Meet the team
Barry Smyth
Managing Director
Barry set up MCS Group in 2008, with a view to raising standards, improving delivery and bringing a different ethical approach to the specialist recruitment market in Northern Ireland. A 25-year veteran of the recruitment industry, prior to founding MCS Barry had a successful, 15-year career in specialist recruitment across the island of Ireland, where he held senior positions with an international recruitment business and was a Partner in an Executive Search firm.
Louise Smyth
Managing Director
Louise is an experienced commercial recruitment professional and trainer with 24 years’ experience in the people and talent industry. A fellow of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, she has worked with a diverse range of clients from SME’s, Multi Nationals, and new Start-ups supporting them through growth and achieving success through the recruitment and retention of their people.
Sean Devlin
Associate Director - IT & Technical
Sean has been in the Technical recruitment industry for over 10 years. After joining MCS Group as a Trainee Recruitment Consultant, Sean is now Associate Director managing the largest Technical recruitment team in NI. Sean plays a key role in helping companies of all sizes reach their business goals and over the last five years has worked closely with Invest NI, assisting companies set-up and develop world-class technology centres.
Philip Clarke
Head of Accounting & Financial Services at MCS Group
Phil started his recruitment journey in England, specialising in finance & accountancy and progressing quickly to Regional Manager. Having returned home to NI, Phil now leads the Accountancy & Financial Services team at MCS and is focused on ensuring outstanding service delivery for all of our customers
Kerry Tosh
Talent and Development Manager
With over 20 years of experience in recruitment and a recently qualified Naturopathic Nutritional Therapist, Kerry is taking the lead as the talent and development manager at MCS Group. She focuses her time on designing and implementing programs for performance management, leadership development, employee assessment, health and well-being and succession planning.
Janet Kerrigan
Head of People Success
As Head of People Success, Janet is responsible for ensuring our MCS Group talent acquisition strategy and HR practices support our talented, growing team to be the best they can be. With extensive senior management experience gained working in Northern Ireland, UK and overseas, Janet has a successful track record of developing and leading teams to achieve ambitious business goals.
Chris Busby
Manager - Software Engineering
Known for his personable nature and positive outlook, Chris is a professional that delivers results, time and again to our customers. He heads up the Software Engineering recruitment team; recruiting software professionals across all sectors and industries across NI.
Con Lam
Manager - Software Engineering & Delivery
Con is an experienced recruitment specialist that has 8 years overall professional experience, 5 of which spent working in one of the world’s largest telecommunication providers while completing his Computing Technologies degree. 3 years spent in recruitment, Con manages Software Engineering & Delivery in IT recruitment within the FinTech and Software space.
Daryl Crothers
Specialist Recruitment Consultant - IT
Daryl studied business information technology at queens university and went on to open a few companies around Northern Ireland. He was the Mid-East Antrims Young Businessman of the year 2017 and won the celebrate success and invest NI growth awards. He is now looking forward to bring his skills and expertise to the recruitment industry and MCS.
Christian Campbell
Specialist Recruitment Consultant - FinTech
Christian specialises in IT recruitment within the FinTech and Software space. He comes from a Management background and finds it useful to draw from his experience to understand individuals’ goals when approaching career choices to help them best stand out in the local market.
Clark Litster
Specialist Recruitment Consultant - IT
Before starting a career in recruitment, Clark completed a BSc in Podiatry and worked within the private healthcare services for 2 and a half years. Clark moved to Northern Ireland from Glasgow, Scotland and is now working in the key accounts team within the specialist IT services team alongside Claire and Paula.
Paula McCalmont
Candidate Resourcer – Software Engineering
Paula is working within the IT and Digital division at MCS Group, specialising in the Software Engineering space. She has graduated university with a degree in Communication with PR and comes from a background in sales, marketing, employee training.
Jennifer Curran
Specialist Recruitment Consultant - IT Contracts (Infrastructure)
Jennifer has over 8 years’ experience in B2B sales, 3 of which she managed an outbound telesales team for ones of NI’s leading digital solutions providers. Jennifer specialises in Contract and Temporary assignments within the IT Infrastructure space.
Ryan Calvert
Manager | Human Resources, Legal and Compliance
Ryan completed a Psychology degree before carving a successful career in Recruitment particularly within the HR Market. As part of the growing Professional Services Team, Ryan will be managing HR, Legal and Compliance roles. His approach is highly personable and customer service focused, building sustainable working relationships with both candidates and clients at all times
David McCallum
Specialist Recruitment Consultant - Legal
David specialises in Senior Legal appointments and has nearly 10 years’ experience of working closely with some of the leading Solicitor firms in Ireland, managing and maintaining key stakeholder relationships. Previous to recruitment he was working in banking for over 12 years.
Catherine Rushe
Specialist Recruitment Consultant - Legal
After gaining her degree in Law and French from Queens, Catherine worked and gained experience within the Legal industry. Now working in recruitment, specialising in Junior Legal roles, she is using her great experience and knowledge on the current market.
Karl Webb
Manager – Marketing, Commercial & Sales
Karl brings a wealth of experience in helping organisations recruit Marketing, Commercial and Sales professionals who drive business growth. One of NI’s most experienced recruitment specialists, with local and international recruitment experience, he is passionate about driving the local economy and has strong networks across all industry sectors.
Stephen Turkington
Specialist Recruitment Consultant - Accountancy & Finance
Stephen has joined the Accountancy I&C team specialising in permanent Part-Qualified and Transactional. With a clear passion for recruitment Stephen has successfully established long term relationships by gaining trust and confidence in this market.
Sara Mitchell
Specialist Recruitment Consultant - Accountancy Practice
Sara leads our Accountancy Practice team and personally specialises in roles within general practice, audit, corporate finance and forensics. She has built a client base that spans the breadth of the province and beyond and is regarded as a trusted adviser to some of the brightest talent in the industry.
Adam Macklin
Specialist Recruitment Consultant - Accountancy & Finance
Adam has recently returned to Northern Ireland after a year of living in Houston, Texas. Adam has joined the recruitment industry after a career in professional rugby, including playing for Ulster. He specialises in recruiting within accountancy practice across NI and Ireland.
