Roll the tape

Size: 400+ employees, 8 regional offices (in 2020)
Sector: Cloud-based Investment Management Software
Remit: Multi Senior Sales hires
Engagement: Partnership

Context: In 2020, Enfusion (now part of Clearwater Analytics) was preparing to scale its US sales organisation into EMEA, with London as the regional hub. I was engaged on an exclusive search to build out the regional sales team, working directly with the newly appointed Head of EMEA Sales.

Challenge: Enfusion was a new name in London: a US company with a very small London office, no real footprint and no employer brand here. It needed several senior salespeople at speed, with niche buy-side skills, from a small and highly competitive pool. Not everyone wants to leave a large, established vendor for what is effectively a start-up, and any delay would have stalled EMEA revenue.

Execution: Rather than a broad search, I went directly to a small number of proven enterprise sellers with strong buy-side credibility whom I already knew, and pitched the upside myself: why the platform was winning, what the London build meant for them, and why this was the moment to join. Both of the first two hires came from a large, established vendor, and I sold them into a start-up-sized London office. A tightly controlled process took each of them through to offer and resignation.

Business Impact: The first two hires generated over $500k in new revenue within six months, accelerating Enfusion’s EMEA expansion. One was later promoted to MD, EMEA Sales. I went on to place most of the EMEA sales team, underpinning Enfusion’s sustained growth and its acquisition by Clearwater Analytics in 2024.

Size: 60+ employees, 2 offices worldwide
Sector: Generative AI for Private Markets
Remit: Multiple Hires Across Sales and Pre-Sales
Engagement: Scale

Context: BlueFlame AI is a generative AI platform built for alternative investment managers. Founded in 2023, with offices in New York and London, it was growing fast and expanding from the US into EMEA. I had placed its founding London Sales Director, and his introduction to the leadership team led to a brief to build out the commercial team on both sides of the Atlantic.

Challenge: When I started working with BlueFlame it was raising a funding round, with growth targets to hit, and needed experienced private-markets sellers and sales engineers to join a young AI company few of them knew. Almost none of the people worth hiring were looking. Part-way through, the founders chose to be acquired by Datasite instead: hiring moved onto new systems, approvals and benefits changed, and live offers stalled while the two companies came together.

Execution: I asked for a short exclusive window from day one so candidates heard one consistent story, and built a detailed briefing for them: the product, the growth plan, how they would be paid and the interview steps. I sent strong sales engineering profiles before I was asked, and revived two US candidates the moment US hiring reopened. Through the move to Datasite I chased every offer letter, got a second London role approved, had contract terms corrected and coached every hire through resigning and their employers’ counter-offers.

In 4 months, I delivered another 2 UK Sales Executives, 2 UK Sales Engineers, 1 US-based Sales Executive and 1 US-based Sales Engineer. All hires were managed end-to-end through search, offer, resignation, and onboarding. 

Business Impact: Six commercial hires across the US and EMEA, including the founding London Sales Director, formed the core of BlueFlame’s sales and sales engineering team and supported multi-million-dollar ARR growth. The founding Sales Director was promoted to Head of Sales, EMEA & APAC, and the team carried the business through its acquisition by Datasite in 2025.

Size: 200+ employees in 11 regional offices
Sector: OMS/PMS Hedge Fund Technology (Athena Systems)
Remit: Senior Client Support
Engagement: Pilot

Context: Athena Systems, part of the United Fintech group, builds a cloud-native OMS/PMS platform for hedge funds. As it expanded internationally, it chose Toronto as its first Canadian base, and needed a senior client support specialist there: its first hire in the city, ahead of opening an office. Athena ran it as a Pilot, to test whether I could deliver in a market it had never hired in.

Challenge: Entering a new market meant starting from nothing: no office, no local network, no hiring process and no salary benchmark for Toronto. Athena’s name meant little to local candidates, the pool of people with real OMS/PMS experience there is very small, and most of the people worth hiring weren’t looking.

Execution: I mapped the Toronto market and the firms with the right experience, then widened the search across Canada, the US and adjacent vendors. Before we started I sent Athena a short note, “Are you hire ready?”: if most candidates aren’t looking, the process has to attract as well as assess. We replaced a three-person first interview with four clear stages, a target finish date and every stakeholder seeing every finalist. I benchmarked Toronto pay so the offer would land, had five qualified candidates in front of Athena within two weeks, secured the preferred candidate’s commitment before the final interview, made the case for a stronger offer, and guided him through his resignation and his employer’s attempts to keep him.

Business Impact: The hire joined from a direct competitor, having come out on top at every stage, and started in May 2025 as Athena’s first hire in Toronto. He became the foundation of its Toronto hub and the platform for its further expansion in Canada.

Size: 300+ employees, 4 regional offices
Sector: Cloud-based investment data platform
Remit: Multiple Hires
Engagement: Partnership

Context: When I started working with Finbourne it was a start-up of around 20 people, building a cloud-based investment data platform and winning high-profile transformation projects with large buy-side institutions. I became its long-term search partner as it grew, supporting the Product and Delivery hires behind its IBOR, ABOR, PMS and OMS implementations.

Challenge: Finbourne was growing fast, and hiring had to keep pace with tier-one client delivery. The skills it needed barely exist: people with deep fund accounting expertise who also understand IBOR and ABOR and the technology behind front-to-back investment workflows. Those who had both designed target operating models and implemented these platforms were scarce, tier-one clients left no margin for error, and as a young company Finbourne was asking them to leave far bigger names.

Execution: I ran structured searches across fund managers, third-party administrators and technology vendors, and used my network to reach people with proven fund accounting and IBOR/ABOR experience. I made the case for joining a fast-growing start-up over an established employer, prepared candidates for the hardest parts of the role, and often put strong people on Finbourne’s radar before they reached the market or before a role was fully defined.

Business Impact: I have placed 25+ professionals at Finbourne across Sales, Product, Marketing and Delivery. Over that period the company grew from around 20 employees to more than 300, secured a $100m Series B and built an impressive roster of tier-one buy-side clients. These hires formed the foundation that let Finbourne deliver complex implementations at scale.

Size: Start-up
Sector: Buy-Side tech
Remit: Key hires across Sales, Product and PS

Context: A London-based buy-side technology start-up with a headcount of around 20, backed by and incubated within a global hedge fund. The business was building institutional-grade technology and scaling its commercial and delivery capability, with direct CEO involvement in all senior hiring decisions.

Challenge: The company needed to make several key hires across Sales, Product, and Professional Services to support growth. Standards were exceptionally high - the CEO was explicit that the business was highly selective, with a strong emphasis on cultural fit, intellectual rigour, and long-term contribution. Hiring mistakes carried material risk in such a lean, high-performance environment.

Execution: Engaged via referral, Callum James worked closely with the CEO and senior stakeholders to define role requirements, success profiles, and a clear end-to-end candidate experience. This included refining interview structure and decision-making criteria before running a targeted search focused on high-quality, well-aligned talent across each function.

Business Impact: Multiple successful hires were made across Sales, Product, and Professional Services, meeting the CEO’s expectations and strengthening the company’s ability to scale. The quality of hires contributed to the long-term value of the platform, which was ultimately acquired by another investment technology firm following the business’s wind-down.

Size: 750 employees in 11 regional offices
Sector: Front Office Investment Management Software
Remit: French-Speaking Enterprise Sales Manager
Engagement: Partnership

Context: Charles River is a leading provider of front-to-back investment management software for the institutional buy-side. I had supported the business since 2008 with over 20 senior hires across Sales, Pre-Sales and Implementation. Following its acquisition by State Street, Charles River moved to an internal recruitment model.

Challenge: One role wouldn’t move: a London-based, French-speaking Enterprise Sales Manager to cover France and Southern Europe. It needed proven experience selling complex, enterprise-wide investment software to large buy-side institutions, plus the language and the regional relationships. The internal search had been running for a long time without finding anyone: the team was strong, but it had no route into competitors’ sales teams, and the people who could do the job weren’t looking.

Execution: EMEA Sales leadership brought me back in on an exclusive basis to deliver this one hire. Rather than advertise, I went straight to my network and within a week introduced a senior, tri-lingual Sales Manager from a direct competitor, someone I had known for years. I managed the process end-to-end through interview, offer, resignation and onboarding, through all the complications of the pandemic.

Business Impact: The hire hit a $1M target in year one, exceeded target in year two and was on track to exceed it again in year three. The appointment stabilised and grew the French and Southern Europe territory, and showed the value of specialist external support for the few roles an internal team can’t reach.

Size: 23 offices around the world, more than 1,500 employees
Sector: Front to Back Office Investment Management Software
Remit: 3 Foundational Hires for a Global Launch, Alternatives
Engagement: Partnership

Context: SimCorp was preparing to launch a new Alternatives software solution, integrated into its Dimension investment platform, as part of a broader strategy to expand its alternatives offering to global asset management clients.

Challenge: SimCorp needed three first-in-role leaders, one to launch the product, one to define implementation and one to lead sales, with no precedent and no one to benchmark them against. The pool of senior alternatives specialists was small and contested, the best people were based in the US while the product was run from Copenhagen, and whoever was hired would set the standard for everyone after them.

Execution: I was engaged on an exclusive basis to run a global search. I mapped the international market, reported back on who was genuinely available and engaged the people who could define these roles rather than just fill them. All three took a long time to secure. I kept each process alive through long, complex international negotiations: one leader relocated from San Francisco to Copenhagen, another relocated from New York, and the third took on regular travel to Copenhagen. I stayed close to both sides through offer and well beyond.

Business Impact: The Global Launch Manager, Founding Solution Architect and Founding Sales Director became the backbone of SimCorp’s global Alternatives launch, establishing the sales strategy, implementation standards and operating model needed to scale the product internationally. I went on to place further senior hires across Sales, Pre-Sales, Product and Delivery.