senior operational leadership capable of bringing that expertise together, creating an effective structure and ensuring plans translated into delivery. There were also different challenges across the two legacy organisations.
Within Settle, the fire and building safety workload was significant in volume rather than complexity. The organisation did not have the extensive high-rise or external wall challenges facing some larger housing providers, but historic issues required greater coordination, prioritisation and pace. More broadly, the merger had created a need to understand how the two teams were operating, bring them together and establish a consistent approach to priorities, programmes and performance. The brief therefore required something different from a traditional technical compliance appointment.
Settle and Paradigm needed a leader who could get close to the detail: structure and manage teams, produce high-quality reports and committee papers, coordinate programmes, hold people accountable and turn strategy into a clear plan of action. As Antoinette described during the briefing, the organisation needed a "doer", someone prepared to get their hands dirty and create momentum rather than simply oversee the function from a distance.
The Solution
Neemar Search worked with Settle and Paradigm to challenge the initial assumptions around the appointment. Rather than concentrating solely on candidates already operating at Director level, the discussion explored whether an experienced Head of Service, with the right leadership capability and experience within a larger or more complex organisation, could step up into the assignment. This opened the potential candidate pool while keeping the focus on what the organisation genuinely needed: leadership, delivery and the ability to create a high-performing compliance function.
The interim approach also offered a strategic advantage. By appointing someone capable of addressing the immediate cultural and operational challenges, Settle and Paradigm could stabilise the service first and potentially broaden the profile considered when recruiting the eventual permanent leader. During the initial briefing conversation, Neemar was already able to identify a potential candidate with a background spanning Fire and Building Safety, Head of Service responsibilities and experience operating at Assistant Director level.
Crucially, previous feedback on the individual highlighted their ability to maintain service delivery and get teams performing during a period of significant organisational change — closely matching the challenge facing the newly merged organisation. Alongside the compliance option, Neemar also explored an alternative solution: bringing in interim capacity within Assets, which would enable Antoinette to retain more direct oversight of compliance herself. This consultative approach allowed the client to consider different ways of deploying interim expertise rather than forcing the requirement into a predetermined job title or structure.
The Outcome
Neemar Search presented six carefully selected candidate profiles, deliberately drawing from both sides of the potential brief. The shortlist included candidates from an Assets background alongside specialists from Fire and Building Safety, enabling the client to see the breadth of the available market and compare the different ways the immediate leadership challenge could be addressed.
Rather than restricting the search to a single predetermined profile, this gave the leadership team tangible options around how best to structure the interim support. Following internal discussions and a review of the candidates presented, Settle and Paradigm decided that strengthening the Assets function would provide the most effective solution, enabling Antoinette to retain greater oversight of Compliance herself.
Three Assets candidates progressed to virtual interview. Following those conversations, two candidates were invited into the office for a second-stage face-to-face meeting and technical assessment, allowing the client to explore their experience and capability in greater depth. Following the final assessment, a preferred candidate was identified and an offer was made. The process enabled Settle and Paradigm to move from an initially open question around where interim support would have the greatest impact to a clear appointment decision, informed by a real-time view of the available market.
The Impact
Just four weeks into the assignment, the impact of the appointment is already being recognised. Early feedback has specifically highlighted the candidate's ability to bring together the two sides of the newly merged organisation, one of the central challenges identified at the outset of the search. Rather than simply providing additional capacity within Assets, the appointment is helping create greater cohesion across the combined organisation, bringing teams and different ways of working together while maintaining a clear focus on delivery.
This early progress reinforces the value of taking a consultative approach to the original brief. By presenting credible options across both Assets and Fire and Building Safety, Neemar Search enabled the client to test different solutions against the available market before deciding where interim expertise could have the greatest organisational impact. Although the candidate remains at an early stage in the assignment, the initial feedback provides a strong indication that the appointment is already addressing one of the fundamental priorities created by the merger: bringing two organisations together and creating a more joined-up approach to delivery.
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