Core capabilities
Key appointments we deliver include:
- Non-Executive Chair
- Chief Executive Officer
- Chief Operating Officer
- Chief Commercial Officer
- Divisional Managing Directors
David Purcell
Senior Partner, B2B
B2B
London
Fred Watkinson
Consultant, B2B
B2B
London
Alex Teague
Principal, B2B
B2B
London
Matt Parkin
Principal, B2B
B2B
London
Geoffrey Arner
Associate Partner
B2B
New York
Jessie Jaques
Operations Assistant and Project Coordinator, B2B
B2B
Central Operations
London
Connect with David 
Email David Professional overview
David Purcell is a Senior Partner at Essenta, where he leads the firm’s B2B practice. He advises private equity investors and their portfolio companies on senior leadership appointments across business and professional services, particularly when a business is growing, transforming, expanding internationally or changing hands.
Working across Essenta’s London and New York teams, David works closely with investors, boards and management teams to pin down the leadership needed to deliver their ambitions, from CEO and C-suite appointments to wider senior teams. His work spans multiple geographies and ownership structures, with a particular focus on private equity-backed businesses.
David has built his career in Executive Search, specializing in B2B services and senior leadership within private equity-backed and listed businesses. He has advised investors, boards and management teams on appointments across a range of business services sectors and geographies. Along the way, he has built a deep network of senior executives and a clear understanding of what leadership looks like at different stages of growth and transformation.
Personal perspective
A great CV is only the starting point. The real question is whether someone has the experience, mindset and leadership style to deliver what the business needs next. I enjoy working closely with clients to get under the skin of their situation, then bringing a clear, well-informed view of the market and the people who can make a difference.
Professional overview
Fred works with a diverse range of clients across Essenta’s business services practice and beyond, leading complex Executive Searches with a particular focus on general management, commercial, and operational leadership roles.
He typically partners with organizations that want to unlock growth or deliver a challenging turnaround through strategic senior appointments, often amid transformation and change.
Fred’s built a strong reputation of finishing what others struggle to. Where a previous mandate with another search firm failed to produce an appointment, he has successfully delivered the search, bringing a fresh perspective and a focused, outcome-driven approach.
Fred began his career at JCA Group (later acquired by Heidrick & Struggles), where he helped grow the scale and reputation of the Non-Executive Director practice and worked with a broad range of FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 clients across sectors. He went on to work in Egon Zehnder’s Consumer Practice in London, then led Vodafone Group’s international in-house executive recruitment team, which gave him a view of search from the client’s side of the table.
Personal perspective
Executive Search is often treated like a magic trick, too complex and mysterious to show clients. We’d rather show our workings. It’s a process that succeeds through mutual trust and understanding between client and consultant. The rest is creative thinking and communication, shaped by broader insight, experience and muscle memory, and a disciplined, tenacious approach.
Essenta keeps growing with one eye on how we can add the most value for clients. That mirrors our clients’ own value creation journeys, and it shapes partnerships built on shared ambition, intentionality and trust.
Professional overview
Ownership change, transformation, and M&A test a leadership team in interesting ways. As a Principal in Essenta’s B2B Practice, Alex helps businesses at those moments find the senior leaders they need. He advises on appointments in operationally complex, people-intensive companies, with a focus on private-equity backed and high growth organizations.
Having been with Essenta for over six years, Alex has built a strong network across the Business Services sectors, where he works closely with investors and management teams, taking the time to understand what is really shaping each business, before identifying the leaders who can help it grow and develop.
Personal perspective
For me, the best leadership appointments start with a simple question: what does this business need at this point in its journey? Experience counts, but the harder test is fit – with the situation, the culture, and where the business wants to go.
Professional overview
Matt helps business leaders turn growth ambitions into leadership teams that can deliver them. As a Principal in Essenta’s B2B Practice, he advises on executive talent strategy, working with clients to unlock growth and deliver organizational transformation. He appoints high-impact leadership teams aligned to their strategic, operational and commercial priorities.
Matt’s work runs from facilities management, hospitality and food services to utilities, data centres and the infrastructure behind the transition to net zero.
Before joining Essenta, Matt was a Partner at InX, where he built his expertise over more than a decade, with a sector-specific focus on facilities management.
Personal perspective
Clients get honest market insight, regular updates and constructive challenges where it’s needed, at every stage of a search. I believe candidates deserve the same care: a thoughtful, respectful and well-managed experience. I stay engaged, responsive and accountable – because that’s what builds trust and long-term value for both sides.
Professional overview
As an Associate Partner at Essenta who places senior executives into C-Suite and board roles across B2B services and industrials, Geoff is as interested in the why, as the who. He works with a wide range of financial sponsors, from founders and family offices to global PE firms and corporations, developing talent-centric deal Advisory and due diligence solutions.
A New Yorker by birth, Geoff has lived in Japan and the UK. He studied Philosophy and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh, and spent the first two years of his career on political campaigns before moving into Executive Search, where he has built over 15 years’ experience delivering talent solutions for businesses centred on private capital, and business services.
Personal perspective
I think of myself as more of a matchmaker than a recruiter. Qualifications matter, but it ultimately comes down to fit. In any search, you’re asking a successful executive to take a risk and make a change, and it’s easy to forget that people (not CVs) show up to work each day.
Every hiring process is a two-way street, and the best placements are completely aligned with their new companies. To run search well, you can’t just know the candidates, the market, and the business. You have to understand the full context behind “why this role?” and “why now?”
Jessie Jaques
Operations Assistant and Project Coordinator, B2B
Professional overview
Jessie is the person who keeps Essenta running smoothly behind the scenes, as Operations Assistant and Project Coordinator for the B2B practice, where she works closely with the team to coordinate assignments from start to finish.
Alongside her practice work, Jessie oversees a wide range of operational activity, including office management, internal processes, supplier coordination and employee onboarding.
She is proactive and detail-oriented, and it shows in how seamlessly the business runs day to day.
Before moving to London and joining Essenta, Jessie spent six years working as a nanny. She started at Essenta in an administrative role supporting all of the practice areas, which gave her a broad understanding of the business, before moving into the role she has today.
Personal perspective
A seamless experience is built on thoughtful coordination, proactive support and attention to detail, so that every client, candidate and colleague feels valued. Working across the business as I’ve grown in my role has shown me how much each part depends on the others, and I try to make sure none of them are ever left waiting.
The Essenta difference
Why Essenta?
Essenta connects talent across adjacent markets to broaden the leadership pool without compromising relevance.
Deep sector expertise
Proven track record across engineering, technical, facilities, utilities, and outsourced services.
Global talent networks
Connecting clients with executives who have scaled and professionalized complex platforms across the UK, Europe, and US.
Proprietary Discovery Process
Applying rigorous Assessment to evaluate commercial judgement, operational grip, and transformation capability.
Context-led Assessment
Matching senior B2B leadership capability directly to private equity buy-and-build models or PLC transformation agendas.
Case studies
Proven lasting impact
We deliver tailored Executive Search, Interim and Advisory solutions, securing transformational leaders who professionalize businesses and accelerate value creation.
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.