Meet our team

Charles Peck
Co-Founder & MD

At a glance

Charles is driven by two things: delivering a positive outcome for his clients and helping to make a positive difference to peoples’ lives. His tenacity and curiosity combined with a natural ability to spot opportunities, enable him to discover talented individuals who are typically hard to access in the market.

Key responsibilities

Charles leads the Investment Professionals practice at March Consultants. Highly organised, with a close attention to detail, he is also responsible for ensuring the smooth running of the firm. Charles combines his experience in executive search with his enviable book of senior industry contacts to introduce exceptional leaders who are unquestionably the right fit.

Specialist areas of expertise

Leadership across –

• Investment Directors
• Operating Partners
• Investor Relations
• CFO
• COO

Previous experience

Charles began his career in high-end fine art and antiques with a respected London dealer before moving into executive search. He then spent 11 years with Taybridge Associates where he set up and led the research function and was also co-lead on all global business development activities. Charles co-founded March Consultants in 2017.

Qualifications

BA in Fine Art Valuation

Three favourite things

Loves live sport, holidays with his family and eating out at restaurants.

Mark Maynard
Co-Founder & MD

At a glance

Mark takes a consultative and advisory approach to all his executive search processes. His astute understanding of the market, together with his resolute tenacity and his exceptional networking skills, enable him to discover talented leaders who are the perfect cultural fit. He is driven by helping clients accelerate their business performance.

Key responsibilities

Mark leads the Operational Leaders practice, where he combines his skill in building long-standing partnerships with his approachable and open nature to deliver a high-level client relationship management. Mark draws on his 20 years’ experience in executive search to provide all his clients with sound advice coupled with astute business thinking.

Specialist areas of expertise

Operational Leaders across –

• Finance
• Operations
• HR
• Data
• Legal
• Compliance
• Tax
• Technology

Previous experience

Before setting up March Consultants in 2017, Mark spent 10 years with the boutique search firm, Taybridge Associates, where he focused on placing senior corporate function specialists into investment banks. After building and running the European desk, he then moved to Hong Kong where he opened their Asia office. Prior to this, he gained valuable experience working for two London-based global recruitment firms.

Qualifications

BA Hons in Business Studies, Portsmouth University

Three favourite things

Loves the outdoors, listening to music and going on mini adventures with his family.

Alex Ford
Managing Director

At a glance

A natural collaborator and team player, Alex relishes the intellectual demands of challenging, hard-to-fill search mandates. With her innate ability to think creatively and her meticulous approach to candidate research, Alex provides both clients and candidates alike with an exceptional level of service.

Key responsibilities

Alex is responsible for creating detailed search strategies which will successfully identify hard-to-access talent. She supports our Partners and Consultants by applying these strategies to building initial long lists of candidates who display all the required skills and expertise. She then approaches these candidates, undertakes rigorous assessments and creates short lists of outstanding individuals – each of whom who she knows will be an ideal fit.

Alex also heads up our Nordics Operation and is based in Copenhagen.

Specialist areas of expertise

• Finance
• Operations
• HR
• Data
• Compliance
• Technology

Previous experience

With experience spanning over 25 years, Alex has spent her whole career in executive search. In that time, she has been a junior partner for a global search firm and has set up and run another firm’s New York office. She has also helped to establish a successful boutique search firm, where she was responsible for launching and promoting its market insight product.

Qualifications

BA Hons History, Royal Holloway, University of London

Three favourite things

Loves horse riding, open-water swimming and pilates.

Jen Simkins
Managing Director

At a glance

Jen previously worked in house as a HR professional in a PE firm. She brings a wealth of knowledge in how private markets firms function end to end, understands how important exceptional talent are to business performance and approaches searches from the Clients perspective. Jen’s focus is to help our Clients assess the best candidates for their organisations and to build best in class functions.

Key responsibilities

Jen leads candidate research for our Investor Relations and Investment Professional searches. She also has a keen interest in the sustainability space. As Head of Research Jen champions undertaking thorough due diligence for our clients across all our practices as well as spending significant time with our candidates to learn about their drivers, achievements and approaches.

Specialist areas of expertise

• Investor Relations and Investment Professional hiring
• Leadership due diligence and assessment

Previous experience

Jen joined March Consultants in 2019, after spending 10 years as HR Business Partner at investment firm, Triton. Prior to this, she worked in HR covering Commodities firm Constellation Energy and in a client services role for JP Morgan.

Qualifications

BA Business Management, Exeter University
Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development    Certified A and B Assessor for Psychometric Assessments
Trained in Hogan and SHL assessments
Certificate in Coaching, Henley Business School

Three favourite things

Hiking in the Swiss mountains, constantly learning and evolving ways of working, travelling the world with her little ones

Alison Ashton

Head of Project Management

At a glance

Alison has 29 years’ experience as a PA – both within HR departments and for Executive Search firms. Calm, reliable and with a thorough eye for detail, Alison ensures the day-to-day running of March Consultants is as smooth as clockwork. Her strengths lie in her natural ability to communicate clearly and her strong desire to be a diligent team player.

Key responsibilities

As the firm’s Head of Project Management, Alison is in charge of candidate management and looking after internal projects. Among her other responsibilities are CV and document presentation, database management and event organisation.

Previous experience

Alison left her home in rural Australia in 1998 and moved to London where she met her husband and settled into UK life having two, now teenage, children. Her PA career spans working in HR for Australian Paper as well as for a number of executive search firms in the UK. She has worked for March Consultants since 2018.

Three favourite things

Listening to a wide range of music, cooking up a storm and watching cheesy sitcoms with her family.

Amanda Levin 

Director, NextGen Practice

At a glance

Amanda’s experience spans in-house Talent Acquisition, Executive Search and Talent Pipelining/ Succession planning. She has a keen focus on skills alignment, development potential and diversity. She loves to build relationships at all levels, enjoying both the hands-on nature of headhunting along with the strategic focus her current role brings.

Key responsibilities

Heading up our NextGen Practice, Amanda supports our clients with a variety of roles that sit at VP level. With the aim to develop the next round of future leaders, enabling our clients with their succession planning which is becoming an increased area of focus within Private Markets.

Specialist areas of expertise

• Talent acquisition
• Team management
• Executive search
• Talent pipelining/ succession planning

Previous experience

Amanda joined March Consultants in early 2024 and brings over 18 years of experience. Prior to joining, she led a team of 6 across Australia and New Zealand for an NZ-born Technology firm. Her remit was strategic talent acquisition across all areas of the business which included corporate functions, along with client facing roles.

Qualifications

BA Honours, European Studies with French, Durham University

Three favourite things

Cooking/baking, spending time with her family and travelling/ exploring.

Poppy Shadbolt
Head of Operations 

At a glance

Poppy joined March Consultants in 2022 providing Executive support to the two founders. Previously she has worked for C-Suite Executives and Non-Executive Directors across a range of industries including Executive Search firms.

Key responsibilities

Pro-active, calm and reliable, Poppy assists Mark and Charlie with all their administrative tasks alongside managing all client and candidate appointments. Her strengths lie in her ability to thrive under pressure whilst maintaining a calm and positive attitude and a flexible approach to work.

Previous experience

Poppy worked as an EA in London for several years before meeting her husband and moving to Gloucestershire in 2016 and now has two young children. Her EA career has covered working for Executive Search firms, CEOs/ HR Directors and Board directors.

Three favourite things

Morning runs with her energetic spaniel, wild swimming and relaxing in front a film once the children are finally in bed.

Nicola Grayson
Research Associate 

At a glance

Nicola is a highly accomplished HR professional, with experience of working in-house within private markets. She brings extensive knowledge in recruitment across various industries, including being responsible for private market corporate recruitment covering the UK, Jersey, Luxembourg, Germany and Scandinavia. Nicola is a people person and enjoys building relationships. She is committed to providing the best service to clients, as well as supporting candidates with their next career move.

Key responsibilities

Supporting corporate function searches, including devising and executing research strategy, benchmark mapping, gathering market insights and project managing the search process. Nicola also conducts candidate interviews to assess the fit for the client from a technical and cultural perspective.    

Previous experience

Prior to joining March Consultants in 2023, Nicola worked in HR for 12 years, including working as a HR Business Partner at investment firm, Triton. She also worked in HR across various other industries, including construction, industrial services and oil and gas. In addition, Nicola worked for a boutique recruitment agency whilst travelling in Australia.    

Qualifications

BSc Business & Management, Aston University
CIPD Associate
Certified A and B Assessor for Psychometric Assessments
Mental Health First Aider

Three favourite things

Travelling to explore new places, going for dinner at country pubs and her two dogs.

Clare Robinson
Business Development & Operations Associate 

At a glance

Clare has travelled widely for work over the last 19 years with teams across the globe and is now bringing her HR and banking background to the private equity arena. 

Key responsibilities

Implementing and leading on the BD strategy for March Consultants. Management and tracking of BD meetings, insights documents and events. 

Previous experience

Clare worked in the Financial Services sector both in the UK and Hong Kong for US Firms in the recruitment and early talent space, leading teams across APAC on their junior people strategy. She then went to the University of Warwick to help set up virtual internships across the globe whilst juggling life with twin boys. 

Qualifications

BA Hons Economics and French, University of Leeds

Three favourite things

Family Adventures, Yoga & Coffee.