Our initial discussions took place as the National Lottery was approaching its tenth anniversary. Since its establishment a total in excess of £14 billion had been raised for good causes. However, research indicated that awareness of the general public as to the benefits that these funds were creating was poor. A formal review in 2002 concluded that a specialist independent unit be established which would report to a Joint Management Board consisting of Camelot - the operator of the National Lottery, the Department of Culture Media & Sport - the sponsoring Government body, and the Distributors of National Lottery funds. The remit of the Unit was to inform the general public on how their Lottery money was being spent and to identify ways that Government, Distributors and Camelot, working together, could do a better job of telling people where their money goes.

Our challenge was first to recruit a Director to head the new Unit and then to recruit the supporting senior management team. Working with the Joint Management Board we advised on structure and developed the specifications for the team members. A combination of media including National press was selected to carry the advertisement for the Director role and, not surprisingly, we received a huge response from a vast variety of candidates for this high profile position. Unusually, the long list of candidates was interviewed jointly by a Managing Partner from Snowdon Tate and a senior representative from the Joint Management Board. The subsequent shortlist of 4 candidates was met by the full Joint Management Board and a highly qualified candidate appointed. A similar process was used to recruit the senior managers this time complementing the National press advertising with specialist publications.

Throughout the process we ensured that all members of the tripartite Joint Management Board were kept involved and informed of exactly what was happening and that the various recruitment criteria required by the different members of the team were being met. We also had to assess the extent to which candidates selected for shortlists would be able to work within the highly complex matrix structure.

Our approach to achieving a successful outcome was to work closely and collaboratively with the Management Board throughout the recruitment process. Clarity and the setting of common objectives from the start were key, advising and agreeing on structure, remits and remuneration at the outset. The outcome of our close working partnership was the successful appointment of a powerful and productive team.

Marshall Ayoade, Head of Human Resources for Camelot PLC commented as follows:

"When recruiting for the newly formed National Lottery Promotions Unit I found Snowden Tate to be excellent in their management of the various assignments; in particular the customer service from start to finish was spot-on. The handling of the candidates throughout the entire process was exactly what we were looking for when handling such high profile positions."

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