At the APSO conference, Pat Ryan, Owner Manager of Ryan’s Personnel in the Eastern Cape was deservedly awarded the Founders Cup, APSO’s award for service excellence to the recruitment industry. Pat has been involved in the recruitment industry for more than 25 years, having started her career in Zimbabwe first as an accountant and then as a real estate agent. After being widowed at the early age of 32, Pat was left with limited resources to raise her 3 children and so began her test of putting her belief of “it’s not what happens to you, but what you do with what happens that counts”, into practice. In the early 80s Pat relocated her family to Johannesburg and after a series of very poor experiences with recruitment companies who didn’t know what to do with her – Pat had vast experience in marketing, accounting and management but no formal qualifications – she was determined to get recruiting experience. She initially joined a small agency but within four months elected to open her own recruitment agency to satisfy her desire to meet her high expectations. The rest, they say, is history. Within a year, Pat and her partner had built the business to a position, that with 12 staff, they become a presence within the industry. Realising that she needed more industry knowledge & exposure, Pat become an APSO member in 1986.

Soon thereafter, she was invited to serve on the Executive Board as Vice Chair of the Management Section. Pat felt, as a person with limited recruitment experience, she was very privileged to work alongside captains of the industry who were willing to mentor and capacity build others, like herself.

Hardly two years later, Pat was elected as the Chairperson of the Management section and from there Chairperson of the newly formed Search Section, co-writing the Code of Ethics and Conduct, coupled with facilitating training programmes to be presented locally by subject-experts from America and England.

Pat remained on the APSO board throughout her career, latterly as the Chairperson of the Border region and then Chairperson of the Eastern Cape. Pat stepped down from this position saying that APSO needs to “bring new people through”.

Pat has also been actively involved in the Labour Recruitment Chamber within the Services SETA at an exciting time that included formulating policies and developing learnerships for the recruiting industry. Pat has served on the APSO board of both regionally & nationally for approximately 17 years holding various portfolios and often being invited to sit on boards to provide guidance & experience in terms of her long standing experience within the recruitment industry.

When asked what drives her, Pat replied, “Passion!” She further expanded to say that the passion needs to include passion for the industry, for excellence and for learning. Pat is a firm believer in continually striving to improve, to implement best practice and to access and understand new, cutting edge technologies.

In 1991, Pat married Harold and together with her children, Pat joined him in East London where she launched Ryans Personnel. With “mine, yours and ours”, they have seven children and six grandchildren.

“What attracted me to Hippo (Harold’s nickname) was the fact that he is, unlike me, a conformist but with a sense of the ridiculous. He allows me to be simply Pat, whether that is a good or bad thing!”

Four years ago, Pat and Harold moved to Port Elizabeth so that Pat could have a more hands-on approach to her PE branch. This has clearly paid off and Ryans is now a force on the move as plans for a third branch, in Cape Town, are in the pipeline.

Though Harold’s son Michael has worked in Pat’s company, her own children never did. Antonia Macrides, her daughter, is presently the Director of a recruitment company in Australia and has conducted training programmes in SA, including presenting at the 2006 APSO National Conference.

Pat has handed over most of the responsibility of running Ryans Personnel to General Manager, Anne Collocott, who has 12 years industry experience.

“Awaiting me are many oceans to dive, rivers to cross and mountains to climb. The world changes constantly and there is no better way of keeping up than by visiting and experiencing foreign countries and cultures,” she says.