British

Steve Ingham

Steve Ingham

PageGroup
CEO

Steve Ingham is CEO of PageGroup, one of the largest staffing firms globally. PageGroup has won awards worldwide as a top place to work. It was rewarded for Best Diversity Initiative at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s People Management Awards in 2014 and recognised as the Most Socially Engaged Recruiter 2015 by LinkedIn. Ingham joined the company as a consultant in 1987, when it was still known as Michael Page. He was promoted to operating director in 1990 and then to the board as executive director of UK operations in 2001. He became managing director of UK operations in 2005 and was appointed CEO in 2006.

James Reed

James Reed

REED Group of Companies
Chairman

James Reed is the chairman of the REED group of companies, which was founded by James’s father, Sir Alec Reed (see separate entry), in 1960. The company has 3,000 permanent employees working across 417 business units in 158 locations worldwide. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and was formerly an associate of the Prime Minister’sDelivery Unit and a member of the Institute for Public Policy Research’s business-led taskforce on race equality and diversity in the private sector. Reed is co-author of the award-winning and best-selling book Put Your Mindset to Work.

Ann Swain

Ann Swain

Association of Professional Staffing Companies
CEO

Ann Swain has been the CEO of the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) since 1999 when it was established as a trade body focusing on technology staffing companies. In 2009, the organisation broadened its offering to provide specialist support and a voice for recruitment firms operating in professional staffing sectors in the UK and Asia. Swain has more than 30 years’ recruitment experience, including time as managing director of Learning Curve and UK sales director at Computer People. Swain is a global commentator on professional recruitment trends and a regular speaker at UK and international recruitment conferences.

Melanie Forbes

Melanie Forbes

Rullion
Group Managing Director

Since joining Rullion as group managing director in 2018, Melanie Forbes has been laying the foundation for growth by developing the people and reviewing Rullion’s products and services to define its market. With more than 25 years of experience in the recruitment industry, Forbes is an expert in managed service, recruitment process outsourcing and staffing. Prior to Rullion, Forbes was managing director, contingent workforce solutions at Alexander Mann Solutions, was CEO of the Guidant Group from 2014 until 2017, and held leadership roles with Advantage Resourcing and Manpower Group. Forbes is a board member of the Recruitment Industry Disability Initiative and is on the leadership team of Ambitious about Autism.

Kevin Barrow

Kevin Barrow

Osborne Clarke
Partner

Kevin Barrow is a partner with law firm Osborne Clarke. Since 1990, he has advised staffing companies on all types of legal work, including commercial deals, international joint ventures and M&A. His multi-country team works for more than 100 hirers and suppliers on market-leading UK, EU and international flexible workforce (MSP, RPO and VMS) projects, regulation of digital recruitment and online exchanges, tax planning relating to flexible workforces and worker misclassification and co-employment class actions. Barrow has led a campaign to change the regulatory regime affecting online exchanges, and has rolled out staffing/MSP deals in 40 countries in the last three years.

Gary Elden

Gary Elden

SThree
CEO

Gary Elden became CEO of SThree in 2013, after serving as its deputy CEO since June 2012. Before 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. Elden joined SThree’s IT recruitment brand, Computer Futures, as a recruitment consultant in 1990 and in 2008 he was appointed to the board. In 2016, Queen Elizabeth II awarded Elden an Officer for the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to diversity in business. The year prior, he won the prestigious Black British Business Person of the Year award.

Kelvin Stagg

Kelvin Stagg

PageGroup plc
CFO
British

Staffing 100 Europe | 2020

Kelvin Stagg, CFO of PageGroup plc, has significant international experience – and high levels of compliance, change management, large teams and systems experience – across almost every finance discipline. He joined PageGroup plc in 2006 as group financial controller and was appointed acting CFO in 2013. Stagg was corporate secretary from 2006 through 2013 and was named CFO in 2014. Prior to joining PageGroup, Stagg spent six years at Allied Domecq and three years at Unilever in a variety of finance functions. He is a chartered management accountant.

Ged Mason

Ged Mason

Morson Group
CEO

Ged Mason has been at the helm of the business since 1999, taking over from his father, Gerry Mason, who founded the company in 1969. Ged Mason originally joined Morson in 1986, following university and a role within a technical recruiter in Canada. In 2016, he received the Officer of the Order of the British Empire award, for services to engineering and design in the UK. Morson Group was floated on AIM in 2006 and taken private again in 2012. Morson have made a number of strategic acquisitions, including; Wynnwith (2011), Vital Human Resources (2013), The Bridge (IT Recruitment) in 2017 and CTSNA (North America) and Anderselite in 2018.

Paul Venables

Paul Venables

Hays plc
Finance Director
British

A chartered accountant and also US-qualified, Paul Venables was appointed group finance director of Hays plc in 2006 and has helped transform the company into a preeminent global specialist recruitment business with operations in 33 countries. He started his career at Deloitte & Touche as senior manager in its US practice. This was followed by a 13-year career at Exel plc, where he held a number of senior finance and operational roles, including deputy group finance director, and he was a member of Exel plc’s executive board and chairman of its acquisitions and project review board.

Staffing 100 Europe | 2021

Paul Venables

Paul Venables

Hays plc
Former Finance Director
British

As group finance officer of Hays plc since 2006, Paul Venables helped transform the company into the £6.59 billion global specialist recruiter it is today: With four divisions and 253 offices in 32 countries, Hays is the sixth-largest staffing firm in the world, according to SIA. A chartered accountant, Venables started his career at Deloitte & Touche, followed by a 13-year career at Exel plc, where he held several senior finance and operational roles, including deputy group finance director and executive board member. Venables retired from Hays in September and currently is a non-executive director and audit committee chair of Manchester Airports Group.

Staffing 100 Europe | 2022