Nick Robeson, Managing Partner, Boyden UK

1. Tell us about your company and how it started.

Boyden is a global leader in Executive Search and Interim Management with offices in 40 countries around the world. As one of the oldest headhunting brands with a heritage dating back to the 1940s, we are very fortunate to have worked with clients across all sectors delivering their senior executive talent.

2. What has been your biggest success to date?

A previous recruitment business I started. We built it from a start up in 2000 to £14m in 2010 handling the 08/09 recession along the way. The team we built around us to achieve this was phenomenal. Great spirit and intensity and we sold it in 2010. The second and most recent is being given the responsibility to act as custodian for Boyden’s brand in the UK.

3. What project are you most excited about right now?

Together with my business partner Lisa Farmer, we took over responsibility for building Boyden’s position in the UK. It’s been an exhilarating first six months building the team and growing the revenues ahead of expectations. The international network has been such a positive influence on our business and, with BREXIT looming, it’s no time to be a single geography, boutique, search firm

4. How has being a member of The Clubhouse contributed to the success of your business?

Massively! The environment we work in has changed so dramatically since I began work in 1994. Gone are the days of being tied into expensive rents and onerous break clauses. The Clubhouse provides us with the flexibility we desire as we grow combined with the level of professionalism and discretion our clients expect from a leading executive search firm.

5. Where can members find you?

On the eighth floor of The Clubhouse, Bank, normally warming up a cup with hot water before having yet another flat white. Failing that I am out with clients or in an interview room interrogating a long-list candidate.

Quick Fire Round

Favourite place to go in London?
The Arbitrager gin bar on Throgmorton Street or Temper in Angel Court; in St James’s it’s Ole & Steen for an open sandwich or Aquavit in Carlton Street

Who inspires you and why?
Anyone who is capable of being selected to pull on a Lions rugby shirt

Best bit of advice you’ve been given?
As a headhunter you find yourself being given advice all the time, normally about why the candidate in front of you is the best for the role you are working on

If you were on a desert island, what would you bring?
A rugby ball, Spotify and Skype.

Which super power would you like to have?
Teleportation. Because we are not on this planet for long and there is so much I would love to see and do.

What is the worst business ‘faux-pas’ you’ve committed?
Top button going, bursting a cafetiere when pushing down the plunger (narrowly missing the client) and returning from the bathroom with my fly undone! All in the same meeting, thankfully 20 years ago now!!