Meet Robert
Born on 24 June 1960 to London born parents, Robert was brought up in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Aged 17 he left Zimbabwe due to the unsettled security situation arriving in the UK with nothing but the suitcase of clothes he brought with him. Having to do hand to mouth jobs for at least 6 months to get through, he then made the decision to enlist in the British Army serving in the Cavalry where he saw service in Northern Ireland, Germany, Australia, and the Middle East. Robert left the Army after 7 years’ service after completing a marketing resettlement programme, he went into retail as a store manager in 1985, then a senior manager at Prudential Assurance the following year where he stayed for 12 years rising to Branch Manager before moving into recruitment.
Robert says “I suppose I was always fond of the military because of my father and the stories he used to tell me when I was a child. My father is Peter Stiff, who was a renowned military author, historian and publisher and was once a senior member of the British South Africa Police.”
Roberts first six years in recruitment was spent building up the infrastructure of the sales teams within a small family business. He was quickly able to identify the most effective methods of increasing sales. He says “My team and I worked very hard and succeeded in raising the annual sales from £3m to a phenomenal £163m during my time there.”
Following this achievement and not being in his nature to rest on his laurels, he was ready for a new challenge. The opportunity came when the company relocated to Cape Town, so in 2005 he finally decided to go for it and created a new company. Team24, a healthcare recruitment agency which initially supplied locum doctors, and then nurses, before he decided to branch out into the private healthcare market.
Robert says “We had an incredible first five years working with customers ranging from small GP surgeries, remote 'Out of Hours', large NHS trusts, hospitals and private clients in their homes.”
Team24 was by then well recognised in the industry with numerous awards and accolades.
- In 2010 Team24 topped Recruiter Magazine's Hot 100 list, based on the highest Net Fee Income companies in their sector.
- Winner of Fast Growth Business Awards, Family Business of the Year.
- Finalist of Growing Business Innovation/Technology Award, CBI finalist in best use of Technology and CBI finalist Business of the Year.
- National Business Awards finalist for Growth Strategy of the Year, BCS & Computing UK IT Industry Awards finalist for Small Business Project of the Year and Recruitment International Awards finalists.
- The Sunday Times Fast Track – listed 16th in 2009
- The Sunday times Fast Track – listed 15th in 2010
Robert was also recognised for his achievements and was successful in winning the Entrepreneur of the year award from Inside Media in 2011.
In May 2011 Robert sold Team24 to The Capita Group which was incredibly emotional for him but absolutely the right decision as Team24 will continue to flourish under Capita. He remained at the helm for a year until May 2012 when he left to start some new ventures.
Since 2012 Robert has worked on several start-ups and acquisitions which now form part of the Galago Group
