One of the UK’s leading recruitment agencies, Acorn has launched its new Senior Executive Search Division, in response to the increasing demand it has been experiencing from businesses not only in Wales but also across the UK.
The company has appointed senior recruitment specialist Paul Bennett to head up the new division. Paul has 25 years’ experience in the senior recruitment market, including 10 years running his own successful business.
Paul said: “For many years Acorn has been an industry leader in many areas of recruitment including specialist areas like IT and digital, engineering and commercial; this new division will develop our business further as we support clients with their senior appointments across a range of leadership and management functions.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to be invited to join the team at Acorn, a business I have admired for many years. Acorn is one of Wales’ leading businesses and is a recognised authority in the recruitment sector not just across the UK but also globally – it is therefore the perfect place for me to join to help set up this ambitious new division.
“From my point of view, I know that there is a pool of extremely employable senior people out there who have grown out of their current employment and are ready for a new challenge, it is these people that I’m particularly keen to connect with over the coming months.
“As well as tapping into this talent already existing within Wales, we’re hoping to target people who have either lived or worked here and are now plying their trade elsewhere. Wales has changed a lot in the last few years and we’re keen to emphasise this, hopefully attracting Welsh business talent back over the Severn Bridge.”
The division was launched with a high-level networking breakfast held at the Millennium Stadium, attended by 80 company directors, who enjoyed hearing from former Welsh internationals Martyn Williams and Ryan Jones, as well as Steve Phillips, Group Finance Director of the WRU.
The Senior Executive Search Division will be based in Acorn’s head office in Newport, primarily focusing on Wales, the South West and the M4 corridor. However, with assignments already being worked on UK-wide, Acorn is expecting to increase its team significantly over the next two to three years.
The new division will also be working closely with its Acorn Global arm, which was launched in 2013, helping to place senior professionals internationally.
Dan Langford, Director of Acorn, who is working with Paul in leading the new initiative said: “For some time now we have been building towards this; having received more and more requests from a range of organisations to support them with their senior appointments. We felt it the time was right therefore to take the next step and invest in developing a specialist team of recruiters to handle this particular level of recruitment.
“Paul’s appointment is the start of this process and already in just a couple of months we’ve seen how well the developments have been received by our clients – frankly we’ve been inundated with assignments and have already secured a number of senior placements into well-known businesses.
“Acorn is the largest recruiter in Wales and is consistently ranked in the top 1% of all the UK’s recruitment agencies – what we do, we do very well; and so we’re very excited about this new venture and confident that this good start is a sign for things to come.”
With 23 years in the business, Acorn has its UK headquarters at the Celtic Springs Business Park in Newport and operates from 39 branches across Wales and the South West, North West, South East and Australia.
Acorn places up to 6,500 people into the workplace with around 850 different clients each week. The group also delivers training to more than 1,000 individuals and makes 1,700 permanent placements every year.