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David Winterburn, a former Chairman of the Board for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has been elected President of the ECSSA, the European search and selection organisation, which he was instrumental in forming. 

The European Confederation of Search and Selection Associations represents nearly 700 executive search and selection consultancies across France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Germany and the UK.  

David, a Fellow of the REC, is also a member and previous Chairman of the confederation’s Association of Executive Recruiters’ (AER) sector group and through it,  he developed his individual role within the ECSSA as a non-executive Director/UK ambassador. 

His services to the recruitment industry were recognised at the end of last year when he picked up a special prize at the REC’s inaugural Individual Membership Recruitment Awards.

He was presented with the Eileen Simpson Award given to the senior recruitment professional making the most outstanding contribution to the reputation and profile of the recruitment industry.   

David is the Managing Director of Harrison Winterburn Associates Ltd. and is also Chairman of the Institute of Directors’ West Yorkshire region. He joined the industry in the early 90s and in that time, he has worked for small, medium and large plc organisations including a substantial European operator.  

In 1997, he started contributing to the trade bodies that represented the recruitment industry. His involvement resulted in him being appointed Yorkshire Chairman, a role he held for more than four years.  

Through his continued contribution, he has been asked over the years to act as an ambassador for the industry at local, regional, national and European level. In 2003, he was co-opted and subsequently appointed to the Board of the REC and a year later, became its Chairman, the highest possible role and honour within the trade association. 

Of his election as President of the ECSSA, David said:  “I am delighted to be appointed to this high profile role. My predecessor Dr. Joachim Staude has left a very firm foundation and during the next two years, we will be developing a European wide Certified Executive Search qualification. This will allow practitioners to demonstrate their high degree of professionalism, which is already widely recognised and widely accepted in the search industry.

"Although we have six countries involved currently this will grow further. My vision is that we will have over 1,000 companies represented in our membership before my two year tenure is completed.”