Executive Search Hiring
Executive search for Technology, Insurance, and Banking & Investments, supporting interim and permanent senior leadership appointments across the UK’s public and private sectors.
Leadership for strategic goals.
Senior briefs now ask more of the people who take them on. A single appointment can bring strategy, technology and risk together, from AI adoption to the governance of a regulated business, across Technology, Insurance, and Banking & Investments.
The leaders best placed to meet those briefs may well be settled in roles they value. So we approach them directly and discreetly, with a search built around what your organisation needs from the appointment.
Specialisms
We cover key specialisms within technology, insurance and banking & investments that help fuel transformation and growth within business.
Skills
Our specialist recruitment consultants work with key skills areas and niche communities, building their knowledge, network and experience to deliver excellent service to candidates and clients.
Hiring your next leader
From our UK Leadership team.
Senior searches need confidentiality on both sides: for your organisation’s plans and for candidates in senior, visible roles. So every search begins with a clear brief covering where your organisation is heading, what this appointment needs to change and the board, team and stakeholders your new leader will work with. A leader steadying a regulated business needs different strengths from one scaling a platform or leading a first AI programme.
We then approach leaders directly, including those who aren’t looking for a move. Your shortlist sets out each candidate’s experience, motivations and availability, and we stay with you through interview, offer and notice.
Every consultant in our specialises in one area of the market including senior appointments. That means keeping our knowledge current every day: how AI, data and cloud platforms are reshaping leadership teams, how roles like Chief AI Officer and Chief Data Officer are being defined, and what boards now expect of senior leaders. Every brief starts from that shared view.
At this level, influence counts as much as expertise. We look at how a candidate has shaped strategy, built a team and earned a board’s confidence, alongside the capability the role needs, from technology strategy and risk and capital management to underwriting performance. Three qualities run through every assessment:
- Strategic stewardship: setting direction and holding it through market and technology change
- Board-level influence: supporting and challenging a board while carrying the confidence of investors, regulators and peers
- Personal accountability: owning outcomes where responsibility is named, from risk appetite to technology governance
Every candidate is assessed by a consultant who knows their market, looking past titles and certifications to what they have led and changed.
The answer depends on what the appointment needs to achieve. An interim executive can steady a business after an unexpected departure, lead a defined programme such as a platform migration or regulatory remediation, or provide cover while a permanent search runs. A permanent appointment suits a long-term agenda, where building a team, a culture and a succession plan matters most.
Some organisations use both, bringing in interim leadership to maintain momentum while the permanent search takes the time it needs. We’ll help you weigh continuity, cost and timing, and plan the sequence so that the transition from one to the other is seamless.
Gender balance on UK boards has progressed further than in executive roles. Non-executive seats have moved closer to parity, while the routes into executive director and chief executive roles have changed more slowly. For organisations building their next leadership team, the executive pipeline is where search can make the biggest difference.
Widening a search beyond the obvious title or sector is one of the most practical steps. A leader from an adjacent market, a crossover such as insurtech or bancassurance, or a public sector background can bring exactly the capability a role needs. We assess candidates on what they’ve led and achieved rather than on a like-for-like career history, so your shortlist reflects the full range of leaders who could succeed in the role.
Executive search suits appointments where the right person may not be looking and the role can’t be openly advertised. That might be a newly created position such as a Chief AI Officer, a confidential replacement, or a role where experience across technology, insurance or banking matters as much as the title. It also fits senior management functions in regulated firms, where regulatory approval and accountability shape both the search and the timeline.
For senior roles with an active, visible market, a more traditional recruitment approach can work well. We’ll talk through which route suits your appointment, including retained, contingency and interim options, so the approach matches the role, the timeline and the level of discretion you need.
Your next senior move
From our UK Country Director, Jo Callaghan.
At executive level, a move can begin with a conversation long before a role is advertised, or for one that never is. Many of the leaders we speak with are not looking, and a confidential discussion is a low-commitment way to understand what’s available and what your experience is worth to other organisations.
We’ll take time to understand what would make a move worthwhile for you: the scope, the board you’d join, the change you’d lead and the timing that suits you. Your details stay private, and we only introduce you to an organisation once you’ve agreed.
A first approach usually outlines the organisation’s sector, the scope of the role and why your experience is relevant, sometimes before the client is named. There’s no obligation to take it further, and the first conversation works both ways: it’s a chance for you to ask about the board, the business plan and why the role is open.
If you’re interested, we’ll share more detail, talk through how the process would run and agree how and when your name is put forward. If now isn’t the right time, that’s a useful conversation too, and we can stay in touch for when it is.
Yes. Technology, Insurance, and Banking & Investments share more leadership ground than their titles suggest. A CTO in fintech, a Chief Data Officer in an insurer and a technology leader in a bank face related questions about resilience, data and AI, and leaders who have delivered change in one regulated environment bring experience that transfers to another.
What helps most is being clear about what you’ve led and why it matters in the new sector, from regulatory engagement to the size and complexity of the change. Because our specialist teams work together across these markets, we can talk you through where your experience carries the most weight.
AI is now a leadership responsibility rather than a specialist one. In UK financial services, adoption has grown quickly, and accountability for how AI is used sits largely with executive leadership rather than with a single dedicated role. Insurers, banks and technology businesses alike are looking for leaders who can explain how AI decisions are governed, not only how they’re built.
For executive candidates, that places AI governance on the agenda across technology, risk, finance and operations, not just for those with AI in their title. Leaders who can show how they’ve introduced new technology responsibly, brought teams through the change and kept boards informed are well placed for the roles organisations are creating now.
If your next role is a senior management function at a bank, insurer or investment firm, the appointment will need regulatory approval, and your personal accountability moves with you. The rules around approvals are being streamlined, with changes already in place and further proposals under consultation that would reduce the number of roles needing approval in advance.
Individual accountability remains central throughout. We’ll talk you through how approval, notice and handover fit together for your move, so the timing works for you and for the organisation you’re joining.
Adding Value through benchmarking
We offer free tailored benchmarking reports to support your hiring strategies and decision making.
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