Past, present, and back to the future
It is fundamentally illogical that there are businesses around the world struggling to fill skills shortages while people with those skills are effectively going to waste, trapped in a hopeless limbo where they are unable to work legally and practice their skills. This is the case for millions of refugees in the world today.
The solution is obvious: make this pool of talent visible and connect it with businesses who need that talent. Then let market forces take over.
This compelling logic is what has kept me, and all of us at Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB), pushing forward for the last four years. I am sure I speak for all of us when I confess that it hasn't been smooth sailing. There were times in the early years when I doubted we could make it happen.
And yet here we are. We have just celebrated the 12-month work anniversary of our first ever refugee candidate hired by a company abroad and relocated internationally. I’ll never forget greeting Tarek Mulla, a talented young computer programmer, as he disembarked at Melbourne Airport this time last year.
A year later Tarek is doing great. He is a valued employee at global financial technology firm Iress. Iress is happy - they have since hired two more programmers through TBB, and are in the process of hiring more. Tarek has embraced his new life at Iress and in Australia with enthusiasm. He has bought a car. He is engaged to be married. His future is bright.
Others followed Tarek throughout 2019, arriving in Australia, Canada and the UK - often together with their families. The latest arrival was in Perth a few days ago. They have all had their challenges but they are all thriving. It has been inspiring to witness the courage and resilience of our candidates - showing how ordinary people can do extraordinary things and prevail over adversity.
On the employer side, all employers who have hired through us have come back wanting to hire more. This is no longer just a theoretical good idea. We have a model that works!
I guess I always imagined that we would get to this point, but it has been a long road. Good ideas attract good people and we have been blessed from the start by an extraordinary group of people who have come together to make this happen; first and foremost, my amazing co-founders Mary Louise and Bruce Cohen who got TBB started in the US, and globally, with funding from the US State Department in 2016 to set up our offices in Lebanon and Jordan, and a cooperation agreement with UNHCR. Working with the TBB team has been one of the high points of my career - not at all what I was expecting in my "retirement"! Lucky me.
With TBB co-founders, Mary Louise and Bruce Cohen, advocating for displaced Talent Mobility in Parliament House, Canberra.
It is good to take time out and look back over what we have achieved but we also have our eyes keenly set on the future. In 2020, Talent Beyond Boundaries is aiming to settle our first candidates in New Zealand. Our other big focus will be scaling up our operations in the UK. We believe that there is a huge opportunity there for our talented candidates to fill skills shortages, particularly in a post-Brexit world.
This will be our usual win, win, win: a win for the UK economy, a win for UK businesses, and of course a win for skilled refugees who get to restart their careers and lives.
In my "Back to the Future" moment, TBB will be exhibiting in London, March 12, at the 2020 EMEA Trading Conference of the FIX Trading Community. I will be there with Marina Brizar, TBB's newly appointed UK Director. FIX is where I made my money with the product CameronFIX from my company Cameron Systems (lucky that I had nothing to do with the naming of TBB, or I might have managed to fit a ‘Cameron’ in there too!). It will be an odd feeling to be back presenting at a FIX event, and I hope to run into some of my old colleagues.
We expect that this will be the first of many trade events for TBB in the UK and around the world as we spread the news of our large untapped talent pool to industries struggling to fill skills gaps locally. If you have connections to particular industry events or trade shows that would be a good fit for TBB, please let me know.
And if you are in the UK in March, come and say hello at the FIX event! Failing that, you can always support TBB by facilitating introductions to employers looking to hire top talent.