Our story
Relationships, built to last
Essenta began ten years ago with two people and a belief that world-class leadership could be found and built with greater energy, empathy and collaboration.
Today, we work globally, with headquarters in London and New York. And we are trusted by over 200 organizations to deliver a lasting advantage. Clients come to us when leadership matters to deliver growth, transformation or value creation, and they stay because we learn their context, challenge their thinking and stay close to help them navigate what comes next.
Our values
The things we value create value for you
Values only matter when they show up in the work. At Essenta, ours shape how we treat our clients, how we challenge a brief, how we leave no stone unturned and how we stay accountable when the visible part of the assignment is done.
Ambitious. We aspire to set the bar higher
We want our clients and candidates to achieve exceptional things. So we always bring the Essenta standard to every single piece of work, looking beyond the immediate brief to uncover opportunities that deliver more value.
Human. We lead with empathy
Leadership decisions are personal as well as commercial. We take time to understand the people on both sides of an appointment, because how someone is treated shapes how well they go on to perform.
Pioneering. We shape futures
Sometimes this industry rewards the easiest answer, but that’s not our way. We question the accepted way of working and invest in the data, tools and thinking that ensure you have the leadership to take you into tomorrow.
Dedicated. We're always all in
We go further to find the right leadership solutions, bringing rigour, care and commitment to every search. And our responsibilities don’t end with an appointment, because we’re always as dedicated to the long term outcome as our clients are.
Our team
You can tell when it’s Essenta
We’re powered by our people: specialists who are senior enough to give you a straight answer, agile enough to move the moment the brief changes, and connected enough to ensure you’re always drawing on the firm’s whole strength.
It is a way of working you’ll notice early and rely on later.
Why Essenta?
Unlike traditional Executive Search firms, we hold ourselves accountable for long-term business outcomes.
Right first time
Digging deeper than the traditional Executive Search process, we evaluate potential and context, delivering leaders who perform today and adapt and succeed tomorrow.
Senior expertise. Lasting involvement.
Our senior partners stay actively involved throughout your engagement, from initial diagnosis to final delivery. Working alongside the wider team, they provide strategic direction, share their expertise and maintain accountability for delivering the right outcome.
Objective insight
Our proprietary Discovery Process® allows you to make confident hiring decisions with an objective view into capability, readiness, value fit and behaviours.
Here for the long term
78% of our clients return to work with us again, because as the partnership deepens, the leadership effectiveness strengthens, and the advantage grows.
Latest insights
A clearer lens on leadership
Founder succession: the handover boards leave too late
When you should underwrite the team not just the asset
Leadership due diligence: looking beyond the CEO and CFO
When Interim Leadership works (and when it doesn’t)
When is a business symptom a leadership problem
Join the team
We hire experienced people and trust them with senior work from the start. If you want to work across search, Interim and Advisory with people who care about the outcome as much as the assignment, we would like to hear from you.
Let’s build your next leadership team
Tell us what the business needs to achieve. We will give you an honest read on the leadership challenge in front of you, and how you should approach it.