Due to long-term staff attrition, WWF needed to replace country heads in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. They also required a Pacific Director to manage both country heads and their Fiji program.

The vacancies occurred almost simultaneously. The Papua New Guinea position had initially remained vacant for many months. Following a previously unsuccessful executive search process, WWF engaged NGO Recruitment to take over.

NGO Recruitment mapped candidates throughout the Pacific region and beyond to find Pacific nationals, and conservation program leaders with Pacific region experience, who could be suitable for all three positions. This was a complex exercise which required a deep search and demanded significant regional experience to understand the cultural nuances and challenges of the various country recruitment assignments.

In all, over 600 applications were received and NGO Recruitment mapped, identified, and approached over 500 potential candidates for this challenging recruitment, ensuring qualified, highly motivated, and technically competent candidates were presented for all positions. WWF were impressed with the broad, deep and highly competitive searches for all positions, and that a female, Solomon Island national candidate, who was residing outside of the country elsewhere in the Pacific was appointed.