Andy Wardlaw

Having completed a Law degree, I took a junior role in a publishing business whilst deciding on the career direction I wanted to take. It was a unique time, when the first wave of digital businesses were starting to establish themselves, causing immediate and significant changes across entire industries and generating a need for innovative talent, which has never dissipated. I was approached to join what was the first specialist, digital recruitment business and found myself helping to structure and staff the nascent UK teams of the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, AOL, eBay, as well as the first digital creative and communications agencies. Nurturing, advising and helping to choreograph talent, both within and for the creative sector has been part of my career ever since. In that time, I’ve built and lead cross-functional talent acquisition teams, lead staffing and talent strategy for leading digital/creative agencies - most recently AKQA. I also ran my own consultancy business, focused on helping clients to digitise structure, talent and output. The key to the sustained success of so many companies is the alignment of transformational talent with business and growth strategy - and I continue to find it a pleasure and privilege to advise and partner with stand-out people and great businesses in order to help both realise their ambitions. The Talent Business now has hubs in London, Berlin, New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Shanghai, Dubai and Sao Paulo, and has established itself as the world leader in executive search for creative businesses so is perfectly placed for me to do this. My other passions are sports - particularly skiing/squash/running, watching Arsenal and being a dad.