Core capabilities
Key appointments we deliver include:
- Non-Executive Chair / Board Advisor
- Chief Executive Officer / SaaS Managing Director
- Chief Revenue Officer / Commercial Director
- Chief Operating Officer / Scale-up Operator
- Division President / Portfolio Executive
- Independent Director / Operating Partner
The Essenta difference
Why Essenta?
Combining deep technology-sector insight with Executive Search and strategic Board Advisory expertise, Essenta connects clients with leaders who understand both the pace of the market and the commercial realities of scaling technology businesses.
Deep sector expertise
Specialist coverage across software, SaaS, tech-enabled services, digital platforms, private equity portfolio growth and board governance.
Global talent networks
We know where established and emerging technology leaders sit, including operators from adjacent markets whose experience can bring a different perspective to your growth agenda.
Proprietary Discovery® Process
Benchmarking commercial judgement, growth capability, operational execution and leadership impact against the specific economics and demands of your business.
Context-led Assessment
Evaluating candidate readiness against your ownership model, growth stage and value-creation plan — whether the priority is private equity expansion, buy-and-build, internationalization, transformation or venture scaling.
Katriona Windsor
Partner, Consumer
B2C
London
Fred Watkinson
Consultant, B2B
B2B
London
David Purcell
Senior Partner, B2B
B2B
London
Phillippa Dunlop
Consultant, Technology and Digital
Technology and Digital
London
Connect with Katriona 
Email Katriona Professional overview
Scaling, transforming, going digital: Katriona works with consumer businesses at the moments when leadership matters most. As a Partner at Essenta, she works with boards, investors and management teams across private equity-backed, growth equity and publicly listed businesses, finding exceptional leaders for ambitious organizations in complex, high-growth and transformational environments.
Her work spans consumer, consumer technology and consumer services, with a keen focus on leadership teams driving scale, digital growth and value creation. She advises on executive and non-executive appointments, bringing deep sector knowledge and a rigorous understanding of what sustains performance. Katriona’s approach is pragmatic. She takes time to understand the business, its context and the leadership it needs for its next phase.
Before joining Essenta, Katriona spent 17 years in specialist, boutique environments, building deep expertise in Executive Search and the consumer sector. Most recently she spent three years at Founders Keepers, the Executive Search arm of Founders Forum, advising investor-backed businesses on board appointments. Before that, she spent 14 years at The Talent Business, where she led the European Executive Search business, working with consumer and creative-led organizations on senior leadership appointments.
She began her career in client services at Havas and McCann Erickson, which gave her an early grounding in consumer brands and the commercial and creative dynamics that shape them. That mix of sector knowledge and search experience has underpinned her work with boards, investors and management teams ever since.
Personal perspective
The best leadership appointments come from understanding what a business will need in the future, as well as what it needs today. I take the time to sink my teeth into an organization’s context, ambitions and culture, and I’m candid with both clients and candidates about what it will take to succeed. The aim is always a thoughtful, well-informed appointment that works for the business and the individual over the long term.
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
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.