About Us

David’s career started when he joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force as an engineer.

He attended Canterbury University completing a Commerce degree and was awarded a Ceramco Queen Elizabeth II scholarship, resulting in an accelerated introduction to hands-on middle and senior management roles. His experience included working in Heavy Engineering companies in Christchurch, distribution organisations in Auckland and in the resource development group with mining and mineral processing operations in New Zealand and Australia.

David’s first general management role was for a US based ‘direct marketer’, and this was followed by an opportunity to establish a ‘green fields’ company for a Japanese manufacturing company.

His move into the consulting arena commenced in the mid 1980’s when he used his management experience with a small locally based recruitment consultancy. He joined a multinational recruiter and became the top performing consultant.

David established his own consultancy in 1990 and had built that business up until its sale in 1998, establishing a successful Australian operation with the new owners in 1999. In 2000 David decided to work independently focusing on search based recruitment in more technical areas where candidates are in short supply and where search methodology can prove to be the most time and cost effective way of delivering a solution to the client.

In late 2005 after a comprehensive evaluation process, David Ealson and Associates Ltd was invited to join the global Cornerstone consortium www.cornerstone-group.com .

This is the fourth largest search and Human Resources consulting group in the world. With in excess of one hundred offices across more than forty countries, the group is well positioned to provide a unique portfolio of services, making the Cornerstone International Group motto, “The power of many…The focus of one” meaningful and relevant in the New Zealand market.

Cornerstone Search New Zealand Ltd was established to reflect the change in the international relationship, and to signal to organisations, a new era in the provision of recruitment services in New Zealand, with a continued focus on ethical service delivery.

Dick Knapp
Senior Consultant

Dick Knapp is a specialist consultant with over 18 year's experience in recruitment and human resources. Dick has international experience in recruitment in the technical arena and has an in-depth understanding of the mining, resources, public sector and health industries amongst others.

Much of Dick's consulting work has been for South Island companies.
For the last 2 years he has been Human Resources Manager for Pike River Coal Ltd.

During his tenure with Pike River Coal Ltd, Dick project-managed the recruitment of all senior technical roles, both within New Zealand and internationally.

Dick Knapp
Senior Consultant

Company Profile - Cornerstone International

Why is CORNERSTONE Selected as a Preferred Provider Around the World?
Best Price/ Best Value: Cornerstone has repeatedly proven (through competition with all the other major search firms) that we are more reliable, and more flexible in terms of price, i.e., we offer better value. When other search firms offer cheaper pricing, they usually sacrifice reliability. This gives client less value and more hassles. Commercially, Cornerstone is able to match any reasonable discount while still delivering consistently good results.

Continuous Quality Improvement: Cornerstone continuously improves its executive search processes. Since 1985, the goal at every regional meeting and global conference of Cornerstone is quality improvement. For example, Cornerstone was the first ---and only--- retained search organization to give written warranty for our work. We were also the first --and only-- retained search firm to significantly improve the quality and accuracy of the reference checking process.

Dr Duff Watkins - Cornerstone International Australia

Dr Duff Watkins - Sydney Office
www.execsearch.com.au

Customer Satisfaction: Cornerstone is the only retained search organization in the world that attracts and retains its consultants on the basis of customer satisfaction rather than on the basis of salesmanship.

Initiating Effectively: All Cornerstone offices are boutique firms run by seasoned owner/operators who personally manage each assignment. They invest the time required to accurately size up a client’s corporate culture as well as the client’s personality and management style. Whereas other search firms embed expatriate recruiters in foreign markets, each Cornerstone office is staffed by local professionals who understand the local language and culture.

Recruitment Advisory Services: When client organizations wish to outsource their recruitment supervision to Cornerstone, i.e., ask Cornerstone to Project Manage other retained and contingency recruiters, we use our state-of-the-art software and procedures to insure that the client gets the best cost-per-hire possible.

Additional Resources: Cornerstone invests time and energy to pre-qualify other resources for our clients. These additional resources include HR consulting services such as HRIS, compensation & benefits, outplacement, leadership assessment, succession planning, executive coaching, etc. Additional resources also include non-HR consulting services such as mergers & acquisitions consulting, marketing consulting, financial consulting, operations consulting, and Board consulting (including Sarbanes-Oxley and similar corporate governance issues), etc. When Cornerstone is placed on a monthly retainer, many of these additional resources can be included at no additional cost.

Why Has Cornerstone Grown to be One of the Largest Consulting Organisations in the World?

Cornerstone International Group professionals are the "creme de la creme", in the most part drawn primarily from the senior management of premier firms in consulting, executive search, and outplacement, such as the following:

Cornerstone offices are strategically positioned in major cities throughout the world. Our master website is at www.cornerstone-group.com

Cornerstone member firms are managed by entrepreneurs who provide personal service and undivided attention, free from the administrative distractions of their former large firms. Client quality control is assured by the entrepreneur whose name is on the door and, therefore, whose personal reputation is at stake.

Cornerstone offers the best of both worlds: (1) the personal attention of a smaller consulting firm, combined with (2) the network resources of a global organization.

Cornerstone International Group Core Competencies:

Cornerstone has grown because our clients believe we give superior results, and that is the bottom line:
Cornerstone produces the best results!

Introducing David Ealson
Director, Cornerstone Search NZ Ltd

Dick Knapp
Senior Consultant

Company Profile - Cornerstone International

Cornerstone International Group Core Competencies:

Copyright © 2007 - 2008 Cornerstone Search New Zealand Ltd

Introducing David Ealson Director, Cornerstone Search NZ Ltd

Dick Knapp Senior Consultant

Company Profile - Cornerstone International

Cornerstone International Group Core Competencies:

Copyright © 2007 - 2008 Cornerstone Search New Zealand Ltd

Introducing David Ealson
Director, Cornerstone Search NZ Ltd

Dick Knapp
Senior Consultant