Finding a Visionary Leader for Queensland Music Festival

About Queensland Music Festival

The Queensland Music Festival (QMF) is one of the most important cultural events in the Sunshine State. The festival itself brings extraordinary music and experiences to Queensland, across cities, regions, and even remote areas.


Over its 20-year history, QMF has delivered events to over 1 million people across over 100 towns and cities across Queensland. QMF is currently undergoing a significant transformation of the way it partners with communities, artists and other organisations to stage music events that create measurable social and economic value for Queensland's cities and towns.


The QMF contacted Kingston Human Capital with a real 'diamond in the haystack' job — to find their new CEO.

A queensland music festival logo with a red circle
Finding a CEO to take QMF into a new era

After hearing about Kingston Human Capital’s fantastic reputation with executive recruitment, QMF contacted us to find their ''diamond in a haystack''.


As Queensland Music Festival was looking for a CEO, they needed a visionary leader with the ability to guide them into a new era.

The Hiring Requirement

Kingston Human Capital was appointed by Queensland Music Festival to recruit a CEO in a niche market.

Role We Hired

Chief Executive Officer

Channels We Used

Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, a customised microsite that we developed for QMF, Kingston Human Capital Database and our Search Algorithm.

The Challenge

How did we overcome this challenge?

We were able to help by facilitating the right type of conversation with QMF by listening deeply to their needs. As a result, we were able to determine the qualities and experience their inbound CEO would need to possess.


We used our 'needs-analysis' process to thoroughly understand QMF's past and present, with a focus on what they would like to achieve in the future. In addition, we also developed a recruitment video to help aid with global reach.


To find the right person, we needed to diagnose precisely which attributes would bring the Queensland Music Festival success, and what type of leadership style would best deliver their strategic plan.

A group of people standing in front of a sign that says r2

The Process

Leveraging digital channels and media with traditional recruitment

As we were on the hunt to fill a highly specific role, we approached recruitment using both traditional and contemporary techniques.



To find the right talent, we executed a full executive search and selection process. One of the greatest successes of finding talent for this role was the creation and deployment of a highly compelling recruitment video that communicated QMF’s vision and mission.

How Kingston Human Capital helped QMF find the right candidates?
  1. Conducted a 'needs-analysis' to understand the role and Queensland Music Festival's requirements.
  2. We developed a specialised search strategy and multi-channel attraction strategy that would appeal to passive and active talent including a recruitment video with a global reach.
  3. We leveraged our expertise in networking and referrals, searching nationwide for the right talent.
  4. We competed candidate evaluation and psychometric-testing and presented a candidate shortlist to the board.
  5. We designed a high impact interview in strategy with questions and facilitated post-interview decisions to help the board identify who was the most value-adding candidate.
  6. We supported QMF to extend the offer and develop an onboarding plan.
Learn more about Kingston Human Capital Recruitment Process

The Result

Perfect candidate recruited within 4 weeks from brief

As an incredibly successful recruitment strategy was rolled out, we received applications from both international and national candidates.



However, the perfect candidate came from our customised outreach to passive-executive candidates, who we found via our network of high-calibre individuals.

A graphic showing the number of candidates in the pool and the number of candidates interviewed.
What did Queensland Music Festival value most about Kingston Human Capital's Recruitment Services?

Queensland Music Festival valued communication and service. We are always completely transparent. We kept QMF up-to-date with regular progress updates on the project's health. At all stages, the QMF team had a full understanding of what stage we were up to and what the next steps were.

A man and a woman are sitting at a table in front of a stage.
We help recruit great executive talent
A man in a suit and tie is smiling in a black and white photo
Meet Gerard Kerr

Gerard Kerr is Co-Founder and General Manager of Search and Selection at Kingston Human Capital.


With more than 20 years’ experience in recruitment, Gerard has deep networks and extensive expertise managing complex search and selection projects across a range of sectors including local state and federal government, statutory authorities, government-owned corporations and ASX-listed companies.

We work as an agile team across retained recruitment projects, ensuring we can commit the time and effort of our entire search team. This allows us to reach further into the market, which means we get to evaluate more candidates and get high-quality results.

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