High standards, higher growth - how PKF assisted Avenue Executive to scale up with purpose

Melissa Shaw transitioned into property recruitment and quickly found her stride. She launched Avenue Executive, her third start-up, over eight years ago, seeing a clear gap in the market: many large international executive search firms lacked deep property‐sector specialisation, and many recruitment agencies did not offer full search services focused on leadership. But founding a boutique firm isn’t without tension. Growth, maintaining margins, preserving service quality, and ensuring every hire is effective, from day one, all present ongoing challenges. 

Beyond these issues, Melissa wanted an adviser who would understand the operations as a whole and not treat Avenue Executive as “just another client,” but rather as a business with unique risks, goals, and values.

That’s where we came in. At PKF, we’re not just accountants. We’re trusted business advisers and understand the importance of delivering more than compliance or standard advisory for our clients. Having dealt with PKF through prior business circa 2007 and Nicholas Falzon (Nick), one of our Business Advisory Partners in Sydney, Melissa knew PKF was the perfect fit.

Nick was appointed lead, bringing over 20 years of extensive advisory, consultancy, taxation, commercial and valuation experience across a range of industries.

Our approach
Avenue Executive is a boutique executive search firm, partnering with organisations in the commercial property sector, including property, construction, infrastructure, and data‐centres – placing senior leaders who not only meet technical requirements but also thrive in the client’s culture. Its mission: to be an unwavering partner to clients over the long term, built on service, relationships, and an unshakeable commitment to quality.

From early conversations and as Avenue Executive evolved, Nick worked closely with Melissa to advise on forecasting for growth, structuring client engagements, refining pricing strategies, and maintaining healthy margins. Just as importantly, he provided honest, strategic counsel on “when to walk away from work” that could harm the brand or misalign with long-term goals. When key decisions arose, such as expanding the team or investing in new tools, Nick and our team provided “sanity checks” combining technical, commercial, and operational perspectives.

“He took the time to really understand our business and its individual nuances rather than a blanket approach to finance that you’d apply to everything…He has a genuine commitment to seeing and wanting the business to succeed and believing in it,” Melissa said. 

For Nick, “seeing a business built on values” means “you commit to preserving them even as you grow, and you will not only win clients, but you build trust, confidence, and sustainability.”

“Nothing is more professionally rewarding than being able to improve the quality of life of my clients,” Nick said.

“Avenue Executive consistently models that you can grow, scale, and succeed without losing sight of service, culture, and quality. It’s a privilege to advise them along the journey.”

Growing with purpose
At PKF, our work with our clients is never treated as a transaction; it’s a partnership where your success is our success. Working together with Avenue Executive, which we continue to advise to this day, several positive outcomes have emerged:

• Consistent reputation and performance: Since its inception, Avenue Executive has never had a single candidate leave during probation or fail in a role, a testament to their rigorous search, selection, and alignment processes.
• Client satisfaction and long‐term relationships: Clients report that Avenue Executive acts like an extension of their businesses, understanding culture, acting flexibly, and delivering on promises.
• Stronger financial confidence and sustainable growth: With better forecasting, margin discipline, and decision frameworks in place, Avenue Executive has been able to grow its team, take on bigger engagements, while preserving profitability without compromising its values.

• Strategic decisions made with confidence: The process of structuring business partnerships, scaling staff, making investment and pricing decisions, all with confidence because of advice grounded in both commercial rigour and shared values.

  As of August 2025*.

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