Elements

The company was founded in 1999 by its long-standing CEO and group Managing Director Paul Bibby. With the help of Peter Hall and Richard Scriven, Paul was able to expand the business from its roots in Retail Financial Services, where it had become a lead provider of Sales & Marketing professionals to the Asset Management and Life & Pensions industry, into new markets such as Professional Services and Commerce & Industry where it became a lead provider of Legal Finance to Magic & Silver Circle Law Firms, and Media & Entertainment industry. In 2005 the business operated from London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh. Headcount peaked at 35 staff and the business was short-listed as Best Accountancy & Finance recruiter two years running, as well as awarded Best UK SME Employee Benefits Provider in 2006. The directors always invested heavily in developing their staff, and whilst disappointed to loose key individuals they were also proud to have developed / inspired others to launch other own firms, to mention a few; Clive Carlin at Carlin Hall, Richard Hooper at Balance, Darren Hilliard at Leap Recruitment, Maria Aldous of MCL. After five years of successful trading an opportunity presented itself to expand into Emerging Markets Investment Banking in 2004 and Elements Executive Search was launched via the appointment of Lee Gates. Elements became one of the first UK search brands to specialise within this space, and after 3 years was retained on senior mandates by the likes of JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, BNPParibas and Standard Bank. In 2008, after the demise of Lehmans the business had some difficult choices, and having carved a niche within Emerging Markets Search, decided to sell its northern trading assets and focus solely on Emerging Markets. Unfortunately the credit markets tightened and banks went on long term hiring freezes. Although the business was restructured in 2012, the business sadly never recovered and ceased trading in Dec 2015.