Biographies

Abigail Stevens 

Abigail Stevens is the founding Director of Think Global Recruitment Limited.  Think Global Recruitment specialises in placing Accountancy and Finance professionals overseas.  In effect, they export and import accountants.    

Abigail grew up in England and moved to Australia in her early 20’s where she spent 3 years living and working.  She then moved to Scotland in 1995.  Prior to moving into recruitment in 1996, Abigail had worked in marketing for around 8 years, covering most areas including PR, Corporate Communications and Branding. 

Think Global Recruitment has been established since July 2000 and grew to 60 staff spread across offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, New Zealand, Sydney and Dublin.  The Company re-structured in 2008 and now has centralised all staff to be based in the Edinburgh Head Office.  Abigail has learnt a lot through seeing the company grow globally and then taking the decision to refocus its resources to strengthen for the ‘recession’. 

Abigail is confident that Think Global Recruitment will ride out the recession and be the strongest international accountancy recruiter on the market in future years, at which point the company will enjoy expanding internationally again.   

The Company has a strong brand which has been enhanced through the development of a very successful conference, 'Accountancy Worldwide', which runs in London, Dublin, South Africa and Sydney and has seen companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, Procter and Gamble, TNT, Sara Lee and others 'fighting' for a place to attend. 

Abigail is an enthusiastic member of the Entrepreneurial Exchange and alongside Kirsten Lord organises the 6 weekly Edinburgh Get Together evenings where members get to know each other and share ideas in an informal setting. 

Gio Benedetti 

Giovanni Benedetti came to Scotland from Italy at the age of 9 and worked in his Uncle’s café during his spare time. At the age of 19 Giovanni purchased a small Dry Cleaning Shop which expanded within 8 years to 16 shops servicing Ayrshire and the Glasgow area. 

In 1981 a new company “ICS” was formed occupying a purpose built unit, 70k sq ft Laundry in Kilwinning to exploit a New and Innovative process development by Giovanni for Reclaiming Industrial Gloves and the rental of Work Wear. Over the next 7 years ICS grew organically from £500k turnover to £12m and servicing over 3,000 customers in the UK from its base in Kilwinning.  Major customers included Ford Motor Co, Vauxhall, Rover, Nissan, Lucas, GKN and Tesco.  The company was sold to BET in 1989 for £15m. 

In 1987 Gio became a Director of Silcock Express, which was a £4m Management buy-out from Sears Group.  The company’s revenue grew from £36m to £120m over 6 years and was sold in 1993 for £52m. 

In 1996 Gio purchased a small £2m turnover paper converting Company.  This grew with innovation to £32m over 6 years and was sold to SCA in 2002 for £10m. Wrapfilm, a small £2m turnover Cling Film and Foil converting company was purchased in 2000.  This company grew to £36m with the launch of several new and innovative products capturing 85% of the UK’s catering and foil market.  This Company was sold to Management at the end of 2007 for £21m with Giovanni remaining a Director and retaining a major shareholding in the Company. 

Today, Gio is Chairman of Benedetti International, consisting of Wallace Cameron, UK leading First Aid and First Aid Training Company, exporting to 32 countries worldwide and Benedetti design division.  This division not only invents and innovates products for internal companies but also designs and develops products on a contractual basis for other large and medium Companies as well as ideas from single inventors. The Group’s strategy and philosophy is to change all sectors of the markets by being the most innovative supplier of products and dispensing systems. 

Having spent 20 years as a Director on the board of The Princes Trust and the Princes Scottish Youth Business Trust (PSYBT), Gio is their longest serving Director.  He also holds various other Directorships and enjoys presenting at business conferences and helping PSYBT’s and SME’s to grow and develop via innovation and strategy. 

Gio has been recognised for his business acumen in both Italy, with a Commendatore Gold Award in 2005 and in the UK in 2006 with a CBE and in 2008 with an Honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from Edinburgh Napier University.