Core capabilities
Sector depth
- Managing Director
- Chief Operating Officer
- Chief Commercial Officer
- VP, Sales
- Chief Supply Chain Officer
- VP Manufacturing
- Transformation Director
- Engineering Director
The Essenta difference
Why Essenta?
Deep sector knowledge, global talent access and rigorous search give us the reach and judgement to find leaders equipped for complex industrial environments.
Deep functional expertise
Our expertise spans manufacturing, engineering, supply chain, logistics, operations and capital projects, giving us a clear view of how leadership requirements connect across the business.
Global talent networks
We reach proven executives internationally, including leaders who have worked through consolidation in global industrial markets.
Market intelligence beyond the CV
We combine market mapping and discreet referencing to understand what leaders have actually delivered, not simply where they have worked.
Context-led Assessment
We assess leadership against the specific phase and priorities of the business, balancing engineering and operational depth with the commercial judgement needed to drive growth.
David Purcell
Senior Partner, B2B
B2B
London
Joshua Butler
Consultant, B2B
B2B
London
Fred Watkinson
Consultant, B2B
B2B
London
Alex Maropoulos
Principal, B2B
B2B
London
Phillippa Dunlop
Consultant, Technology and Digital
Technology and Digital
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
Joshua sees Executive Search assignments through from the first brief to the final offer, leading delivery from start to close, including negotiation. He works in the B2B practice, with deep experience in manufacturing and services, for both publicly listed and private capital-backed companies.
His focus is on growth and turnaround, where the leadership challenge may be operational or commercial, and he has particular expertise in general management transitions. Joshua is well versed in helping clients work through ambiguity to find the people who can lead through adversity and deliver results.
Joshua began his career at global Executive Search firm Egon Zehnder, in its Industrial practice. There, he worked across industrial sectors including natural resources, energy, infrastructure and engineering, with a particular focus on manufacturing and B2B services.
He then spent two years away from search, working in sales at AB InBev, the world’s largest brewing company. On returning, he joined Granger Reis as a senior associate, where he built his skills in delivering assignments end to end and gained in-depth experience in the infrastructure and mining sectors.
Personal perspective
Honesty, integrity and respect are the bedrock of any successful partnership, whether we’re working with clients or the market. From there, our role is to stay solutions-focused, even when that means constructive challenge or relaying inconvenient truths. Ultimately, we prove our worth as consultants by listening and finding mutually beneficial ways forward that lead to exceptional hires.
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
Business leaders and investors across real assets and infrastructure turn to Alex to appoint the leaders who will deliver their strategic ambitions. He works across the US and the EMEA, supporting clients through growth, transformation, and market change.
His specialism is senior appointments across real estate and digital infrastructure, with particular depth in industrial and logistics, and multi-site and residential platforms. He supports domestic and multinational businesses across investment, development, asset management, and operations.
Combining deep market knowledge with a pragmatic approach, Alex helps clients look beyond experience on paper to the leadership capabilities and context an individual needs, to succeed in a role.
Before joining Essenta, Alex was a Principal at ZRG, working across its industrials and infrastructure practices with multi-site B2B platforms worldwide. Previously, as a Principal at Granger Reis, he led the industrial logistics real estate practice, advising REITs, developers, and owner operators across EMEA, with a focus on the Benelux, Nordics, CEE, and Southern Europe.
Personal perspective
The right leader is not simply the person with the strongest track record, but the one whose experience and leadership capabilities align with what the business needs next. That’s why I focus on understanding where a client is heading and the context a leader will step into, so every appointment is made with the road ahead in mind. Get that match right, and the difference it makes to the business is felt for years to come.
Professional overview
Phillippa advises organizations on appointing senior technology, digital, product, data and AI leaders, at moments of growth, transformation or change. Her clients range from established corporates to high-growth and entrepreneurial businesses, and she helps each one define the leadership it needs, make sense of an increasingly converged, platform-dominated market and secure the right individual for the context.
She works closely with boards, CEOs and senior leadership teams on appointments that fall within the remit of the CIO or CTO. Her approach is evidence-led and market-informed. It weighs the individual against the organizational context they’ll need to succeed in, and the balance of technical and commercial capability that will help them do it.
Before joining Essenta, Phillippa spent more than 15 years in Executive Search, in senior search and research roles at several boutique firms. Her experience spans technology, digital and TMT leadership, working with large corporates and entrepreneurial, growth businesses alike. She has delivered senior assignments across a range of technology and digital disciplines, and is expert at identifying and assessing leaders who can connect technology strategy with commercial and organizational priorities.
Personal perspective
The job description is rarely the whole story, so I spend time understanding what is really driving an appointment and what needs to change. A good search does more than present strong candidates. It gives clients a clearer view of the market and of what will genuinely work for them, whether or not that’s the person we first expected to find.
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.