
Our team
We understand what it takes to thrive in large, complex, global organisations
We are specialists in leadership. Therefore we take the utmost care in identifying people to join us as well as developing home-grown talent.
We have a diverse and talented team across all areas of the business. We are proud of our initiatives. We were the first executive search firm to gain the UK Investors in People accreditation, which we've now been re-awarded three times. Another first was our graduate entry scheme to recruit the brightest and the best.
Meet our consulting team
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Aelf Hardyment
Aelf joined Saxton Bampfylde’s fast stream in 2004. She initially worked as a researcher before being seconded to Moscow for 14 months. She returned to London in 2007 and is now a consultant in our commercial practice. Aelf has a BA in French and Russian from Oxford University.
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Alex Stewart
Alex is head of the Saxton Bampfylde higher education practice and has advised on all senior appointments in the sector in the last five years. She is also active in the wider public and not-for-profit area. Alex joined the company after a career in the civil service, latterly as Director of Arts & Culture in the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, where she worked closely with government ministers on all aspects of arts and cultural policy. Alex read English at the University of Durham.
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Ann Bourne
Ann has over 10 years’ experience in executive search in the UK after an earlier career in HR and training for international banks in both the USA and the UK. Since joining Saxton Bampfylde, Ann has advised on a range of executive and non-executive board appointments in the public and not-for-profit sectors. She currently leads the firm’s health practice group. Ann has a BA in History and English from Denison University in the USA.
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Deborah Loudon
Deborah joined Saxton Bampfylde in 2008 after a long civil service career which started in policy, particularly on policing and criminal justice, and included being HR Director in the Home Office from 2000 to 2003. Her most recent post was as DG Civilian Personnel at the MoD. She now heads the Government practice. She is a fellow of the CIPD and worked on the development of Professional Skills for Government. She has an MA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford and is an accredited employment mediator.
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Gareth Jones
Gareth has been working as an occupational psychologist in the private sector and for central government for over 15 years. Previously he was a Senior Civil Servant and Head of the Home Office’s Assessment and Consultancy Unit, where he specialised in assessment centre design and delivery for high potential and strategic managers in the Police, Fire and Prison Services. He joined KPMG’s Executive Resourcing before joining Saxton Bampfylde in 2002. He specialises in board level individual psychological profiling and assessment centres for senior management. He is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
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Hamish Laing
Hamish is a graduate from the University of York and he completed his MBA in 2003. Hamish has been responsible for search programmes covering a range of senior executive and non-executive appointments, many of them with an international dimension. He is a senior member of the education practice at Saxton Bampfylde and has undertaken a series of successful searches, including at VC level, across the full range of senior academic and non-academic posts. He also has extensive experience of working at the interface of academia, industry and government.
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Imelda Napier
Imelda has over 10 years' experience in executive search. After an early career working for a global PR consultancy, she moved to a boutique search firm, specialising in media and communications. Imelda joined Saxton Bampfylde in 1999 and works across a wide range of areas including media, retail, leisure as well as the not-for-profit sector. She leads the communications practice group and has responsibility for the firm’s marketing programme. Imelda has a degree in Modern History from Edinburgh University and has completed a management programme at INSEAD.
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James Spearpoint
A chartered occupational psychologist, James began his psychology career at QinetiQ’s Human Sciences Division. He then joined a business psychology firm in the City of London, consulting to a range of global organisations. Here he specialised in management assessment, selection and development, and worked on mainland Europe, Africa and the Far East. James designs and delivers assessments across a broad range of sectors all at senior management and executive level. He is a governor at Prestwood Junior School, and is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
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Jo Llewelyn
Jo has worked in search for a number of years, both in the UK and in New Zealand, and prior to joining the consulting team, headed our research team. Jo’s primary focus is on assisting commercial organisations, with particular functional expertise in HR. Given a personal interest in organisations involved with children and education however, she also works across our schools and charity practices, advising on both executive and non executive roles. Jo is a Governor of Burlington Danes Academy and has a BA in classics from the University of Oxford.
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Jonathan Morgan
Jonathan has worked in search for over nine years and heads our regulation and government affairs practice. He joined the consulting team at Saxton Bampfylde after heading our education research. He has advised on board level appointments across the private, public and not for profit sectors. He also leads our competition practice across the firm, which has included work with clients as diverse as Severn Trent, the UK Cards Association and Ofgem. Jonathan read Chinese at Edinburgh University, has a diploma in management from Cambridge, and is an alumnus of Kellogg School of Management. Jonathan is a governor of Purley Nursery and Children's Centre.
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Rachel Hubbard
Rachel joined
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Ross Newby
Ross joined Saxton Bampfylde in 2004 and is a specialist in public sector and education appointments. After several years teaching, Ross spent eight years with HM Treasury, including being Head of the Strategy Unit and project manager for setting up the Debt Management Agency. He was Director of the Sutton Trust, a grant-making education charity, and most recently he was Chief Executive of a national public-private partnership scheme for schools. Ross read Mathematics at Cambridge University and has an MBA from Cranfield.
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Sarah Orwin
Sarah joined Saxton Bampfylde in 2002 after five years as Group Talent Director for Barclays Bank plc. Before this, Sarah worked for Ernst & Young for 12 years, initially as a management consultant and latterly as Director of their executive search business. Her career started with Citigroup, where she worked first in London and then for three years in Brazil. Sarah’s main focus is financial and professional services, but she also works across other sectors on assignments where her commercial, international or functional expertise adds value. The majority of Sarah’s work is for general managers or heads of function. Sarah has an MA in Modern History from Oxford University.
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Stephen Bampfylde
Stephen is co-founder and Chairman of Saxton Bampfylde. He began his career working for IBM and Whitehall, where he spent nearly 10 years before moving into top level executive search. For 25 years he has been involved in the recruitment of executives to senior positions across all sectors. He helped establish the worldwide professional association AESC in Europe and was its international director for a number of years. Outside executive search, he has been involved with the advisory boards of the Business Schools at Cambridge and City Universities, is a Trustee of the Yvonne Arnaud theatre, and Chairman of the Guildford Cathedral Council. Stephen read Economics at Jesus College, Cambridge and studied corporate finance at London Business School.
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Sue Singer
Sue joined the team in 2002 after a career in education culminating in the Headship of Guildford High School. In addition, she was president of GSA (Girls’ Schools Association), chaired the GSA / HMC Education and Academic Policy Committee and the Joint Associations Curriculum Group and was a member of the Steering Group for the Post-14 Inquiry into Mathematics. Sue now works across the not-for-profit and education sectors and leads our schools practice.
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Virginia Eastman
Virginia leads Saxton Bampfylde’s media and communications practice. She has many years of experience in the media industry including fifteen years at the BBC as a Business Correspondent and Presenter for both television and radio. Interviewing daily most of the senior management of the FTSE 100 and captains of industry, Virginia also made many long form programs such as The Money Programme and Trouble at the Top, winning several awards. Prior to joining the BBC she spent several years with management consultants Bain & Company. She came to executive search when Heidrick and Struggles hired her in 2006 to lead Media, establish a communications practice and expand digital. Educated in Australia, Virginia holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Tasmania. |
































