The second meeting of Oakleaf Partnership’s Ex-Forces in Human Resources (XFHR) took place on Thursday 3rd April at The Houses of Parliament. Over 80 former service men and women who now work in either HR or in-house resourcing roles were in attendance. Hosted by Adam Holloway MP, guest speakers included Lt Gen Andrew Gregory CB (Chief of Defence Personnel) and Stuart Tootal (Barclay’s Head of Physical Security and senior stakeholder in their Armed Forces Transition Employment and Resettlement (AFTER) Programme. Prior to joining Barclays Stuart commanded 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment on operations in Helmand Province. Also in attendance were Lord Younger of Leckie, who works in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (and a former HRD himself), as well as representatives from the Career Transition Partnership (www.ctp.org.uk), “Serve On” (www.serveon.org.uk) and Veterans Aid (www.veterans-aid.net).
The theme of the evening was promoting the employment of and assistance to both able bodied as well as wounded, injured and sick service leavers. A number of wounded and sick service leavers were also in attendance. During his address to the group, Richard Colgan (Founder and Managing Partner of Oakleaf and an ex-Army officer himself), spoke of the “immense pool of talented, highly motivated and proven leaders” about to transition to civilian employment. He went on the state that, “The supply of these individuals is as great as it has ever been and they should be snapped up by employers.”
