Meet the Team - Ryan Surry

A bit about me…

I have two young boys – two and four – who keep me on my toes when I’m not at the office! When not at work or with the kids, I like to spend my time socialising, playing golf with a bit of rugby here and there, and I’m trying to spend more time on jiu-jitsu mats too. I’ve done a few Tough Mudders as well; I like to keep quite active.

Intaso takes up a lot of my time, but I still like to keep a good balance. I’ve worked previously in London where you don’t end up leaving for the office at 5am and you’re not back till 7-8PM most nights, so the only quality time you get with the kids or the family is on the weekend. When we set up Intaso, I wanted to make sure I got that balance back, and made it a priority that everyone has the time and balance to do the things they want to do outside of work too.

What was I doing before Intaso?

I’m an engineer by trade, I actually used to sell engineering equipment, which didn’t really light the fire in me. I moved out of that into technical recruitment, and spent the best part of a decade building cyber security headhunting functions.

I learnt a lot doing that – how to do things well, but also how to not do things well! It got to the point where I thought ‘I can give this a go myself, with a collective of like-minded individuals we can achieve great things’. I knew we could build something which isn’t your stereotypical recruitment function.

How did I come to be at Intaso?

At the beginning, I was on my own. After three months, Jamie came on board and two months later we had Joe. 90% of the people we have at Intaso today have come from recommendations from clients, candidates and peers. We meet a lot of recruiters, and it’s important that when we’re recruiting for the team, they buy into our way of working.

We’ve met some extraordinary people along the way, but they don’t always fit with how we do things at Intaso. Culture is so important to us, so finding a team of people and blending personalities is just as important as people’s pieces of paper. I see my role as a Chief Culture Officer essentially!

Something people might not know about me is…

Having played rugby for 30 years I have a lot of stories… but not many that would be appropriate to share here! What I can tell you is that I’m a keen chef, and absolutely love cooking. I cook every day, and we have a daily routine between 4 and 7 with the little ones; dinner time, bath and bed. So if you’ve ever tried to reach me during these hours and haven’t been able to, this is probably why!