Gareth NewberyInclusion & Talent Acquisition Leader

Professional development

Hands-on AI practice and job search

Since leaving Baker McKenzie I've been looking for my next senior role, and using the time for structured study in AI and change management and for building with the tools day to day, mostly in n8n, Lovable and Claude.

• Qualified as a Prosci® Certified Change Practitioner, completed IE University's AI & Agentic Systems programme and ivee's Advanced AI Agents Programme in June 2026, and am now on Outskill's AI Generalist programme.
• Automated my own market research, connecting AI assistants to live sources through n8n and MCP connectors: work that used to take half a day now takes about 20 minutes.
• Built an n8n workflow that takes Fireflies meeting transcripts, works out who agreed to do what and by when, and creates each person's actions in Airtable.
• Connected AI assistants to my email and calendar to review and draft replies, and built a Telegram assistant that turns my voice notes into to-dos and diary entries.
• Built my own job-search system with Claude Code and Airtable. Each morning it scans job boards, agency sites and employer careers pages, screens every advert for level, location, salary and language, scores what's left and sends a summary to my phone. A dashboard tracks each application from shortlist to interview, with dates and status.
• Designed and ran a survey of how organisations are using AI, sent directly to around 50 people, building the data pipeline, the EU AI Act transparency notice and the dashboard behind it.
• Built this site in English and Spanish, a second website and an interactive version of my CV, all in Lovable.

Baker McKenzie

Recruitment Manager

In an SRA-regulated law firm, one of two Recruitment Managers, sharing responsibility for experienced-hire and volume recruitment for the London office across the practice groups and business services, with 12–22 live roles at any one time.

• Delivered approximately £1m in annual recruitment savings in a two-person recruitment team by cutting agency reliance, overseeing London recruitment spend day to day.
• On joining, filled 25 new roles for a newly created London business development and marketing communications team in around three months, most of them sourced directly.
• With a fellow Recruitment Manager, tightened the existing direct-first approach, securing Management Committee sign-off for two weeks of direct sourcing on every London role before agencies, which ended ad hoc agency use by Partners.
• Ran direct headhunting and market mapping for senior and specialist hires, working with Pirical and LinkedIn Recruiter and cutting reliance on contingent agencies.
• Recruited for the London risk team as it built out its anti-money laundering function, hired two risk lawyers, and filled technology roles in infrastructure, information security and IT support.
• Worked within mandatory pre-employment screening for every London hire, withdrawing offers where checks raised concerns.
• Kept offer acceptance at around 95%, with close attention to candidate experience at every stage.
• Extended the firm's CVmail ATS to several EMEA offices without a structured system, working with the vendor, and trained local recruiters on LinkedIn Recruiter and Boolean search.
• Sat in weekly practice group sessions with the business manager, resourcing manager and HR business partner, aligning hiring demand, pipeline and capacity with each group's growth plans.
• Mentored recruiters in the Madrid, Dubai and Brussels offices on a dotted line, and supported and developed the recruitment coordinators.
• Advised Partners and senior leaders on role design, hiring priorities and assessment, and pushed back where they wanted to recruit outside agreed process.

Intrepid Teachers Ltd

Director & Talent Lead

Purchased, rebranded and ran a boutique TEFL recruitment and training business, connecting teachers with schools in China, Vietnam and Thailand, and with some schools in Saudi Arabia. Ran the P&L and all aspects of operations, client relationships, candidate support and online training delivery. Business sold in 2019 to pursue senior in-house roles.

Fragomen

Regional Talent Acquisition Manager, EMEA

Joined via Korn Ferry's on-site RPO in London; hired directly in 2015. Built the EMEA talent acquisition function from scratch for a global immigration law firm, across nine offices in eight countries. Designed the operating model, assessment framework, ATS governance and sourcing strategy, and built and led the regional recruitment team.

• Moved hiring away from agencies booked through HR to an in-house model: 280 hires in one year, 85%+ via direct sourcing, cutting agency spend and time-to-hire.
• Led hiring for the Sheffield office launch: 40+ offers made in two weeks, coordinating sourcing, assessment and onboarding at the same time.
• Set up and launched the firm's employee referral scheme as a further direct-hire channel alongside in-house sourcing.
• Owned university attraction for London graduate entry and contributed to LinkedIn careers page content with the social media team, keeping warm pipelines of prior applicants and sourced candidates live to be re-approached when roles opened.
• Headhunted and hired Fragomen's first General Counsel for EMEA directly, outside the standard recruitment process.
• Introduced competency-based interviews, hiring manager training and psychometric assessments to strengthen fairness and quality of hire.

Mitie

Talent Acquisition Partner

• Covered frontline engineering and facilities management roles alongside office-based hires.
• Reduced agency spend by approximately £150k a year.

Sodexo

Resourcing Partner – Operations

• Averaged 13 hires a month across operational roles, with an 85% direct-hire rate.
• Saved approximately £200k a year in agency fees.