Chris is a co-founder of Jackson Samuel Ltd, a leading board level executive search and consulting firm. Jackson Samuel was established in 2004 to meet clients’ need for a high value executive search service differentiated from the competition by its combination of responsiveness, agility, intellectual rigour and quality of insights into both the market and prospective candidates.

He has particular expertise in successfully handling business critical and challenging assignments for Chief Executives, where confidentiality is paramount and there is a very limited pool of potential candidates – often working to an aggressive time scale.

Following a PhD, he began his business career working offshore in the North Sea oil diving industry – prior to executive roles with Mars, British Airways, PepsiCo and Whitbread.

Chris was a Partner/Managing Director with Russell Reynolds Associates for seven years before co-founding Jackson Samuel.

He draws on his combination of business and executive search experience to judge culture fit and assess and attract talented senior executives for client companies that are publicly quoted or privately owned, as well as those under private equity/VC ownership.

Chris has a BSc and PhD.

Ian has been a researcher for twenty years, working across all sectors and functions, and has worked as a Senior Researcher for Jackson Samuel for nine years. He has developed a facility for quickly determining the essence of a search assignment and for creative thinking, resulting in many instances of successful candidates transferring between sectors.

Before becoming a researcher, Ian spent four years as a search consultant with two search firms, Gardiner Morgan and Wickland Westcott.

Prior to his career in executive search, Ian spent nine years with a major Unilever subsidiary, primarily in human resources and export buying. He began his working life as a professional social worker with five years as a Probation & Aftercare Officer in the Greater Manchester probation service, working closely with families and offenders of all ages.

He has a BA in Economics & Accounting and Postgraduate Diplomas in Professional Social Work and Personnel Management.