News & Insights

News & Insights

TEAM

Experts from the industry

Graham Goodwin

Co-Founder

Role

Graham leads the strategic support we provide to our founders and teams. He uses his first-hand experience of launching, growing, and selling recruitment businesses to help our founders do the same.

Background  
‍
Graham began his career in PWC's executive search business. Within six years, he ran all the search operations outside of London. However, when launching his own firm, GatenbySanderson, it became clear that being a great recruiter doesn't necessarily mean that you have the skills and knowledge to build a leading business. Through trial and error, he eventually brought in the right people to fill this gap, but it made the journey more challenging than it could've been and likely slowed growth.

When the 2008 recession hit, having the right people, processes, and infrastructure helped the business survive. As the industry traded through a challenging time, GatenbySanderson was well positioned to capture market share, transforming it into the UK's leading public sector search firm. By 2014, it had 95 staff, £38 million in sales, no debt and a net profitability of £5.4 million.

As he looked to exit, like many founders, he faced a long and challenging process. Ultimately, he sold to private equity in a fairly straightforward deal, but getting there was tough.

Since selling, Graham has started multiple other businesses. He returned to the recruitment world with Starfish, backing Juliet and her vision, taking on a Non-Executive role and sharing his experience.

Partnering with his son, Michael, he launched Jigsaw to address a clear gap in the market for an alternative investor and buyer of recruitment brands - one that could support founders on their entrepreneurial journey and provide a long-term home to great businesses.

Michael Goodwin

Co-Founder

Role
‍
Michael leads new investments at Jigsaw and is always looking to meet potential founders or business owners. With a background in M&A, he is responsible for further developing our industry network and managing new investments and acquisitions to completion, finding terms that work for everyone.

He is also responsible for Jigsaw's branding and marketing efforts.

Background
‍
‍Before Jigsaw, Michael spent nearly a decade at one of the UK's leading M&A advisory firms, advising large international conglomerates and inspiring entrepreneurs. However, during his career he found that he wanted to get more involved, helping founders for the long term rather than advising from the sidelines.

He also experienced some challenging sales processes and saw their impact on the sellers. Sometimes, deals closed quickly, and everyone walked away happy. But for many, the terms ended up incredibly complex, there were constant renegotiations, and processes fell through; sellers were left with nothing but advisor fees.

Partnering with his father, Graham, he launched Jigsaw to offer an alternative option, both along the journey and at exit. An investor and buyer that founders and sellers deserve. Long-term, strategic and actionable advice from experts. Fair, straightforward and founder-friendly deals.

Associate advisors

Juliet Taylor

Juliet Taylor

Associate Advisor

Juliet is an Associate Advisor at Jigsaw and Founding Chief Executive of Starfish Search, set up to raise the bar on quality of search and client service to purpose-driven organisations. With 20 years’ experience in senior recruitment, she is well known for the quality of her advice to clients, and the longevity of her relationships. She has a strong personal commitment to advancing candidates from underrepresented backgrounds in leadership, in which Starfish specialises.

As the CEO of Starfish, and working with a close-knit team, Juliet has built a business which is now looking to achieve £14.4 million in sales and £1.3 million in profits in 2024. She is a member of the Advisory Board of Lucent Consulting.

Helen Oates

Helen Oates

Associate Advisor

Helen is an Associate Advisor at Jigsaw and the former Chief Operating Officer of GatenbySanderson, the market leader in public sector search. A key figure in transforming the operations of the business as it grew, Helen helped to build and implement the right infrastructure and processes that the company desperately needed. This helped turn it from a fast-growing start-up to a well-run, efficient market leader.

Helen is now an advisor to multiple small and mid-sized businesses and is on the board of Disability Sport Yorkshire, a charity focused on addressing the inequality in access to sport for disabled people.

John Toppin

John Toppin

Associate Advisor

John is an Associate Advisor at Jigsaw, having been an advisor to Graham and the board of GatenbySanderson for a decade. He has 40 years of experience within consultancy businesses. This includes two decades as a trusted advisor to owner-managed consultancy and agency businesses and before this as Finance Director and Chief Executive within companies including Saatchi & Saatchi, Kroll Associates and The Triangle Group.

John has been instrumental in startups, turnarounds and the eventual sale of a number of businesses. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young in 1986 before embarking on his corporate career.

Our partner network

Our industry partner network includes executives with experience at the most senior level of the recruitment industry. It also includes experts in building corporate capacity, from marketing to finance, legal and human resources. They bring expertise, connections and ideas to help our teams grow their businesses quickly and sustainably.

These individuals co-invest, so they're dedicated to seeing our businesses succeed whilst providing commercial and strategic advice to our founders and teams.

Function Specific Partners

Brand Design

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Brand Design

William Whiting

Will is the Founder & Design Director of Justified Studio a creative agency led by design, technology and strategy, dedicated to positive and purposeful brands. With this setup, alongside his forward-thinking multidisciplinary team and creative collaborators, he looks to challenge the expected aesthetic conventions of industry sectors. Harnessing his teams combined decades of leading expertise to best shape the future and culture they want to see. Having worked for brands, products & startups across multiple emerging sectors, his nuanced approach has helped brands such as Nike, Google, Moonpay, Cleo & The-Dots define a distinctive point of view that resonates with today's audience.

Sounds like a good fit?
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