A track record you can trust

GatenbySanderson was launched in 2002 by one of our Co-Founders, Graham. Through trial and error and lots of hard work, GatenbySanderson grew from an ambitious start-up to be the UK's leading executive search firm in the public sector.

Once the team thought they had it all figured out, the 2008 recession hit and central and local government, health organisations and other public institutions drastically reduced their hiring. This started the difficult process of rebuilding and reshaping the business. Eventually, by 2013, and once the market had recovered, GatenbySanderson had outgrown its previous size.

In 2014, sales hit £38 million and net profits £5.4 million. It was sold that same year in an eight-figure exit to private equity.

Starfish Search launched in March 2019 with an investment initially backing Juliet Taylor as CEO to grow and develop a business focused on executive and non-executive leadership appointments. Graham came on board as Chair, leveraging his considerable experience building search businesses to support the start-up.

Starfish's mission is to appoint talented modern leaders for social purpose organisations across the voluntary and public sectors, as well as corporates with a strong ESG ethos. Established to raise the bar on both search and client service quality, it also works with organisations to appoint candidates from a broad range of professionally and ethnically diverse backgrounds for stronger agile leadership teams.

Just one year after launch, the business was impacted by the pandemic lockdowns: the senior team had to react quickly to clients as they reviewed recruitment decisions and suspended existing hiring processes. With the management team's quick decision-making, alongside Graham's experience of trading through the 2008 recession, Starfish was able to adapt and position for rapid recovery, continuing to grow in 2020 and 2021.

In 2023, Starfish delivered £7.3 million in sales and a net profit of £1.1 million. With thoughtful business planning and corporate investment, Starfish is currently on track to increase this to £14.4 million and £1.3 million in 2024.