Who we are


Ian Wilson BSc., MBA, MAICD
Managing Director

Ian Wilson has a wide range of managerial experience in different industries. He has developed a reputation in strategic planning, implementation and organisation development and it is these skills which he brings to assignments in the consulting and professional search markets to the significant benefit of his clients. These clients include national and international law firms as well as leading global accounting firms, management consulting firms, engineering companies and major corporates. His assignments have included searches at the managing partner, specialist partner and support directors for these professional firms and senior executives and general counsel for corporations. He has a strong interest in structure, management and governance and frequently advises clients in these areas as part of his consulting assignments.
 
Over a recent ten-year period he has been Chief Executive of large law firms, Middletons Moore and Bevins in Australia and Bell Gully in New Zealand and is one of the few people to have gained international experience in the leadership of professional service firms.

His search career in the professional services market has been greatly assisted by his intimate understanding of the pressures under which professionals operate whether in private practice or as in-house counsel.

With degrees in engineering and management, his career has spanned the industrial sector, public service and the professions in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. He has held managing director, chief executive or general manager positions in all of these sectors and has managed companies as small as $1 million turnover venture capital funded operations to $100 million organisations.

His early career was in engineering and technical management roles in aero engine development with Rolls-Royce and telecommunications with Telstra. A 6-year stint in various management roles with Australia Post culminated with his appointment as Head of Network Planning. He then spent five years as Head of Strategic Planning for Price Waterhouse, moving it onto a more focused business platform across 43 offices in the Asia-Pacific region. In the printing and packaging sector as General Manager of the Graphic Technologies Division of Edwards Dunlop, he restructured the five companies comprising the operations in Australia and New Zealand onto a streamlined, more profitable basis enabling onward sale of the division. He was then appointed as Managing Director of a venture capital funded, start-up chemical company to spearhead the commercialisation phase of manufacturing and global marketing of its Australian developed and patented technology.

Ian maintains a keen interest in technology and infrastructure and was recently Chairman for 3 years of the Carson Group, the leading Australasian specialist project management company prior to its acquisition by Coffey International. He was also recently an independent Director of Baldwin Shelston Waters, a trans-Tasman patent attorney firm. He holds a B.Sc. (Honours) in Engineering from Edinburgh University and an MBA from Monash University Melbourne and is currently a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Australian Corporate Lawyers Association and, prior to its recent merger, the Australian Council for Infrastructure Development.


Shashi Wilson BA (Hons) Ph.D
Director

Shashi Wilson has over 24 years experience in evidence based research, policy development, strategic planning, social marketing and program evaluation. She consults to business and government in a range of specialist areas including:

  • Social research and marketing
  • Communications
  • Advertising
  • Strategic planning
  • Policy development and implementation

As an experienced researcher she provides research support for the executive search assignments undertaken by Lonsdale Wilson.



Aileen Bleus
Research Consultant

Aileen manages the research activities for the firm and has worked with the Directors over the last 4 years.

She has ten years experience in the executive search / recruitment field during which time she has delivered research for senior positions in sectors including Banking & Finance, Insurance, Legal, Government, Construction / Infrastructure and Aviation. Aileen is experienced at providing comprehensive research utilising processes including networking, database management, published sources and the internet.

Prior to her career in executive search, Aileen spent a number of years with Schroders Australia Limited in variety of roles within the Investment Management Division, Cash Management Trust and Retail Products Division. She also worked at IBM Australia, Swiss Reinsurance and Australian Scholarships Group.



Graeme Rogers
Director, Wilson-Rogers Associates Pty Ltd

Graeme is a Director of our associated company WRA and partners with us on major assignments.

He has 15 years experience in Executive Search and has conducted successful Board level, CEO, and Senior Executive Search assignments across Engineering, Infrastructure and Project Management, Financial Services and Manufacturing and Logistics. He takes particular pride in his record of ensuring strong cultural fit in all of his appointments.

Graeme’s career includes extensive international and domestic experience at senior management level in finance, marketing, strategic planning and management consulting.

His early career was in Australian industry and manufacturing in senior financial management roles, followed by appointments in stockbroking, investment banking, institutional and corporate banking, and consulting.

Prior to his career in executive search Graeme held appointments as a Vice President of the Chase Manhattan Bank - New York in London, New York, and Melbourne; Vice President and Representative of First National Bank of Chicago in Sydney; and General Manager-Marketing of Midland International Australia Ltd. He then joined PA Consulting Group as a Senior Consultant in Strategic Consulting to financial institutions before moving to executive search.

Graeme effectively combines the analytical and management disciplines of an experienced financial executive with the practical approach of his experience in marketing competitive products and services, and the client understanding of consulting in strategic marketing and executive search.

An Accountant by profession, Graeme holds membership of CPA Australia, FINSIA ( previously the Securities Institute of Australia) and AICD. He has undertaken Post Graduate studies at the London School of Economics, with the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago, and at the University of Technology, Sydney.