Talent 2

John Rawlinson (or JR as he is better known) started his working life as a Physical Education teacher. Little did he know that when he swapped his track suit for a business suit in 1985 it would start a lifelong passion. After some experience in a sales role at a multinational pharmaceutical company, JR's career really took off when he joined Morgan & Banks. JR's breadth of experience working under the juggernaut duo includes founding Morgan & Banks Technology, a move to the United States for TMP Worldwide and in 2003, then returning to Australia to establish Talent2.

As the current founding CEO, JR has taken Talent2 from a start-up business to a company with annual revenues of over $300 million and 1,700 people spanning the globe in 19 countries. JR takes great pride and ownership of Talent2's vision to be the best end-to-end talent management organisation in Asia Pacific and around the world by 2015.

In a career spanning over 20 years in human resources and recruitment, with clients both large and small across most industry sectors, JR is experienced in executive search, executive contracting, organisational change and all elements of HR business process outsourcing.  Before founding Talent2, JR was based in North America as Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, TMP Worldwide - the owner of leading online recruitment site Monster.com. Prior to this JR was CEO Morgan & Banks Technology after a successful Directorship of Victorian Operations of Morgan & Banks.

JR has a Bachelor of Education from Victoria University and a Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Swinburne University.

Outside of work, JR dedicates his time to his family, raising his three children.   A lover of the great outdoors, John specialised in Outdoor Education during his time as a teacher and was a pioneer of the Surfing Schools Program in Victoria. He still enjoys the occasional surf, is an enthusiastic Collingwood supporter and keen golfer.

JR is well known for his accessible style and genuine interest in his people - whenever he can afford the time he will open the door to listen. This drives one of his greatest assets - his ability to recognise and combine the strengths of people across all levels of the business.  JR encourages resourcefulness, synergy and initiative to allow people to realise their own potential and that of the bigger team.