Welcome to Stelfox!
Like many recruitment businesses, Stelfox IT Recruitment came to be from a desire of the founders who were experienced recruiters, to start something better than the market offered. The founders of Stelfox, Keith Molony, and Liam Laffey, wanted to go beyond the usual recruitment offering, they didn’t just want to create a great recruitment company, they wanted to improve the lives of tech talent, and the clients they worked for. They wanted to do this by perfectly positioning both to empower them to build, sell and support world-class projects and services. In 2001, Stelfox opened its doors as a specialist tech recruitment business, partnering with companies from industry leaders to high-potential start-ups, while offering complete contract and permanent talent solutions for the evolving Irish IT landscape. Whilst the motivation was to build a great recruitment company, their inspiration came from somewhere far more personal, somewhere real.
The Inspiration - Dawson Stelfox
The idea behind the ‘Stelfox’ brand comes from Keith and Liam’s admiration for Dawson Stelfox, the first Irishman to conquer the world’s highest peak, mount Everest. The rock steepens and you see no way up. Then instinct kicks in and you fight your way through the crux. A barrier is broken, confidence gained. The essence of climbing is in that act.' These are the words of Dawson Stelfox who’s most frightening moment of his historic Mount Everest expedition in 1993 took place near the bottom of the famous Himalayan peak. Through all his fears and hardships, Stelfox powered through to reach his end destination. This was the Mantra Stelfox Recruitment was founded upon and it became the company name and message, Stelfox - Unlimited Potential.
Living ‘Unlimited Potential’, Keith was determined to follow in Dawson Stelfox’s footsteps and set himself the ambition of reaching the Everest Basecamp. In 2011, Keith achieved this. Whilst he celebrated this achievement, something magical had happened along the way. His guide was Sherpa Ram Hari. Whilst climbing, Ram Hari told Keith the story of his life. He told Keith how he grew up moving between children’s homes across Nepal and how it was always his ambition to one day help the children of Nepal to have the life and education he dreamed of. His dream was to help underprivileged children or parents who did not have the means to take care of their kids by setting up his own charitable organization. When Keith heard this story, he decided to be the first person to help Ram
Hari. Returning to Ireland he worked tirelessly, providing advice and financial support to help Ram Hari launch his charity ‘Indreni’ in 2015. Stelfox supported this charity, by promoting it, donating to it, and crucially by visiting Kathmandu in 2018 to see first-hand the schools and children’s homes that had been built.
A chance encounter had resulted in something far more positive than either Keith or Liam had ever imagined. Keith with Ram Hari, through business and charity, had created something fulfilling and rewarding with their vision of ‘Unlimited Potential’.
Over the years, it has been fantastic to see the charity in action. Stelfox is committed to donating a portion of annual profits to Indreni, remembering the original motivation and celebrating the result.
Hiring is hard work, and for many businesses and candidates, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to climb the hurdles that come with the recruitment process. Our goal is to simplify this journey by delivering innovative recruitment solutions to both our clients and candidates.
We take inspiration both from our namesakes and our founders. The objective and goal of all our employees is to deliver exceptional results for our clients by having candid conversations with candidates, understanding if they are the right fit for your company, and equally understanding if the position is right for the candidate. It’s this rigorous and thorough screening process that sets us apart from other IT recruitment agencies. And it’s also for this reason that so many of our clients and candidates continue to come back to Stelfox when they need IT recruitment solutions. Ultimately, our goal is to help you realise your unlimited potential and that’s a mantra we are happy to live by.
