After three years at Touche Ross, Robert Walters joined the recruitment firm Michael Page as one of its very first employees. Following an eight-year period that included setting up the firm’s New York office, he returned to London and established Robert Walters in 1985, specialising in junior to middle management professional positions.
Johnathan Johnson is the CEO of Fircroft. Johnson joined Fircroft in 1997 as a consultant and was promoted to operations director for the international oil and gas sector in 2001. Since taking the helm in 2005 from his father and company founder John Johnson, he has overseen the global expansion of the company.
Julia Robertson has long been motivated by her belief that there is “a better way to do recruitment”. She became Impellam Group’s chief executive officer in 2013 after joining Tate in 1996, which was later acquired to form part of what is now Impellam Group. Prior to Impellam Group, Robertson was chief executive of the Institute of Employment Consultants (now known as the Recruitment & Employment Confederation), the professional body for the UK recruitment industry. She also founded her own recruitment business in 1986, which was sold to the Group alongside Tate. In 2016, Robertson received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute of Recruitment Professionals.
Simon Wassall has been with Harvey Nash for more than 20 years and joined the PLC board in 2005. As European managing director, he is responsible for the UK and European professional recruitment operations. Prior to joining Harvey Nash, Wassall opened several new operations for Austin Benn, which led to his board appointment to a newly acquired advertising and marketing company. Wassall is actively involved in the community and participates in Byte Night: the IT industry’s annual sleep-out in support of Action for Children. In 2017, Harvey Nash posted revenue of £889 million and acquired IT solutions recruitment firm Crimson Ltd. and Swedish HR consultancy PAT Management.
Gary Elden has been CEO of SThree since January 2013 after serving as its deputy CEO since May 2012. Prior to that, Elden was SThree’s chief strategy officer. He has held a number of senior positions, including that of founding managing director of Huxley Associates. As chief strategy officer, he was responsible for the expansion of the group’s international operations and non-ICT disciplines. Last year, the company had revenue of £634 million.
Andrew Hogarth is CEO of Staffline, which had revenue of £416 million in its latest financial year. He has been with the company since 2002. ISIS funded the buy in/management buyout of the firm in 2000 and introduced Hogarth as finance director. Hogarth helped float the firm on AIM in 2004 and has been chief executive since 2003. He is a certified neuro-linguistic programming coach.
Nigel Heap joined Hays UK in 1988 as a trainee consultant. By 1997, he was managing director of Hays Australia, and consequently expanded operations to New Zealand, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. In 2006, he was appointed managing director of Asia Pacific and has been managing director of the UK and Ireland, and chairman of the Asia Pacific business, since 2012. He has been with Hays for more than 25 years and has successfully led the growth of the Asia-Pacific business. Heap serves as a director of Hays Specialist Recruitment (Australia) Pty Ltd. and the Hays Specialist Recruitment (Australia) Pty Ltd. New Zealand branch.
Brian Wilkinson is CEO of UK-based specialist engineering and technology recruitment firm Gattaca, having joined the company in December 2013. Gattaca posted turnover of £616.9 million in 2016. Wilkinson has worked in the recruitment industry for more than 35 years and brings extensive international as well as M&A experience to Gattaca. Wilkinson has been an active proponent of raising standards over that time, serving terms as chairman of both the Federation of Recruitment and Employment Services and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. In 2015, he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement award by the REC.
Ged Mason is CEO of Morson, a U.K.-based technical staffing firm. He joined the company in 1986 and took over as managing director in 1999 from his father, Gerry Mason (see separate entry), with backing from Barclays Private Equity. The company was floatedon AIM in 2006 and taken private again in 2012.
Oliver Watson is an executive board director for the PageGroup. He is responsible for all Michael Page, Page Executive and Page Personnel operations in the UK, US, Canada, Middle East and South Africa. Prior to this, he was regional managing director for Michael Page UK. Watson joined the company as a consultant in London in 1995.
