Empower your organisation with expert leadership in risk management and compliance
As new regulatory regimes continue to evolve across the world, the demands on senior risk and compliance talent are changing.
Whether augmenting your senior risk and compliance teams to support your long-term strategy or whether you need an interim solution for a specific role, Sheffield Haworth’s extensive network of top risk management and compliance specialists means we’ll always be able to source the right talent.
Challenge
Our client is a Sovereign Wealth Fund based in the Middle East. The firm’s AUM is upwards of $650bn.
The client’s mission is to invest funds on behalf of the Government to make available the necessary financial resources to secure and maintain the future welfare of the region.
The client had grown significantly over the past 10 years and reached a stage where the firm wanted to create a new independent Risk Function to provide more strategic support to the business. Following a review by McKinsey, Sheffield Haworth were mandated to conduct a global search to find the new Chief Risk Officer and the executive leadership team who would support this individual. These roles included Head of Investment Risk, Head of Counterparty Risk, Head of Operational Risk and Head of Risk Adjusted Portfolio Analytics.
The search targeted MD level candidates across both the buy and sell side industries globally, such was the desire to attract industry leading risk management professionals to the organisation. In addition, due to the change mandate, individuals who had demonstrable experience of creating and building risk functions in their career were prioritised.
Outcome
The team at Sheffield Haworth successfully filled all of the designated roles including the Chief Risk Officer along with four direct reports over and 18 month period. In addition and in parallel, two mid-level team members were hired.
Challenge
Our client is a global investment bank and financial services firm. Sheffield Haworth was mandated to work on a multi-year risk transformation project supporting both the incumbent Group Chief Risk Officer and, initially, EMEA Group CEO. The client had been under mounting pressure from U.K., other European and USA regulators to bolster the CRO team at a senior level. The initial mandate was to find a UK CRO which was a newly created role.
The subsequent build out touched every risk type and every risk infrastructure function globally. The hiring managers were regional Chief Executive Officer’s in APAC, EMEA and USA, as well as a newly appointed Group Chief Risk Officer.
Sheffield Haworth in partnership with the client has successfully transformed the leadership team by placing a large number of senior MDs from USA versus foreign bank organisations thus leveraging the CCAR and Fed experience these candidates could bring.
Challenge
Sheffield Haworth partnered with the Co-Founders of a new Fixed Income Systematic Fund, to build out their leadership, investment, data science & technology groups. Their business objective was to research, develop, and continuously improve a scientific investment process applicable to fixed income investment management.
They are developing fixed income investment themes ranging from style-premia methods to data science-driven alpha-generative techniques, including systematising those traditionally utilised by discretionary fixed income managers. Its development areas include structured data utilisation, scientific and evidence-based investment procedures, applied and fundamental algorithmic R&D, systematic alpha sourcing research, efficient market access, and creation of data science and analytical tools to facilitate alpha generation, efficient portfolio construction, risk management, and transparent sources of portfolio risk and return.
The firm’s guiding principles are a scientific orientation, intellectual honesty, and a process-driven approach to all key aspects of its business.
Within 12 months, Sheffield Haworth successfully completed the build out of their founding leadership team and a total of 30+ hires for the firm, including the Co-Chief Investment Officer and Head of Engineering, Finance Director and Head of Operations. This in turn put their human capital plans a year ahead schedule and allowing them to expedite their go to market strategy.
CASE NOTE 01 | STRATEGY CONSULTING AND AI ADVISORY
Client: Global strategy consulting firm, name redacted.
Status: Confidential.
Retained to help build the firm’s new AI advisory practice, a strategic growth priority. The mandate anchors the capability with senior product leadership.
The brief pairs applied AI and software product depth with a record of originating and selling complex senior advisory work. Appointees have to operate credibly with chief product, technology and data officers, and with private equity technology teams.
Built on a 12-month partnership with the firm, working as a retained search partner across the practice. We source senior product leaders who bridge applied AI, software product and advisory sales.
Four senior appointments completed and three further appointments in progress, alongside more than 500 management consulting hires delivered across the practice.
CASE NOTE 02 | CONSULTING AND DIVERSITY
Client: Global professional services firm (Big Four), name redacted.
Status: Confidential.
Over five years we ran a series of executive searches and pipelines to build lasting engagement with senior female talent across the firm’s UK and Middle East practices.
Success depended on the client giving additional time to engage female talent, flexibility on traditional career-path criteria, a supportive interview process with diverse interviewers and sponsors, and candidate access to senior leaders.
Of 23 Partner appointments made since 2018, 65 per cent were female.
CASE NOTE 03 | TECHNOLOGY AND DIGITAL, DIVERSITY
Client : Global technology and consulting firm, name redacted.
Status: Confidential.
An EMEA-wide engagement in 2023 and 2024 to appoint female SAP leaders in finance and supply chain transformation.
We mapped 143 female partner-level targets in SAP consulting across the region.
Two female Partner appointments: an SAP Centre of Expertise Partner for Denmark, and a pan-European SAP market Partner.
Region
CASE NOTE 04 | STRATEGY CONSULTING AND DIVERSITY
Client: Global management consulting firm (MBB), name redacted.
Status: Confidential.
The firm set out to improve diversity in its Middle East consulting team at Partner-1 and Partner-2 levels. Regional diverse talent was scarce, so we recommended a global pipeline of candidates open to relocation.
We searched Tier 1 and Tier 2 strategy firms and industry candidates with strategy backgrounds, built three pipelines by availability to relocate, and approached 13 per cent more female targets to balance the outcome.
Every individual hired from the pipeline was gender diverse.
CASE NOTE 05 | BUSINESS SERVICES, PRIVATE EQUITY BACKED
Client: Global data and information services firm (PE-backed), name redacted.
Status: Confidential.
Following private equity investment, this data and information services business appointed us as its executive talent partner for a year, supporting all senior hires through an accelerated transformation.
A dedicated, account-managed team ran multi-geography searches across the Americas and Europe, with a gender-balanced senior team set as a defined metric and clear expectations on both sides to keep pace.
33 appointments in 12 months, at a 52 per cent female and 48 per cent male balance, supporting the investor’s transformation of the business.
CASE NOTE 06 | STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS, PRIVATE EQUITY BACKED, CAPABILITY BUILD
Client: UK strategy and operations consultancy (PE-backed), name redacted.
Status: Confidential.
With private equity funding in place, the firm wanted rapid growth without lowering its talent bar. We were engaged on a three-year programme.
A dedicated, account-managed team delivered across multiple mandates: building Digital, Aerospace and Defence, and People and Change service lines, alongside a consistent senior pipeline.
Over 60 senior hires. Partner-level gender diversity rose from 4 per cent to 20 per cent, including female Partners and Directors in new sectors: Defence, Energy, Transport and Aerospace.
4% to 20%
Partner gender diversity
CASE NOTE 07 | STRATEGY AND DATA ANALYTICS, CAPABILITY BUILD
Client: Global professional services firm (Big Four), name redacted.
Status: Confidential.
The firm set out to accelerate its Strategy service line in ASEAN, a global growth priority, with the ambition to quadruple the practice over four years through multiple Partner hires and team lifts. A parallel programme grew its Data and Analytics practice in the region.
A dedicated, account-managed regional team gave the programme ongoing momentum. The task was to convince top talent, including MBB Partners, to consider the firm as a destination for strategy work, working closely with sponsoring Partners to land preferred candidates. For Data and Analytics, we appointed a regional lead Partner first, then country Partners across Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.
12 Partners appointed across Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, including a three-Partner team lift from an MBB firm, spanning restructuring and turnaround, consumer goods and retail, life sciences and healthcare, government and public sector, TMT, digital strategy and operations strategy. A follow-on engagement in MENA delivered four further Partner appointments across the UAE and Saudi Arabia.