Throughout the year, we feature employees sharing their unique stories about their time at Ritchie Bros. In this edition, Kishen Raja, Sales Director, writes about his journey from HR Intern to Sales Director at Ritchie Bros.
I started my career at Ritchie Bros. in May 2012. I was originally looking for a finance internship in Vancouver and came across a HR internship role during my search. I was a bit hesitant but decided to give it a shot to get my foot in the door with a global organization. The Director of HR was the hiring manager and she really valued having an intern who could understand financials as well as understand the people aspect of the business.
After consecutive internships, Ritchie Bros. offered me a full-time role as a HR Coordinator, and I decided to finish my degree at the University of British Columbia on a part-time basis so that I could accept the full-time role.
In the early stages of my career in HR, I had the opportunity to help set up our global HR operations in Europe, travel through parts of the USA to revamp our safety program and eventually become the HR Business Partner for Ritchie Bros. Financial Services (RBFS), which continues to be one of the fastest growing business units in the company.
Branching out
In 2019, I decided to go back to school and get my MBA on a part-time basis at the University of British Columbia, while continuing to advance my career at Ritchie Bros. The MBA provided me with a strategic lens towards different roles within Ritchie Bros., and I positioned myself to diversify my experience outside of HR by moving from working with employees to our customers.
RBFS provided me with this opportunity to move into their division as a Sales Manager supporting a team in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a crazy time to jump into something new and my first day at RBFS was remote leading a team of new members, all while learning about financial services!
Thankfully, I have had tremendous support from the organization. I could not have asked for better mentorship, development, and coaching from many individuals throughout the company.
I had thought that growth within a company was typically linear but have come to understand during my time at Ritchie Bros. that there are many other ways to grow and develop.
Where I am today, and what’s next
In October 2021, Ritchie Bros. launched Ritchie List, which is a marketplace that provides our customers with another avenue to sell equipment while creating visibility for buyers to purchase these items and other services. In May 2022, I was approached to take on a leadership role in this new division given my prior experience in HR and sales. I was attracted to the role given the potential growth in this channel as well as the opportunity to try something new and leverage my previous HR/sales experience and MBA.
The biggest opportunity for us in the upcoming months will be growing our customer base and adding new listings on www.ritchielist.com. Ritchie List allows our customers to have more control over their transaction and price and ultimately provides more solutions for customers who want to take advantage of all our other channels, including Auction, Marketplace-E and other services such as our Inventory Management System and pricing tools.
As of recently, Ritchie List and Ritchie Bros. Financial Services have partnered closely together to bring alignment between our RBFS Buyers and Ritchie List Sellers. I have taken on a portion of RBFS and continue to develop individuals to grow both Ritchie List and RBFS.
With the right people on the team, the opportunities are endless to grow this segment – and I’m very much looking forward to what’s next!
We continue to grow both RBFS and Ritchie List, please reach out if you see an opportunity that you might be interested in pursuing with Ritchie Bros.!
Interested in joining a global company with limitless career and development options? Head to our careers page to explore the latest opportunities at Ritchie Bros.