Recruiting Alchemy with Andy Simpson

James Parsons was 25 when he quit his job at S3, two weeks after buying his first house, to start Arrows Group with business partner Adrian in 2003. By 2016 the business had more than 300 people in six countries, with sales north of 150 million.  James tells Andy Simpson how a farmer's son whose plan to fly fighter jets ended with a colour blindness test at 14 went from nearly being fired aft...

James Wakefield went from the parade ground at Sandhurst and six years as an infantry officer into recruitment at Michael Page. He then spent 14 years at Cobalt, setting up offices across the Middle East, Europe, Asia Pacific and the US before becoming its first CEO. Since then he has sat on the board of his hometown football club, run a life sciences recruiter through the hardest market in decade...

Jim Ryan left Ireland at 17, knocked on doors selling cable TV, and walked into MSB in Bromley in 1997 with no recruitment experience. Eighteen years on from starting ERSG on the day Lehman Brothers collapsed, he runs a staffing group with £185 million in turnover, around £28 million in gross profit and offices from Seattle to Taiwan, and it has stayed independent without private equity. Andy Simp...

David Bloxham has spent 30 years in recruitment, almost all of it at GCS, the business he joined in 1996 and now leads as CEO. Andy Simpson asks how he got there, and what it cost along the way. David talks through coming back to GCS just as the 2008 credit crunch wiped out half his contractors, and why he says you can always cut your cloth when the market turns. He explains how an MBO nearly fell...

Andy Simpson is joined by Rory Gaston, Group CEO and co-founder of Saragossa, the buy-side staffing and technology solutions business he built with Jimmy Lloyd after spinning out of Red Rock in 2015. Rory explains why success-fee contingent staffing creates what he calls perverse economics, why Saragossa almost never competes against other firms for the same role, and how the business grew from a...

Andy Simpson is joined by Bradley Lewington, CEO and founder of Generative and former CEO of Spencer Ogden, the energy and infrastructure recruiter he scaled to over 500 people before a private equity backed MBO closed on 20 February 2020, three weeks before COVID hit. Brad explains why the business had to become one a private equity firm actually wanted to buy, what it was like to sign the deal a...

Is AI really going to replace recruiters, or will it simply expose the ones who were never adding value in the first place? In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy, Andy Simpson sits down with Craig Whiting, Founder of RecOS , to unpack one of the biggest shifts the recruitment industry has ever faced. Craig shares how his business has evolved over the last 18 months, why he's fully embraced AI...

Is AI really going to change recruitment forever, or is it just the latest technological scare the industry will outlast? And would you fire your two best billers if they were poisoning your culture, even knowing exactly what it would cost you? In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy, Andy Simpson sits down with Russell Clements, former CEO of SThree plc, one of the world's most successful spec...

What does it really take to build one of the UK's biggest recruitment businesses? In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy, Andy Simpson sits down with Dean Kelly, entrepreneur, investor and one of recruitment's best-known founders, to explore the highs, lows and lessons from an extraordinary career. Dean shares how he went from growing up on a North London council estate to becoming a mult...

What does it take to completely reinvent a recruitment business that's already successful? In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy , Andy Simpson sits down with Elliott Manning , Founder of Kayman Recruitment, to unpack a journey that's anything but conventional. From leaving school at 15 to become a chef, to building a thriving recruitment business across the UK, US and South Africa, Elli...

On Recruiting Alchemy, Logan Naidu, founder and Group CEO of Kernel Global, shares his personal background and path from investment banking at J.P. Morgan and corporate finance at PwC into recruitment, after being fired from his first recruiting role. He founded The Cornell Partnership in 2005, built it to around 30 people, then after a cancer diagnosis in 2010 and disagreements over shifting from...

Gary Elden OBE joins Recruiting Alchemy and Andy Simpson to share his journey from a tough Camberwell council estate to becoming a leading figure in the recruitment industry, launching Huxley Associates within S3 and later serving as CEO of a listed business. He discusses early resilience, moving from insurance broking to estate agency, then taking a pay cut to join Computer Futures, where he lear...

In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy, host Andy Simpson sits down with Tom Way, CEO of UK and Ireland at Hays , to explore the high-stakes world of leading one of the world's largest staffing companies. Tom provides a deep-dive look at the "sliding doors" moments that define a career, from being one deal away from being fired to leading a organization of 2,300 people. The conversat...

In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy , host Andy Simpson sits down with Jeremy Snell , recruitment leader and industry veteran, to explore what really drives performance in modern recruitment businesses. Jeremy provides a no-nonsense look at why technology alone won’t fix broken models, and why clarity of process, value proposition, and discipline still sit at the heart of successful recruitment...

In this exceptional episode of the Recruiting Alchemy Podcast , host Andy Simpson sits down with Simon Ryan , Director at Chapter 2 and Co-founder of Chapter 2 Health Talent, for a deep dive into building, scaling, and disrupting the recruitment industry. Simon shares his powerful origin story, the keys to navigating market crises, and the future of hyper-efficient talent acquisition, which has at...

In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy, host Andy Simpson sits down with Malvin Kamara , former professional footballer turned founder and CEO of Vallum Associates . From playing in the Premier League and Championship to building one of the fastest-growing recruitment firms in energy and infrastructure, Malvin shares his remarkable journey and the lessons learned along the way. They discuss what pr...

In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy, Andy Simpson sits down with Steve Beckitt founder of SourceBreaker for a candid and often hilarious deep dive into how he went from contract recruiter to tech founder, built a SaaS business from spreadsheets, and exited with a life-changing deal. Steve shares his unfiltered journey: selling early products that barely worked, surviving COVID as a bootstrapped...

In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy, Andy sits down with David Rees, former Chief Sales Officer at S3 and now a fractional chair and investor across multiple recruitment and tech businesses. David shares his journey from his roots in South Wales to leading global teams and shaping the recruitment industry at the highest level. They discuss the evolution of recruitment, the challenges of scaling...

In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy, Andy is joined by J ames Ballard , co-founder of Annapurna Recruitment. With over two decades of experience, James shares the evolution of his career, from early days at SThree to co-founding one of the most community-driven recruitment firms in the UK and Europe. They dive deep into the importance of human connection, why recruitment must move beyond transac...

In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy , Andy Simpson sits down with Dan Taylor, a veteran recruitment leader and current Director at Morgan Hunt. Dan shares his fascinating journey from the coal-delivery towns of Lancashire to leading high-performing teams across the UK public sector. They dive deep into what it takes to succeed in recruitment, the challenges of leading through downturns, how AI a...

In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy , Andy Simpson sits down with Ben Browning, founder and CEO of Resonant, sales strategist, and LinkedIn voice in the recruitment space, for a deep conversation on why recruitment sales is broken and how to fix it. They explore the shift from transactional placements to transformational sales strategies that build long-term client trust. Ben opens up about his...

In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy , Andy Simpson is joined by Chris Moylan, CEO of Tech Link Partners, who shares the raw and real journey behind launching and scaling two recruitment businesses. From growing up on construction sites to billing £90K months, selling one company, and rebuilding after personal tragedy. Chris's story is a testament to resilience, grit, and purpose. He opens u...

In this episode, Andy Simpson sits down with Simon Brown , founder of Richard Knows Best and one of the most candid voices in recruitment, for a no-holds-barred conversation about agency growth, leadership, and learning the hard lessons of running a recruitment business. From selling Turtle Wax door-to-door as a teenager to building and exiting multiple recruitment businesses, Simon shares his unf...

In this episode, Andy Simpson sits down with Kalpesh Baxi, r ecruitment leader, advisor, and former UK Senior Partner of SThree PLC to explore what it takes to thrive in today’s evolving hiring landscape. They talk about the importance of culture in scaling teams, the impact of generational shifts in the workplace, and how technology is changing the way recruitment businesses operate. Kalpesh shar...

In this episode of Recruiting Alchemy, Andy Simpson sits down with Martyn Holme , founder and managing director of A&B Recruitment , to explore what it really takes to build and lead a high-growth recruitment business. From losing £150K in one deal to opening offices overseas, Martyn shares the key decisions and defining moments behind his success. They discuss how early adversity shaped his w...