Our team

Alex is a key member of our leadership team. He supports our founders with day-to-day operations and leads impactful projects from hiring, people operations, marketing, business development and project management.

He’s also responsible for our delivery team, making sure we deliver to the highest standard, and with a sincere commitment to providing the most suitable and beneficial outcome for both our clients and candidates.

Alex helps us achieve our global business strategies by helping us deliver an outstanding service to our clients, while providing a truly collaborative and enabling work environment by making sure we have the right tools, processes and people.

Alex is a key member of our B2B team, focused on the delivery and execution of executive search assignments covering private equity owned and publicly listed organisations.

He holds a breadth of experience across multiple sectors but now primarily focuses on the small to mid-cap private equity market within business and information services.

He holds a BA in Geography from the University of Birmingham.

Aman is a Senior Associate within the Consumer and International team, with a particular interest in fashion and beauty, luxury and lifestyle brands.

Aman obtained a degree in International Business (BSc) from Loughborough University after which she joined PwC as a Management Consultant, specialising in ‘People and Organisation’. It was here that she developed an interest in client-facing advisory roles, catalysing her move into executive search.

At True Search, she built a GTM track-record across the consumer digital space, predominantly for VC-backed clients and has worked on candidate placements across the globe with a particular focus on EMEA and North America.

Annabelle oversees our International Consumer practice.

She makes sure our teams have everything they need to meet project milestones and keep assignments on track. She also helps us to follow, and adapt to, best practices and take a consistent approach across our business.

Annabelle also supports our International Partner, Nanda Veldink, allowing them to spend maximum time on strategic and client-focused activities.

As our Head of Finance, Catherine helps to drive our growth by making sure we have timely and accurate management and financial reporting information.

Working globally to support our UK and US teams, she helps ensure the financial integrity of our business by making sure we have the information we need to work and grow quickly and flexibly.

Catherine is a qualified accountant and has worked within executive search for over 15 years.

Chika leads our approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) both internally and externally.

Internally, this includes embedding DE&I principles into the way we operate as a business and approach our clients’ executive search needs. Externally, this involves supporting our clients in their own DE&I journeys.

Chika has several years’ experience as a trusted DE&I consultant and talent manager, and before joining us, she worked predominantly for magic and silver circle law firms.

As an excellent communicator and thought leader, Chika also runs our monthly DE&I podcast on the power of diverse teams.

Chris supports our B2B clients across Technology and Consulting by helping them hire, develop and retain some of the world’s best leaders. He has developed a particularly strong understanding of the enterprise software market and produces our monthly software insights articles with views from some of the top Executives in the sector.

Chris also sits on the advisory board for a number of smaller software businesses.

David is responsible for our B2B industry practice.

The practice works across multiple ownership structures including private equity and publicly listed and covers a broad range of situations and geographies.

Recent mandates include projects in the critical services, tech-enabled, construction, software, infrastructure, manufacturing and the testing, inspection and certification (TIC) sectors.

Ewan is a key account manager within our Consumer and International practice.

As a senior member of our delivery team, he supports the end-to-end delivery of our executive search assignments; diversity, equity and inclusion projects; and talent pipelining projects.

Ewan has multi-industry experience across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, and specialises in digital and chief digital officer (C-suite) appointments.

Frances is a Senior Associate in the Tech & Digital team, partnering with clients from Series B/C to small-cap PE. She has an interest in Deep Tech and SaaS and specialises in Technology and Product roles.

Prior to moving into executive search, Frances held a founding operational and commercial role in a pre-seed start-up.

Fred leads the delivery of our executive search assignments. His primary focus is on B2B and technology, but he also draws on a breadth of search experience to support and advise clients across different sectors and roles.

He works closely with clients to understand the ‘what’ and – crucially – the ‘why’ of their leadership hiring needs, before engaging with candidates who’ll be key to solving the business’s strategic objectives.

Fred has master’s and bachelor’s degrees in history and, prior to the birth of his twin sons, was a regular choral singer.

Georgiana leads growth equity for the Technology & Digital practice, with clients ranging from Series B/C through to small-cap PE. She focuses on consumer tech and specialises in G2M roles.

Georgiana has experience working with Series A through pre-IPO VC backed tech start-ups, and has placed executives at Monzo, Pitch and Cargo.one.

Prior to moving into executive search, Georgiana worked for WeWork, running a building of 1,000 members in East London. She predominantly looked after members of WeWork Labs, the company’s accelerator for start-ups.

Hannah supports our CFO and Funds practice by managing project administration and workflows, and keeping on top of her team’s busy diaries.

She handles admin, scheduling and operational tasks for our partners and teams to help us run projects smoothly, and make sure our assignments are delivered to the highest standards.

Hannah has a MSc in Psychology from the University of Otago, which kickstarted her interest in people, HR and executive search.

Ivi supports our partner group with research, candidate sourcing, market mapping and reporting.

She primarily works on our B2B technology assignments while also supporting other practices within the business.

She has a BSc in Environmental Geoscience from UCL and a MSc in Management from Bayes Business School at City University London.

James founded Essenta Partners.

He leads our business, focusing on our global strategy, overseeing and supporting our key practice leaders and heads of functions, and approving all hiring decisions.

James has more than 26 years’ experience in helping organisations grow by finding them game-changing talent. He continually shares this expertise by taking a hands-on approach in developing our key client relationships.

He has a BSc in Business, is a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK programme, and is an active fundraiser for local charities.

Jay is an executive search professional with years of VC/PE backed and Fortune 1000 experience.  He has worked as a Partner at one of the largest global search firms and has accumulated a body of work that includes placing board members, c-suite executives, VPs, directors, and expert contributors.  The industries and clients he has worked with span across consumer/small business/enterprise SaaS, mobile, data, IOT, AI/ML, and computer vision/AR/VR.

He spearheaded a new advisor model within the search industry that led to an award and recognition by Business Management Review magazine.

Jess supports our Consumer practice by making sure our assignments are managed accurately, effectively and on time.

She has seven years’ experience supporting C-suite members in the executive search, retail and culture industries.

Before joining us, Jess was Executive Assistant to the Communications and Digital Directors at a world-leading museum where she also managed projects and organised events.

Jessica supports our B2B and Consumer practices by helping to manage project administration, project updates and by keeping on top of her team’s busy diaries to help make the team run as smoothly as possible.

Jessica is there to make sure all projects and administration work is carried out to the highest quality for our clients.

Jessie’s on hand to support everyone at Essenta from project administration to helping our London office run smoothly.

Jiarong is a key member of our Consumer practice. She partners with global businesses within fashion, health and beauty, luxury and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) across Asia, Europe and the US.

She’s experienced in hiring chief executive officers, chief digital officers and chief consumer officers, and has a successful track record in helping multinationals and private equity portfolio brands develop their digital performance and transform their position in the global marketplace.

Jiarong has a degree in Mathematics with Engineering from Nottingham University. She’s a native speaker in Chinese Mandarin and a global citizen, having lived in China, Germany and the UK.

I deliver key identification, research and market mapping activities relating to Private Equity CFO mandates across the UK and International markets. I commenced my career in Banking, where I completed a diverse rotational program and my Chartered Banking qualification. I relocated to Sydney and my subsequent experience has been in Private Equity executive search, supporting with CFO mandates across a multitude of sectors in both Australia and New Zealand. I’m currently based in Madrid and have previously co-hosted various Private Equity events during my career thus far.

Work life

As our first partner, Jon‘s been integral to building our Technology & Digital team. He has more than 10 years of experience working with investors, founders and boards, helping to build great technology leadership teams and completing over 200 successful searches with a focus on customer experience, leveraging his global network and developing a robust assessment methodology.

With a background in elite sports, Jon has a long-standing interest in how successful teams are built and how great, or bad, leadership can impact teams or organisations.

Josh concentrates on the small to mid-cap private equity markets throughout the UK and Europe, supporting portfolio companies within consumer products and service / consumer-tech industries, partnering with investors, founders and owners with their Board and Executive appointments across all disciplines.

Alongside this, Josh has supported PE, VC and Family Offices during their deal processes, helping them identify and gain access to individuals best placed to advise them through their industry and situational expertise.

As a key consultant within our CFO and Funds practice, Laura leads the end-to-end delivery of senior executive appointments within private equity-backed businesses.

She focuses primarily on the private equity midmarket, where she has extensive experience across international sectors, particularly Europe and the US.

Laura began her career as a translator in the pharmaceutical sector and holds an MSc from UCL, having studied for her BA in France. She’s lived and worked in several European countries and currently lives between Portugal and the UK.

Liz has worked in executive search for over 20 years.

She supports our CEO, James Howells, in his day-to-day role by making sure our clients’ assignments stay on track, and that our team has everything they need to meet project milestones.

With 15 years’ experience I have a functional strength in the CFO Practice as well as a deep media and TMT network that supports Chairs and CEO’s build leadership teams, with a growth and transformational mindset.

These positions include Chief Operating Officers, Chief Strategy Officers, Chief Revenue/Growth Officers, Chief Creative and Chief Commercial Officers as well as Divisional MD’s and other executive leadership positions.

I am passionate about diversity of thought in future board rooms and seek to enhance executive teams with this in mind. To do this I work closely with Essenta's Head of Diversity & Inclusion and on Non-Executive development for executives that are looking to complement their current role, and prepare for a portfolio.

I believe the search industry has an influential role in sourcing, coaching leaders and helping people fulfill their potential, so we work collaboratively with our candidates, clients as well as each other to enable opportunity, provide adaptable time frames and a holistic international approach to research. This in turn helps provide a truly diverse talent pool.

Nanda is a key member of our leadership team, and helps us to innovate and continue to challenge ourselves as a progressive executive search firm.

A Dutch national, she’s lived and worked in eight countries and has an innate global view on executive talent. She drives our international practice, focusing on the consumer industry, and has a successful track record of sourcing across borders.

Nanda has worked in international consumer markets for 12+ years and works with clients looking for transformative and holistic solutions and who see talent as a strategic advantage. She’s used to working with geographically and culturally diverse teams and is driven by creating highly diverse senior leadership teams and identifying next-generation talent while partnering closely with her clients.

Natalya heads our Leadership Advisory practice, supporting our clients to build high performance executive teams.

Natalya is a leadership expert who specialises in helping management teams establish the alignment, trust and ways of working to drive growth. She has spent her career in management consulting, building leadership advisory practices at several boutique firms across the UK, Europe and the US.

She has over 15 years of experience working with a diverse range of clients including high growth, capital-backed and global enterprise companies.

Natasha helps our B2B and B2C teams with research and execution support on executive appointments within high-growth, private equity-backed businesses.

She graduated from UCL with a BSc in Economics, and before she joined us, she interned at Oxford Economics, building and back-testing a macroeconomic forecasting model.

Natasha is also member of our internal diversity, equity and inclusion group, BOLD.

Nick is responsible for leading our CFO and Private Equity practice.

With over 20 years of executive search experience, he specialises in advising private equity funds, private equity-backed portfolio companies and listed businesses on their CFO and finance hiring needs.

He’s partnered with clients across a broad range of sectors, geographies and situations, including buy-in CFOs, carve-out, buy-and-build, growth, turnaround and internationalisation.

Prior to joining us, Nick led the CFO practice at Blackwood Group, worked with Russell Reynolds in London and began his executive search career with Heidrick & Struggles where he worked in London and Mexico City.

Paula partners with Private Equity & Venture Capital investors to deliver mid- and senior-level searches across their internal teams.

With an extensive network across the full investment lifecycle, she finds the best people to raise, invest and maximise return on capital, at the optimal time.

Passionate about increasing both cognitive and demographic diversity in the industry, Paula supports our clients’ strategic thinking on how to access, attract and retain new talent pools.

She’s also a guest speaker and contributor to Level 20 and Diversity VC.

Philippa specialises in technology as both a function and a sector and finds top technology talent for our consumer and B2B clients.

As a career search consultant, she has strong talent networks across Europe and the US. She draws on these to help our high-growth clients find technology, product and data leaders who can transform their organisations.

Seb is responsible for our business to consumer industry practice.

As an essential member of our senior leadership team, he’s the driving force for our growth and development within the consumer and consumer technology industries.

Seb’s global experience has enabled him to work across different ownership structures, including private equity, venture capital, PLCs and privately owned businesses. He’s been instrumental in helping us expand internationally.

Stephen leads on delivery efforts across North America. Covering assignments and partnering with Investor-backed, listed and Privately held businesses.

Stephen has a B.S. Degree from Dickinson College in International Business Management with a minor in Chinese where he also played Lacrosse all 4 years.

Tarek specialises in CFO, senior finance and senior commercial executive search, working with a range of growth, capital-backed and listed clients globally.

Having recently relocated from London to New York, he’s also forging our relationships with our North American clients to support our expansion stateside.

Tarek is also a member of our BOLD team – our diversity, equity and inclusion group – leading the discussion around social mobility, which is something he’s personally passionate about.

Tom is a Senior Associate within our CFO & Funds team, providing research and delivery support, identifying C-suite executives for small to mid-cap Private Equity backed clients.

Prior to joining Essenta, Tom has over 8 years’ experience working in Executive Search with a particular focus in the Private Equity and Portfolio space.