Core capabilities
Key appointments we deliver include:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Chief Operating Officer
- Chief Financial Officer / M&A Lead
- Chief Revenue Officer
- Chief Technology Officer
- Practice Group Leaders & Senior Advisory Partners
The Essenta difference
Why Essenta?
Operating as an integrated Executive Search, Interim and Advisory partner, Essenta combines cross-functional expertise to help people-based businesses scale.
Deep sector expertise
Specializing in leadership that navigates partnership models, AI adoption, and M&A synergy realization.
Global talent networks
Accessing proven leadership talent across UK, European, and US markets to deliver multi-disciplinary C-suite and functional appointments.
Proprietary Discovery Process
Deploying evidence-based Assessment to evaluate EQ, execution track record, and cultural fit.
Context-led Assessment
Matching leadership capability directly to PE investor thesis, ownership model, and scale.
Fred Watkinson
Consultant, B2B
B2B
London
David Purcell
Senior Partner, B2B
B2B
London
Nick Gribbon
Senior Partner, Financial Officers
Financial Officers
Private Capital Funds
London
Phillippa Dunlop
Consultant, Technology and Digital
Technology and Digital
London
Connect with Fred 
Email Fred 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
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
Over his career, Nick has partnered with more than 50 private equity funds, from lower mid-market to large-cap, to place the finance leaders who make a difference. Nick specializes in private equity CFO search and he leads Essenta’s Financial Officers and Private Capital Funds Practice and is widely recognized as a market-leading Executive Search specialist in his field, with over 25 years of experience.
Nick advises private equity investors and their portfolio companies on critical CFO and senior finance appointments across the UK, EU and US. He supports clients at every stage of the investment cycle, from pre-deal evaluation and talent pipeline building, through post-completion leadership alignment and mid-cycle growth and transformation hiring, to positioning the CFO before an exit for maximum value.
Before joining Essenta in 2022, he developed his expertise at Russell Reynolds and Heidrick & Struggles. He then spent a significant part of his career at Blackwood Group, where he led the CFO practice.
Personal perspective
Senior leadership appointments are business-critical milestones, and when the stakes are high for both the organization and the candidates, treating search as a standard hiring workflow is never enough. My team and I act as trusted, hands-on advisers throughout the process, guided by personal accountability, collaboration and integrity, and we stay deeply engaged at every stage. We are meticulous about the details clients rarely see, because that is where quality is built, long before a shortlist is presented.
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.