Board and ownership expertise
We understand how the demands on Chairs and Independent Directors change across private equity, privately owned and publicly listed businesses — and across different stages of growth, transformation and succession.
Our Functional expertise
Chair & Independent Director Search
The Essenta difference
Why Essenta?
A strong board appointment takes more than access to familiar names. We combine market reach, behavioural insight and a deep understanding of ownership context to identify people who add something the board genuinely needs.
Global and discreet networks
Our global relationships span established and emerging Board Directors across executive, non-executive and adviser networks, including people and relationships that are not always visible in the public market.
Behavioural and board-fit insight
We assess more than experience. We look at how an individual will influence, challenge, collaborate and contribute alongside the directors already around the table.
Context-led search
Every appointment is grounded in the environment it needs to succeed in, from pre-deal diligence and private equity value creation to PLC stewardship, succession and long-term board effectiveness.
Board and ownership expertise
Global and discreet networks
Behavioural and board-fit insight
Context-led search
Case Studies
Proven lasting impact
We deliver strategic board Executive Search, Interim and Advisory solutions, securing chairs and non-executive directors who elevate governance and drive sustainable value creation.
Related experts
The team behind our board solutions
James Howells
CEO and Founding Partner
London
David Purcell
Senior Partner, B2B
B2B
London
Ellen Wilsker
Senior Partner, Leadership Advisory
Leadership Advisory
Florida
Geoffrey Arner
Associate Partner
B2B
New York
Sebastien Cavanagh
Senior Partner, Consumer
B2C
London
Fred Watkinson
Consultant, B2B
B2B
London
Elizabeth Reynolds
Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer
Central Operations
London
Connect with James 
Email James Professional overview
James is the founder and CEO of Essenta.
He built the firm on a clear conviction: exceptional leadership creates lasting value, and the best leadership decisions combine commercial rigour with a deep understanding of people.
With more than 30 years in Executive Search and Leadership Advisory, he works closely with private equity investors, boards and senior leadership teams to help ambitious organizations hire, lead and grow with confidence. He advises on critical leadership appointments, executive assessment and the development of high-performing teams, bringing candour, commercial judgment and a highly personal approach to every relationship.
Since founding the firm in 2016, James has set Essenta’s global strategy and continues to drive the development of its integrated leadership proposition, while staying closely involved with key clients and senior-level mandates.
Personal perspective
The strongest Advisory relationships are built on trust, candour and genuine personal commitment. Clients should feel that their adviser understands not only the appointment or the immediate challenge, but the organization’s ambitions, context and culture.
Leadership decisions have consequences that reach far beyond the person being appointed. I want to help clients make them with clarity and confidence, combining rigorous assessment and commercial judgment with a real understanding of people and what helps them succeed. That has been the goal of Essenta since day one, and I’m proud of how far we’ve come in delivering it.
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
Ellen is the sounding board C-level and senior executives turn to when a leadership decision really matters. Her specialism is Leadership Advisory: helping clients work through complex leadership challenges, assess talent and make informed decisions, from succession and leadership development to transitions and critical senior appointments.
Relationships are at the heart of how she works. Ellen takes the time to learn a client’s business, leadership team, culture and priorities, and those relationships tend to outlast any single assignment. That depth lets her spot leadership challenges and opportunities before they surface.
Before joining Essenta, Ellen built her career where Leadership Advisory, business development and relationship management meet.
Her expertise spans executive coaching, assessment, Leadership Advisory, executive transitions and senior appointments, alongside a strong record of originating and growing client relationships. Over her career she has generated more than $125 million in revenue, a figure that reflects how well she builds partnerships that last.
Personal perspective
I joined Essenta because it pairs deep expertise with a genuinely personal approach. We take the time to understand our clients: their business, culture, people, priorities and the context behind their biggest decisions.
With AI and technology reshaping so much, I believe human connection matters more than ever. It leads to deeper conversations, better questions, sound judgment and counsel that technology alone can’t provide. Whether we’re advising on leadership, talent, organizational change or wider business challenges, we aim to be true partners. For me, that personal connection is our “leadership insurance”: the insight, experience and objective counsel clients need to decide with confidence, and to cover the risk of getting it wrong.
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?”
Professional overview
Seb has spent more than 25 years helping consumer organizations build their boards and management teams. A member of Essenta’s Senior Leadership team, he co-heads its Consumer divisions and is responsible for building the firm’s reputation across consumer industries in North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific.
He is also closely involved in developing Essenta’s broader offering, including Assessment, Advisory, Interim and referencing. Seb’s time is split equally between publicly listed and private capital-backed businesses, which gives him a clear sense of what each requires, separately or together.
Having worked globally for most of his career, Seb has supported organizations and investors with both domestic and international growth ambitions. His clients range from public companies to private equity-backed businesses building towards secondary, tertiary and IPO capital events.
Personal perspective
A strong leader creates followership. A healthy balance of EQ and IQ builds the trust and loyalty at the heart of high-performing teams, and finding and qualifying those teams is what motivates me. That’s why executive referencing is now so focused on those qualities, particularly when growth and transformation sit at the heart of a business’s strategy.
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.
Elizabeth Reynolds
Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer
Professional overview
As Executive Assistant to Essenta’s CEO, Elizabeth is the linchpin of his day-to-day, and the key point of contact for anyone who meets or works with him across the UK and US. She runs a complex international diary, coordinates travel and meetings, and helps him balance client, leadership, and business priorities.
Elizabeth has built broad experience in executive support, administration and stakeholder coordination over the years, working with senior leaders in demanding, fast-paced environments. She has become an expert at managing complex schedules, and handling confidential information with discretion.
Personal perspective
Trust and a real understanding of the person you’re supporting: that’s where all good Executive support starts.
I anticipate what’s needed, communicate clearly, and keep every interaction simple and professional. This experience underpins the calm, responsive support I give Essenta’s CEO today, allowing him the time and focus for what matters most: the firm’s clients, its people, and its strategic priorities.
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.