Core capabilities
Key appointments we deliver include:
- Chief Information Officer
- Chief Technology Officer
- Chief Architect
- Chief Product Officer
- Chief Data & AI Officer
- Chief Information Security Officer
The Essenta difference
Why Essenta?
Our integrated model supports clients across the technology leadership lifecycle, from defining the capability required, to securing permanent or Interim leadership and assessing readiness for what comes next.
Deep functional expertise
Specialist coverage across engineering and platforms, enterprise IT, product, architecture, data & AI, cybersecurity and technology transformation.
Global talent networks
Our relationships across global technology ecosystems keep us connected to the leaders, innovators and emerging capabilities shaping the market, giving clients access to talent beyond the obvious or established pools.
Proprietary Discovery® Process
Rigorous benchmarking that tests technical and functional credibility alongside commercial judgement, leadership capability and cultural fit.
Context-led Assessment
Technology leadership assessment grounded in your current architecture, operating model, growth agenda and future capability requirements, not a generic leadership profile.
Case studies
Proven lasting impact
Explore how we have helped organizations build technology leadership capable of modernizing today while preparing for what comes next.
Ben Spalding
David Purcell
Senior Partner, B2B
B2B
London
Katriona Windsor
Partner, Consumer
B2C
London
Phillippa Dunlop
Consultant, Technology and Digital
Technology and Digital
London
Fred Watkinson
Consultant, B2B
B2B
London
James Howells
CEO and Founding Partner
London
Natasha Lewis
Consultant, Consumer
B2C
New York
Amin Mahboubi
Principal, Interim
Interim
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
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
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.
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
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
Natasha brings Essenta’s international network to the US market. A Consultant in the B2C practice, she is based in New York, where she focuses on senior leadership appointments across CPG, luxury, beauty, retail and technology-enabled businesses.
She works across the full search process, from gathering market intelligence and identifying talent to assessing candidates, managing client relationships and supporting decisions. Natasha also weaves Leadership Assessment and Advisory into her searches, giving clients a fuller view of the talent landscape and the capabilities their business needs to succeed.
Her understanding of where talent is heading in her industries helps her turn business context into a clear leadership profile, a tailored search strategy and a differentiated shortlist.
Natasha studied Economics at University College London and joined Essenta in 2021, she has built her Executive Search expertise in London before having relocated to New York in 2026.
Personal perspective
A job description only tells you part of the story. The more closely you understand an industry and a company’s ambitions, challenges and culture, the better you can spot the leadership it needs. I bring that thinking to every conversation, helping clients think more broadly about the market and giving candidates a clear, honest view of the opportunity. I particularly enjoy the moments when talent gets to shape a role and make a real difference to the business.
Professional overview
Amin is a Principal in Essenta’s Interim practice, where he has a particular focus across Financial Officers and Technology Officers.
His clients include private equity-backed businesses, their boards and investors, as well as corporate clients across manufacturing, media and financial services. Clients typically bring him in for CFO or CTO gaps and succession, and for key moments in a business’s life: exits and refinancing, carve-outs and integrations, turnaround and cash focus, and first-time private equity ownership. He also supports finance function transformation, systems and ERP change, digital transformation and technology due diligence.
Before joining Essenta, Amin worked client-side as a commercial director. He has also led multiple businesses at a listed recruitment group, and a number of businesses across several sectors for one of the UK’s largest privately owned staffing businesses.
Personal perspective
Clients should experience speed without any loss of judgement. I offer a straight view, even when it isn’t the answer someone had hoped for; and I stay close to the mandate from briefing to the end of the assignment, rather than stepping away at offer stage. I believe candidates deserve the same candour, and a relationship that lasts well beyond a single assignment instead of a transaction.
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.