Executive Search London
Specialist executive recruitment for SMEs and corporate brands across London
Executive search for London businesses
Coreus is a specialist executive search firm working with enterprises in the capital on business-critical senior appointments. We operate as executive headhunters in London rather than as an advertising channel.
Our talented candidates are not browsing job boards. They are already employed, performing well and selective about their next move.
Decades of combined experience sit behind every search, all of which are built against your brief. You will receive a curated shortlist of serious options from our team that operate best in pressurised recruitment environments.
With 94% acceptance rates on the talent we identify and place, partner with Coreus to begin the executive search for your London business today.
The London executive recruitment challenges we help you overcome
Hiring against businesses on your street
A large company with forty staff in EC2 competes for the same finance leader as a listed business two doors down. Name recognition is unlikely to be enough to win that candidate, so the quality of the recruitment approach has to.
Notice periods run long
Senior appointments in London financial services & legal firms frequently carry 3-6 month notice periods. A search opened in January may not produce a start date until the summer. Building that into your planning matters more shortening the search.
Aggressive counter-offers
London employers protect senior people harder than regional businesses do. We test motivation early and revisit it before offer stage. A candidate who cannot explain clearly why they are leaving is a candidate vulnerable to counter-offers.
Salary benchmarks by bigger competitors
Your candidate is paid at a level moulded by the firms around them rather than by your sector average. We benchmark against the London market before you fix a package so the offer stage does not collapse over the proposed salary.
We work with businesses across central London, the City and the outer boroughs. We have access to pools of the best candidates travelling in from across the South East and beyond to source you the best senior-level hire.
The sectors we specialise in
Accountancy and financial services
Qualified finance leadership for practices and financial services businesses, ICAEW, ACCA and CIMA.
Legal
Partner and senior appointments for firms ranging from independent practices to multi-office partnerships.
Technology
Senior leadership for SaaS businesses, managed service providers and software vendors.
Marketing
Marketing leadership judged on commercial performance rather than activity.
Hospitality
Operations and general management for hotel groups and restaurant businesses.
Gamification
A specialist market where generic recruitment consistently falls short.
Talent Acquisition
Heads of Talent and internal recruitment leadership.
For role-specific detail, see our C-suite executive search and FD and CFO recruitment pages.
Three ways we senior hire for London businesses
Permanent
For roles that need long-term ownership. A permanent appointment builds the operational understanding that only comes from being there every day. Where the vacancy in your company is business-critical and cannot wait, we apply our full sourcing capability to a single brief.
Interim and Fractional
A senior departure leaves work that does not pause and not every gap justifies a permanent salary. Our approach to interim recruitment within London places an experienced professional that will deliver against a defined objective. A fractional appointment gives you the same seniority on a retained, part-time basis, typically two or three days a week.
Build a Team
Build a Team through multi-hire. Hiring several senior roles through separate searches produces inconsistency. We hire multiple appointments as part of one coordinated programme so the people you appoint work well in harmony together for your enterprise.
Track record of delivering senior appointments across London sectors
Our team of recruitment consultants at Coreus has decades of combined experience and know-how not only in identifying great senior candidates for exec positions, but also in getting deals signed and roles filled. Our 94% success rate for candidates who accept offers enables your business to feel the impact of a successful hire without wasting precious time or excess resources.
Senior finance leadership for a European investment group
A European investment group acquiring UK SMEs needed senior Financial Controllers and Business Controllers to support reporting and integration across its portfolio. We headhunted across senior finance markets at the £100,000 plus level, with appointments made in London and other UK regions. Every appointment landed within deadline and the client returned with referrals for further senior leadership roles.
"David's attention to detail ensures alignment of technical capability and values. His honest feedback enables smooth and effective hiring."
Recruitment transformation for Landau Morley LLP
Landau Morley is a chartered accountancy practice in West London that needed to attract Partner-track senior leaders. We audited their recruitment, selection and onboarding, then rebuilt their employer branding and interview structure around it. Two senior leaders were appointed and the firm still uses the tools and branding years later.
"The advertising campaign was effective, and the interview process structure enabled us to adopt a much more consistent approach to better evaluate candidates."
What do you get from our London recruitment search?
One agency, one brief
Most executive recruiters in London operate on a contingency basis, competing with multiple other agencies to fill the same role. This results in a race against time rather than a focus on quality. We operate on a retained fee for executive level roles only. Your target companies and no-go zones are defined with you in advance of any outreach being made. The typical timeline from brief to shortlist is between four and six weeks.
A shortlist ready to act on
We provide you with a comprehensive written analysis for each candidate we recommend. This includes their suitability for the role, their professional experience, their reasons for considering a move and their salary expectations relative to the London market. This last piece of information is critical because this is where London recruitment processes most frequently break down.
Guaranteed confidentiality
The executive professional community in London is highly interconnected, so confidentiality is vital. All candidates are contacted discreetly and your company is only identified once interest has been demonstrated. Where you are looking to replace someone currently in the role, no details of the search are shared publicly.
A dedicated partner you can rely on
Our commitment does not stop when you receive an offer letter. We remain actively involved in the transition period, ensuring everything is running smoothly and that potential issues are addressed before they become problems. Of all the candidates we place in the London executive market, 94% have confirmed they have accepted the role and started work.
Your executive search headhunting team is led by David Dand
David Dand has spent more than twenty years helping organisations make better hiring decisions. He built his career within the recruitment and HR functions of global businesses, including EY, AXA, Roche and Hult International Business School. He then founded Coreus to bring that standard to ambitious SMEs in the UK and beyond.
David is CIPD Advanced HR Level 7 qualified and accredited in Hogan psychometric assessment. As a licensed career coach, he reads what drives a candidate beyond what a CV shows.
He takes senior briefs himself and meets London clients in person, wherever suits you. Our London base is at 124 Wigmore Street, London W1U 3RY.
"I thought all recruiters were a pain until I met David Dand of Coreus… the recruit was starting within three weeks. Highly recommended."
For senior professionals in London
The majority of talent we placed were not looking when our executive search and recruitment team headhunted them. However, we are always open to hearing from ambitious and talented candidates seeking the next step in their careers.
If you are performing well in a senior role and open to hearing about something better in London, please get in touch and introduce yourself. Conversations are confidential and carry no obligation at any stage.
We work with senior professionals across numerous sectors including accountancy & finance, legal, technology, marketing and hospitality. We are not a volume agency and we do not circulate CVs.
Attract great talent and avoid bad hiring with Coreus for your London enterprise
Results
Rigorous briefing processes to ensure a match and long term success.
Quality
Hire with confidence and avoid delays, repeat interviews, and re‑advertising
Experience
We handle the heavy lifting of hiring and ensure experience is of the highest standard.
Common questions about executive search in London
How much does executive search cost in London?
It is charged as a percentage of the successful candidate’s first year package and payment is split across stages rather than taken in one go. That structure exists for a reason. It means the search can be run properly instead of being rushed to invoice. You will have a figure from us at the briefing stage before any work begins.
Who pays the fee?
You do, as the hiring business. Candidates are never charged anything at any point.
How to choose an executive search firm in London?
Who really runs the search? Who showed up for the pitch might be very different from that person. Does the firm know your industry or just dabble? And what’s the assessment of a shortlist really like? A firm running on contingency would dodge that question because it would take too much time to write a proper assessment of the shortlist, and the fee won’t cover that time.
What is the difference between executive search and executive recruitment?
Executive recruitment tends to get used loosely for any senior hiring. Executive search is a specific method. One firm is retained, researches the market from scratch and works as headhunters, approaching people who are not looking. Nobody is processing applications.
How long will it take?
For typical full-time positions, the process from enquiry to pre-selection of candidates usually takes about four to six weeks after that, depending on the handover phase, with London taking the longest in this regard. For executive positions, three months are common, and in finance and law firms, six months waiting periods are not uncommon. I wanted to inform you of these conditions in advance, which is significantly better than panicking in the tenth week.
How should we set the salary?
Benchmark against the businesses your candidate could realistically move between, not against your own sector average. In London, those are often larger firms with deeper pockets. We give you live market data at the briefing stage because it is far easier to get the package right before going to market than to rescue an offer that has already been declined.
Will the search reach candidates outside London?
Yes. Plenty of senior-level candidates travel in from across the South East, and hybrid arrangements have widened that catchment considerably. We agree with you about the geography when we take the brief.
Do you consider diversity when building a shortlist?
Yes. Researching a market from the ground up produces a wider field than pulling names from a database. If you have specific requirements, raise them at the briefing stage and we will shape the search around them.
Next steps
Tell us about the London role and what has made it difficult to fill so far. We will give you an honest view on whether Coreus is the right executive search firm and recruitment consultant for it, what the search would involve and what it would likely cost. If we are not the right fit we will say so. We’ll listen, create a clear plan and move you from friction to flow.