A 39-YEAR-OLD Kent businessman is to head the county's largest independent recruitment group based in Ashford.

Father-of-three John Bowman, from Sevenoaks, had been working as a consultant with the Human Resource Group plc (HRG) for the last nine months before its chairman Jack Parkinson made the announcement.

Mr Bowman's previous post was group chief executive of FSS International in London, a finance, technology and general management search recruitment operation with a £50 million turnover.

Having seen the high-growth business increase from 50 employees to 250, he played a key role in the sale of FSS International to Norrell Inc in the USA in 1998, which, a year later, was acquired by Spherion Inc.

Mr Bowman said: "HRG is a good business with excellent prospects and a great deal of experience across many market sectors.

"With over 40 subsidiary companies run by almost 100 entrepreneurs, customer care is at the heart of the business and I intend to build on that philosophy."

Mr Parkinson said Mr Bowman would take over the full time role on January 1.

"The remainder of this year will be used to familiarise him with all aspects of the group, leaving me to continue to be responsible for property matters, acquisitions and new joint-venture deals - whilst at the same time supporting John in the day-to-day operations of the group."

Mr Parkinson's mother Betty founded the group in 1959. Since then it has grown into a multinational operation with 40 subsidiary companies, more than 300 staff, a nationwide network of over 70 offices and an annual turnover of more than £60 million.