Introducing Karly Boast, Consult Recruitment’s New CEO

As shared in recent news to our community, we’re excited to introduce Karly Boast, Consult Recruitment’s new CEO, taking over the reins from Angela Cameron, who founded and built Consult in 2008. Hand-picked and endorsed by Angela, Karly knows this business and this industry from the inside, having worked with Consult as both a candidate and a client over the years.

Karly brings over 20 years of leadership, culture and people-strategy experience across some of New Zealand’s most dynamic sectors, including professional services, tech, finance, legal, retail, construction and hospitality. Karly was named NZ HR Director of the Year in 2025 and is recognised as one of the country’s leading voices in commercial people strategy.

It’s been over a month since Karly stepped into the role, so we sat down with her to talk about what it’s like stepping into the Consult, what 20 years in leadership and people strategy has taught her, and where she thinks the industry is heading.

What excites you about stepping into the CEO role at Consult?

Firstly, I’m very grateful to be here. Consult is a special business that I’ve been privileged to work alongside for many years, both in a client and a candidate capacity. So I’m feeling really grateful to be able to step into this role and build on the legacy created here.

I’ve watched and admired Consult and Angela do this work at a level the rest of the industry has struggled to match, and when the chance came up to lead a business I already believed in, it wasn’t one I was going to pass up. The economic environment is starting to shift, the team is in great shape, and it felt like the right moment for Ange to hand over and for me to step in.

I don’t take this role lightly. What Consult is today is rare. The team are exceptional in what they do, they genuinely care about their clients and candidates and they go the extra mile, and clients and candidates trust them for it. I’m excited to build on it and take it further.

You have a saying, “culture is a powerful commercial tool.” What does that look like in practice?

I bring a real people lens to any business I go into, and my leadership style is built on the belief that people and leadership are the foundational part of your business. Culture is your operating system. It drives business results, it decides who joins you and who stays, and it sets you up to be sustainable when the market moves against you.

That comes from being clear about who you are, understanding what actually sets you apart, and being intentional about the culture you design, because the world of work is changing rapidly, and the businesses that get intentional about it now will be the ones still thriving in five years. I feel very lucky I’ve walked into a team already leading on that.

AI is reshaping recruitment fast. Where do you see Consult’s role for clients and candidates in the future?

There is a lot of noise (and fear) around AI right now. I often call it “AI fatigue” and it is a very real thing.

Underneath the noise is a real opportunity. Think humans first, and be deliberate about where AI is best used, and, just as importantly, where it shouldn’t be. AI is not a complete or perfect solution for every role or business challenge, and pretending otherwise is where a lot of the fatigue is coming from.

AI isn’t going to answer the question that matters. It is forcing every leadership team to ask: what do we actually need our people for now? Where do they add the most value? How do we design work around that?

That is where Consult can help. From talent design, mapping, succession planning and org design, through to finding the right person for the right role. Often it is genuinely that simple. Cut through the noise. Find the right person. Set them up to succeed.

What’s Consult’s edge in finding people others can’t?

Top talent is more scarce and harder to find than it ever has been, and great recruitment has always been important, but it’s even more critical now with what’s going on. People need to cut through the noise – they need the experts, the specialists in the field, to come in and do that for them. 

That’s the difference between being a generalist and a specialist recruitment partner; clients don’t just need someone who can fill a role, they need someone who genuinely knows the sector. And at Consult, we have a huge talent database, a huge network, and a lot of really strong relationships. A stat we keep going back to: 88% of the roles we placed in the last 12 months came from our internal talent community – not from online job ads. *As of June 2026.

There’s also an opportunity to be a bit more ambitious around bringing people from other countries into New Zealand. A lot of people have been going over to Australia, but a lot of people are now coming back too. It’s about building communities and giving candidates the support and advice to best set themselves up to get into the market, and the same for clients.

Karly looks forward to meeting our clients, partners and candidates over the coming months. If you’re at an upcoming Consult event, be sure to say hello, or feel free to connect with Karly on LinkedIn or reach out to her at karly@consultrecruitment.co.nz 

Thanks for reading, and a huge welcome to Karly to the Consult team!