Since its launch in March 2015, Acorn’s Executive Search Division has gone from strength to strength, and to date has worked on over 40 vacancies for CEOs, finance, sales and marketing directors, executive and non-exec board members, placing senior professionals into a number of leading positions across the UK.
Acorn has appointed directors Laura Nicholas, Gareth Edwards and Jan Hughes who all understand the strategic and operational pressures faced by organisational leaders and senior management teams, having previously set up and run their own successful businesses.
Laura Nicholas, from Carmarthenshire, a well-respected figure in recruitment and business support, has over seven years’ experience in recruitment having previously run her own multi-million pound recruitment business.
Speaking about her appointment, Laura said: “After selling my company I stayed in touch with companies and business people through my management consultancy work but my plan was always to return to the executive recruitment field and naturally, I’m delighted to have become a part of Acorn, where we have ambitious growth plans in place, both nationally and internationally.
“Acorn is a recognised authority in recruitment and I was delighted to be approached about the development of the Executive Search Division. Since then, the division has gone from strength to strength, placing some very talented senior professionals into some great positions.”
Gareth Edwards worked with leading recruitment brands for many years before setting up his own global executive search, head-hunting and resourcing consultancy in 2011.
Gareth said: “This is a bold and exciting move for me. I had built a good reputation through running my own successful resourcing consultancy and have developed long lasting relationships with reputable organisations and senior professionals UK-wide, but I wanted to offer more.
“Joining Acorn allows me to continue to do what I do best; provide expert precision search services, find good people and place them with reputable employers. But as part of Acorn I can also offer employers so much more, with a number of specialist recruitment services, incredible search techniques and greater marketing support for vacancies – it’s a genuinely exciting time.”
Jan Hughes worked in the accountancy and civil service fields before entering into the recruitment sector, and more recently, before joining Acorn, ran her own specialist recruitment consultancy.
Jan said: “I share Laura and Gareth’s vision that Acorn’s Executive Search Division is developing quickly to become the leading senior-level recruitment company head-quartered here in Wales, and working on senior vacancies all over the UK. Building on Acorn’s excellent contacts and reputation, we will continue to demonstrate to businesses and individuals that our services, connections and experience are second-to-none.”
Acorn Director, Dan Langford, who leads the specialist executive search team, added: “We’re encouraged by the success and progress we’ve made to-date, not just in terms of the number of senior placements we have made and are currently working on, but in particular with the quality of the feedback and repeat business we’re attracting from our clients.
“Recruiting at this level is a sophisticated and detailed process; with their backgrounds in running their own businesses, Jan, Laura and Gareth have very quickly gained the confidence of the clients they’ve been working with, which is essential to ensure they can trust us to really get to grips with what they’re looking for when investing a lot of time and faith in a new senior appointment.”
The award-winning Acorn is the largest, multi-specialist recruitment agency in Wales and in the top 1% of agencies UK-wide, placing some 6,500 people into the workplace each week and 1,700 people into permanent positions every year.
Acorn operates from 37 branches and on-site locations across Wales, the South West, North West and South East of England, Dublin and has international offices in Australia.