A Hampshire man has been named recruitment consultant of the year.

Rob Bond scooped the prized category at the REC Recruitment Industry Awards, held at the Marriott Hotel in London.

Rob works for Preferred International, an IT resource management and recruitment specialist based at Queen's Terrace, Southampton.

To be successful in the recruitment industry consultants have to be ambitious, professional, committed and hard-working and the judges recognise all of these attributes in this year's winner.

The award recognised the best in the field. Rob was praised for his openness and respect for honesty and confidentiality. He joined Preferred International in July 2000 and has since built a strong and loyal base of clients and candidates by understanding their needs and recognising that solutions need to satisfy both parties.

Rob has an excellent portfolio of both recruitment and service clients and attains good or excellent performance satisfaction rating in 97 per cent of client and candidate satisfaction questionnaires.

Preferred International director David Clayden said: "I am thrilled that Rob has come through to win this award.

"His philosophy has always been to provide a quality service to both clients and candidates to get the most from the comprehensive range of recruitment and resource management solutions we offer."

One of this year's judges, Christine Little, said: "Rob demonstrated that he has the ability to meet and exceed targets, is dedicated to customer service and professional standards and has proven business development skills."

The results were announced at the awards dinner, attended by 500 people and hosted by TV presenter Ruth England.