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REINVENTION: DARREN CHALLIS
1 hours 7 minutes ago | Leo D'Angelo Fisher +font - font print email
Like many lawyers, Darren Challis decided that the law was
not for him. However, his five years as a corporate lawyer with
Minter Ellison was indirectly responsible for putting Challis on
his preferred career path: executive search.
This unusual career deviation placed Challis in the right spot
last year, when he was chosen to set up the Australian
subsidiary of United States-based global executive search
company, DHR International .
Challis left the law to undertake an MBA at the Australian
Graduate School of Management, now the Australian School of sponsored links
Business at the University of NSW . Six years as a management consultant at Boston Consulting Making property investment easy.
Group followed before he joined Fairfax Media (publisher of BRW ) as a senior executive in Invest in secure worry-free
property with DHA.
commercial strategy and new media.
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So why the switch to executive search? “By definition, search finds you,” he smiles. It took some time Inspire new ideas & thinking
for Cupid’s arrow to find its mark. Egon Zehnder International first approached Challis while he was at Over 40 business experts
BCG and discussions took place off and on over four years. It was while at Fairfax, in 2006, that New Resource for Resources!
Challis realised how much he missed being in the role of “trusted adviser”. Exclusive and dedicated coverage.
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Challis spent the next three years as a search consultant at Egon Zehnder, before being headhunted
by DHR. When Challis set up DH International – as the firm is known locally – in Sydney last June, it
was just him. He now has a staff of four and the aim is to build a business of 10 consultants by 2015.
“It’s been a very satisfying experience,” he says.
DHR was founded by David Hoffmann in 1989. Hoffmann, who is group chairman and chief executive,
decided to establish an Australian presence when he was working on a search assignment in the US
for an Australian client. “He felt it was a good time to move into Australia, particularly given a relatively
strong market across Asia during the global financial crisis compared with Europe and the US,” Challis
says.
Running DH International has confirmed Challis’s passion for search. “I get a lot of enjoyment out of
being a trusted adviser and being in a top-tier global search firm I can pursue that relationship of
trusted adviser in a very personal and privileged way,” he says.
“Every day I’m talking to chairmen, CEOs and other senior executives about themselves and their
teams, about their careers, their lives and their aspirations for themselves and their businesses.”
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TOPICS Employment & Industrial Relations, Media & Marketing/Publishing & Media,
Technology/Telecommunications
Leo D'Angelo Fisher
Reporter Melbourne
Leo D'Angelo Fisher specialises in management and leadership issues, emerging companies
and corporate strategy. He is a former editor of Rydges magazine, deputy editor of Far East
Business, deputy editor of Business Queensland and a senior business writer at The Bulletin. He
wrote the book Rethink: The Story of Edward de Bono in Australia.
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