In our 5 minutes with profiles, MEF members talk about their business, their aspirations for the future and the wider mobile industry. This week, Melina Jacovou, CEO and Founder, introduces UK based tech recruitment specialists, Propel.
What does Propel do?
Propel is an award-winning recruitment agency supporting advertising, marketing and technology within the digital world. We offer standard contingency recruitment services across the UK and overseas, as well as an Executive Division. This side of the business places high-level candidates into major strategic roles for our clients, as well as assisting those outside the UK to set up offices here.
Mobile is a particular focus for us and crosses all the areas in which we recruit. As it happens, we have just been shortlisted for the ME Awards 2013 for the ‘Best Mobile Recruitment Agency’ category.
We also offer annual Digital Salary Insights to the industry at large. It’s a well utilised resource! Our latest edition is available now.
When did Propel launch and what growth have you seen?
We’ve been around since 2001 and have seen consistent growth since then. Having been around for that amount of time, we have grown up with the world of digital and mobile. It has given us great insight into the industry we work in. A particular highlight of our growth was appointing Thomas Chambers, former CFO of Symbian, in 2012 as a Non Executive Director.
What are Propel’s main goals?
We love digital and our goal remains the same today as it always has been, to help the digital world grow and ensure its talent is recognised throughout the industry.
Where do you see Propel in three years’ time?
We have recently made a number of senior hires within the Propel team, two new Team Managers and a Marketing Manager, as well as a number of lower level hires. These are all part of a strategy to assist with the growth of our business across all areas of digital advertising, marketing and technology. In three years time we see ourselves as the consultancy to assist global companies with the hire and retention of the best talent the industry has to offer.
What aspect of mobile is most exciting to you right now?
We really like the fact that mobile is no longer a niche – it’s just a normal part of a business and marketing strategy. Gone are the days where mobile was just a tag along issue, or a one man silo in a business. We see client’s everyday that has whole teams with mobile skilled people throughout – it really shows that mobile is well and truly embedded in today’s business environment.
What’s the most critical issue that will hit mobile within the next 12 months?
The take up of near field communications could be critical to mobile. It offers so much opportunity to consumers and businesses alike and if we see a high volume of near field technologies and apps being produced with poor take up, it could be detrimental to mobile generally. That said, we think mobile is so well established that a lack of near field take up certainly won’t mean the end of mobile.
Apart from your own, which mobile companies are the ones to watch in the year ahead?
For us, the companies to watch are the ones we don’t know about yet! Nowadays we see genius start-ups revolutionising their industries in no time at all. Open source and sharing collaborations give access to a huge volume of resources and skills and the digital world is ripe for all manner of clever apps and technologies. Those working at the forefront of emerging technologies are likely to be tomorrow’s game changers – it will be really exciting to see the next big thing!
Melina Jacovou is the CEO and Founder of Propel – you can follow them on Twitter here. Propel recently shared their Digital Salary Insights report with us – take a look.
mefminute 
Leave a Reply