Founder

Porteur Keene

I have been lucky enough to have worked in the ‘Talent’ space since graduation, and it’s a space that I love!

I began my post University career with the Human Capital practice of Arthur Andersen in London before subsequently joining a boutique Search firm in the City, focusing on roles both within corporates and consulting firms. These were the years in which I listened and learned and cemented my love of the space I am still working in today.

In 2004, I co-founded Changeboard, having spotted an opportunity to build a global HR Community/platform. Changeboard’s annual flagship ‘Future Talent Conference’ has become the go-to event in the UK and the GCC to discover how to address the major Future Talent business issues of our time. I was the ‘Executive Chairman” for 14 years and sold my stake in the business in September 2017 but stayed on for a further year.

In April 2018 I launched my new venture  – Art of Talent, which is a boutique ‘Executive Search and Leadership Advisory’ consulting firm (pre-dominantly active in the Human Capital and Digital/Technology sectors) and made-up of some of the most effective Thought leaders and practitioners in the Talent space.

In addition to founding Art of Talent, I am Chairman of FizzPopBang, a Strategic Advisor to Alexander Mann Solutions and Grasp.HR.

Helping others is one of my passions, which is why I am a career mentor to a number of senior corporate executives in the HR & Digital space, and I am supporting a tech platform that aims to increase opportunities for ‘Black Talent’ in the workplace which is an extremely rewarding role for me.

Founder

Porteur Keene

I have been lucky enough to have worked in the ‘Talent’ space since graduation, and it’s a space that I love!

I began my post University career with the Human Capital practice of Arthur Andersen in London before subsequently joining a boutique Search firm in the City, focusing on roles both within corporates and consulting firms. These were the years in which I listened and learned and cemented my love of the space I am still working in today.

In 2004, I co-founded Changeboard, having spotted an opportunity to build a global HR Community/platform. Changeboard’s annual flagship ‘Future Talent Conference’ has become the go-to event in the UK and the GCC to discover how to address the major Future Talent business issues of our time. I was the ‘Executive Chairman” for 14 years and sold my stake in the business in September 2017 but and stayed on for a further year.

In April 2018 I launched my new venture  – Art of Talent, which is a boutique ‘Executive Search and Leadership Advisory’ consulting firm (pre-dominantly active in the Human Capital and Digital/Technology sectors) and made-up of some of the most effective Thought leaders and practitioners in the Talent space.

In addition to founding Art of Talent, I am also the Chairman of FizzPopBang, a Strategic Advisor to Alexander Mann Solutions, a Strategic Advisor and to Grasp.HR, a now working closely with a tech platform that aims to increase the opportunities for ‘Black Talent’ in the workplace.

I am also a career mentor to a number of senior corporate executives in the HR & Digital space, which is an extremely rewarding role for me.

What We Do

Art of Talent was conceived to bring a fresh perspective to the ‘talent’ space and to assemble some of the brightest minds together into a collective whereby the sum of the parts becomes a serious game-changer for clients.

I have spent the last 23 years with senior Talent Professionals, both as a headhunter and as someone running various consulting offerings. I have listened to these individuals, to their passions, their concerns and their frustrations.  In the main, most of these individuals want to bring positive change to their organisations and to make them places where employees will thrive as people and develop hugely as professionals.

The roles that these senior stakeholders play within their respective corporates is in many cases a lonely one, and knowing that my network consists of their senior peers who have no doubt had to face similar issues themselves, I have frequently been asked to advise across a range of issues.  In many cases I have simply set up coffee meets for these individuals, however, more and more it has been a case of recommending specialists who can potentially help them to design effective and sustainable solutions. Many of these solutions have been a multi-layered, involving the input of more than one practitioner.

So ‘Art of Talent’ has been honed to bring together a group of rather wonderful people, all of whom I know personally and have done for many years. In certain circumstances they can offer the client a solution as individuals, however, in many scenarios they will combine to execute a solution. This collective/collegiate approach to problem solving will be game-changing for many organisations and will in many cases offer solutions that the client would not have foreseen.

As a collective have brought together 300 of the brightest corporate ‘Talent’ stakeholders into a private group. Why? Because we want them to meet with each other regularly in an environment where no one is pushing a hidden agenda so that they can share losses and victories and collaborate with each other. We hope to encourage the members to see that the power of collaboration and a sense of being open-minded is a great thing. Serendipity will underpin all that we do.

And me…well apart from being the Founder of this rather cool initiative, I will be a running senior search and assessment project across corporate, financial services and professional services institutions. I have extensive experience of appointing Senior Individuals in the Human Capital and Digital space. So, do contact me should you wish to scope out a potential role in either area.