The Company

bpeSearch is the retained search division of the Better Placed Group. Our mission is to be positively different in retained search – to be great people to work with and to offer a great place to work.

We aim to be approachable, trusted, consultative, transparent, innovative and above all, successful partners for our clients. We only accept assignments we believe we will complete and we are not afraid to admit we can’t help. This focus and reliability is the foundation of a huge number of long-standing relationships and one of the reasons we enjoy so many recommendations and referrals.

Our team of directors, consultants, researchers and administrative staff all share a passion to combine the rigour of structured, organised search with agile, flexible and proactive delivery. Often built on client-side experience, we are sector and subject matter experts with extensive networks and successful track records.

In addition to retained search, we can provide our clients with a range of services including salary benchmarking, talent pipelining, market mapping, psychometric and behavioural assessment.

Proud to be voted 4th in the 2018 Sunday Times ‘Best small companies to work for’.

Meet The Team

Paul Bendelow

Board Director

Professional Biography
Rob Hill

Board Director

Professional Biography
Andy Young

Director

Professional Biography
Wayne Jenkins

Associate Director

Professional Biography
Rowan Fisk

Associate Director

Professional Biography
Nia McClure

Research Associate

Professional Biography
Flo Holt

Research Associate

Professional Biography
Alice Wells

Group Executive Assistant

Professional Biography

Paul Bendelow Board Director

With over 20 years’ experience recruiting across Marketing, Sales, Data and Digital. He was the founding Director of bpesearch in 2007 with the backing of the Better Placed owners. He focuses on working with corporate and commercial clients in the business services, finance and consumer arena.

As an established and proven executive recruitment specialist, with a style and approach that reflects the values and beliefs of bpesearch, Paul has an established portfolio of clients across the UK and an enviable network of candidates at Director and Board level across FTSE 100 through to entrepreneurial and PE backed firms.

Rob Hill Board Director

A Chemical Engineering graduate, Rob began his career on BOC Gases’ Commercial Management Programme before moving into recruitment in 2003. Since then, he has focused exclusively on the B2C arena, building a strong network as well as a reputation for honesty, integrity, high standards, hard work and results.

Rob joined the group in 2011 to set up the Consumer Practice for bpesearch and he has played a leading role in both client development and assignment delivery. His clients range from major multinational FMCG and Retail businesses to PE backed or owner-managed SMEs with ambitions for growth, transformation or sale. In the last 12 months alone Rob has delivered searches for the Managing Director and Marketing Directors of two free-from scale-ups, a General Manager in Consumer Healthcare, Sales Directors for major FMCG businesses, Marketing and Sales Directors for a PE-backed Consumer Products business, the Marketing & Innovation Director for a Pet Food company and the EMEA Product & Strategy Director for a global Food/Drink-to-go business.

He is passionate about the importance of transparency in all his interactions. He provides an honest view point and constructive feedback to all of his contacts whether interviewing, career coaching or taking a brief. He faces into the tough conversations early, and with sensitivity, to ensure that individuals and organisations benefit from his expertise and experience. As a consequence, Rob’s very best contacts and most long standing clients would all describe him as a true partner and someone that “is always honest with us, no matter how hard it is to hear”.

Andy Young Director

Andy’s early career was in FMCG sales and marketing with Guinness /Diageo before making subsequent moves to The Coca Cola Company and United Biscuits (now Pladis). He made the move into the world of recruitment in 2004, the last few years focused at the senior & Executive end of the market, combining the recruitment across the sales and marketing functions with Commercial and Managing Director/GM positions. He also supports senior Executives build their plural careers through consultancy, interim and NED assignments.

Having built a reputation in the industry for an open, honest and transparent approach, Andy joined bpesearch in Dec 17 attracted by the strong values and people centric ethos. Andy has a strong network across the SME sector and the PE space and the consumer sector in general.

Wayne Jenkins Associate Director

Wayne operates across the premium and luxury goods sector, drawing on 22 years of experience working with private equity-backed, SME and publicly trading organisations. He focuses on senior level appointments for luxury fashion, outdoor and sports brands and in recent years has successfully extended his remit into the fine jewellery, watch and travel sector.

His career started in Sales and Marketing, working for a selection of high profile fashion and sports businesses before moving into Executive Search where he has successfully delivered permanent solutions within the UK, Canada, US, Europe and the Middle East.

Wayne has built strong relationships within his global network; specialising in commercial, marketing, creative and digital channels with exceptional knowledge of his sector, the brands that operate within it and the products and services they provide.

Rowan Fisk Associate Director

Over the last 10 years, Rowan has built an extensive network in consumer, business and financial services. In particular, over the last-few years, he’s become the go-to council for many of the fastest growing brands in the fintech / insurtech scene. Specialising in product, marketing, partnerships and digital, his network extends from ‘head of’ to C-suite.

After progressing through the ranks in our contingent business, where he won employee of the year in 2017, plus nominations in 2015, 2016 and 2019, Rowan joined the bpesearch team at the start of 2020. Rowan approaches each relationship with an honest, transparent style – even if he can’t help directly, he’ll find a way to bring value to your search.

Working For Us

We have strong growth ambitions for bpeSearch and we are very interested in hearing from like-minded executive search professionals with complementary expertise looking for a move away from the traditional, large scale recruitment organisations.

Our business is best suited to self-motivated individuals with a strong team ethic, a passion for delivering high-quality resourcing solutions, creating new client relationships and nurturing existing ones. When we take on an assignment, we intend to see it through and we maintain committed with dogged determination until the successful candidate is found. We also share a common passion for candidate relationships, face to face meetings, openness and honesty. If we can’t help people, we will say so and try to offer an alternative point of contact.

We strive to be faithful to our values, listed below, using them as touchpoints in all our decision making.

Be caring

Never lose sight of the importance of someone’s career and the impact it can have on their life. When it comes to your team, share in their successes and support them when the chips are down. Be mindful that everyone has a life beyond work and help them to achieve the balance they are looking for.

Be proud

Bring energy and positivity to your work and help create a business environment that inspires those around you. Take pride in your work and strive to deliver the level of service that you would be impressed with yourself. Approach all conversations with the long term in mind and build a reputation and a real network that prompts people to return to you for support throughout their career.

Be fearless

Believe in yourself and your expertise, push yourself hard to reduce knowledge gaps, face into tough conversations with professionalism and empathy, don’t be afraid to share an opinion or go against the grain and know when to say “sorry, but we can’t help”.

Be collaborative

Share your learnings with those on the upward curve and remember what is was like to be new to the business. Place yourself in the shoes of your clients, understand what really matters to them and work hard to exceed their expectations. When challenges arise, be innovative, own the problem and provide reassurance that you’ll deliver a solution.

Be insightful

Immerse yourself in your specialist market and continually seek learning opportunities, take conversations beyond the obvious, share your learning and Believe in your expertise, immerse yourself in the detail, be commercial and most importantly be the difference.

Work with us and enjoy:

A grown-up organisation, open and collaborative, flexible and supportive, non-hierarchical
Highly competitive and fully transparent bonus schemes, based on your performance alone
An in-house resourcing specialist supporting you on all assignments
Your chance to create, build, own and benefit from a new practice area for our business
Strong employee benefits and a culture designed to provide a platform for achievement and a healthy personal life
A light-hearted atmosphere with quarterly charity, CSR and social events

The Company

bpeSearch is the retained search division of the Better Placed Group. Our mission is to be positively different in retained search – to be great people to work with and to offer a great place to work.

Proud to be voted 4th in the 2018 Sunday Times ‘Best small companies to work for’.

Meet The Team

Paul Bendelow

Board Director

Rob Hill

Board Director

Andy Young

Director

Wayne Jenkins

Associate Director

Rowan Fisk

Associate Director

Nia McClure

Research Associate

Flo Holt