Mauricio the man with the beard

One of the great challenges as an employer is hiring the right people. The great risk in hiring the best person for the job is they won’t stay – they outgrow it, get pinched or move in a new direction.

About nine months ago, Carmenza and I met a young man, who had come to Australia with his wife so she could undertake postgraduate studies at UTS in Sydney.

I read his resume and I was impressed. He was Colombian, but has spent a year of high school in Australia. He had studied engineering in Florida and had an MBA from Spain. Not surprisingly he spoke fluent English and Spanish. He had been a successful businessman.

We were delighted when he accepted our offer to come and join Projects RH. I was immediately impressed by how calm he was and that he appreciated that small things and eye for detail or what was important. He had wonderful listening skills and could analyse between the lines and the numbers. His patience did not stop him making recommendations which would form the basis of hard decisions affecting the structure and the future not only of others businesses but of ours.

Generally, he fitted in with the flow that he knew that there was a balanced life month and sometimes at 7 o’clock he would say had to go as he had a dinner commitment.

The work we undertake at Projects RH helps others to achieve their dreams but sometimes says we cannot help. We are constantly called upon to challenge our own assumptions and review both our business model and our priorities. We asked Mauricio to work with and later visit with a team we have been working with us for some time. Following his independent review we accepted that we needed to exit that part of our business. Ours is a people business so exiting part of it does have human consequences and the recommendation of such an exit was not made lightly. How professionally it was handled says much about Mauricio.

Working with Projects RH Mauricio had to juggle a variety of projects and priorities. He worked closely with people in fintech, solar energy, health services, mining, beef and property not only in Australia, Latin America but also in Asia. He developed a healthy interest in events in Asia including China, Hong Kong and Singapore. He showed great skill in dealing with people from different cultures and ways of thinking, of course, each thought theirs was the most important project and could be done immediately.

Mauricio was an open whole person - a human being who saw the need for balance and achieved it. We had known for some time he was thinking about returning to Columbia and we appreciate he is doing this because he believes it’s in everybody’s best interests. We wish him every success. Projects RH and its sister company Tabatinga based in Singapore feel like we have our first alumni.  In this sense that in Latin America hopefully we will have an advocate and a point of reference.

We wish Beatrice and he every success for the future.