Taylor Bennett

Sara graduated in modern languages from the University of Exeter in 1991. Having started her career in marketing, she moved into corporate and financial communications and

investor relations, in London and then Hong Kong. In Hong Kong Sara went on to set up and manage a practice specialising in headhunting public relations professionals, before

establishing her own firm (Sara Wells Associates), focusing on executive search for corporate communications professionals across Asia. Since joining Taylor Bennett in Hong Kong, Sara has

moved to the UK where she continues to cover the Asian marketplace, and also looks after legal, procurement and company secretarial activities.

Matthew joined Taylor Bennett in 2002, having previously worked as a journalist and in senior recruitment for Swiss

banks. Matthew is a graduate of the London Business School’s Emerging Leaders Programme and read Latin American studies

at Newcastle-upon-Tyne University. He has lived and worked in Latin America. Matthew is practice head

for public affairs and handles corporate communications searches in the UK and Continental Europe.

Heather McGregor is the Managing Director and is the principal shareholder of Taylor Bennett, having bought the company from its founders in 2004. In her early career she worked in financial PR and investor relations before doing an MBA at the London Business School and joining ABN Amro as a sellside analyst. She then spent

eight years with the bank, working in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo, before joining Taylor Bennett in 2000.

Heather has a PhD from the University of Hong Kong, and is a visiting professor at City University’s Cass Business School. She founded the Taylor Bennett Foundation, which works to promote diversity in the

communications industry by equipping talented graduates from ethnic minorities with the skills and confidence to pursue successful communications careers. Heather is also the current chair of the charity Career Academies UK which works with 16-19 year olds to raise their aspirations through the provision of a structured

programme including a six week paid internship, and was a founding member of the steering committee of the 30% Club, which is working to raise the representation of women at senior levels within the UK’s publicly quoted companies. She is also an experienced writer and columnist in the national media.

Chantal joined Taylor Bennett in 1999 and has over 20 years experience in the communications industry.  She has a first class degree in

English, from Victoria University, New Zealand. Her career started in financial PR at Streets Financial, covering IPOs, M&A and calendar work but

ultimately switched to HR & Development at Shandwick. Chantal handles senior corporate appointments for clients within the FTSE, Euro300

and public sector and is the practice head for internal communications.

Annita was a founding director of Taylor Bennett in 1982. This followed a career in corporate communications, public affairs

and human resources. She has unrivalled experience in corporate affairs, human resources and advertising

and she actively advises on senior assignments, working closely with clients, consultants and researchers.

Annita is Taylor Bennett’s senior counsellor, providing support, insight and wisdom.

Lisa has 15 years communications experience and has worked both in-house and agency side, on behalf of clients in the public, private and not for profit sectors. Lisa joins Taylor Bennett after a four-year stint as Director of the National Lottery

Promotions Unit (NLPU), which aims to highlight the impact of Lottery money, and is a partnership between the Lottery operator Camelot, Lottery distributors and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Prior to joining the NLPU, Lisa

was a board director at Band & Brown. With the agency for seven years, she ran one of its consumer divisions, which housed a wide range of blue chip, not for profit and public sector accounts. The early years of Lisa’s career were

spent at two PR agencies – Larkspur, and Munro & Forster. Lisa has a degree in Politics from Queen Mary & Westfield College, London University.

Faye joined Taylor Bennett in 2005 and consults on corporate communication roles, with an interest in reputation management, digital communications, corporate responsibility and sustainable

development. She has worked across the not-for-profit, public and private sectors, placing candidates in positions across Europe. Prior to joining Taylor Bennett she worked in the NHS in mental health following

post-graduate study in psychology. She recently completed a Masters in Theoretical Psychoanalysis at University College London and is pursuing training as a psychoanalyst. Faye graduated

from Bristol with a first-class degree in Modern Languages, and is fluent in Spanish and Italian. Faye is Trustee of the Taylor Bennett Foundation.

Faith joined Taylor Bennett in 2005 after graduating from the University of Exeter, and has recently completed a company-

sponsored MBA at the University of Bath. Faith’s specialist areas include public sector, pharmaceuticals and FMCG.

She consults across a broad range of mid level corporate communications roles within both the private and public

sectors, and provides research support for the most senior searches as appropriate.

Christine joined Taylor Bennett in 2007 and is purely focused on financial services search assignments.  Christine is a senior communicator with over 20 years in-house communications experience in financial services.

Her most recent role was Head of Corporate Communications, Europe & Asia for Lehman Brothers.  She was in that role for 6 years and established the Corporate Communications function in Europe with

responsibility for promoting and protecting the Lehman Brothers brand and its individual businesses. Christine has also worked in communications roles for Bankers Trust, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) and NatWest Markets.

Anne joined Taylor Bennett in 2011.  She has over 30 years’ experience in public relations in the professional services, financial services and publishing sectors, most recently at Andersen and as global head of PR at Clifford Chance. She has

since then been working on a consultancy basis with professional service firms. Anne’s earlier PR roles included periods in financial services at Norwich Union and Old Mutual, and in publishing at The Guardian newspaper.

Anne graduated in English from London University and started her career in PR in book publishing. Anne is a board member of theatre company Oily Cart, and on the development board of Dance Umbrella, which brings new contemporary dance

to London. She does voluntary PR work for talent development charity the Tennis First Charitable Trust. Anne is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Sarah joined Taylor Bennett formally in August 2008 having worked as a summer intern for the previous two years. She graduated from Edinburgh with a degree in Economics and

Politics. Whilst at Edinburgh she was a committee member of the University’s Investment Club and was in charge of the Alternative Investment division of the club. She recently

completed a Graduate Diploma in Law at the BPP and was awarded an LLB in September 2011. She has a keen interest in politics and in 2010 she spent two months working on the

Conservative Party’s general election campaign in Scotland. At Taylor Bennett she supports searches on all senior level public affairs and investor relations assignments.

Iona joined Taylor Bennett in 2006 and supports searches on all senior level corporate

communications and public affairs assignments. Her experience spans all sectors and

different business organisations in the UK and internationally; private, public and

NFP organisations. She read Anthropology at St Cuthbert’s College, Durham University.

Katherine joined Taylor Bennett in July 2002. After graduating from Edinburgh with a degree in history of art she joined a leading London PR consultancy

working predominantly in financial public relations across a wide range of sectors. Having built up a strong knowledge and experience of communications

as a consultant, she transferred her skills to Taylor Bennett, where she is responsible for supporting senior corporate communications searches,

particularly on roles in the financial services sector and internal communications.

Jess joined Taylor Bennett in September 2010. She graduated from the University of Bristol

with a BSc in Social Policy after which she worked for a Member of Parliament for a year.

She supports the consultants across a broad range of searches covering a variety of practice areas.

Jim joined Taylor Bennett as a researcher in 2009 having graduated from the University of

Edinburgh with an MA in Psychology. He provides support to the consultants across a broad

range of searches, largely focusing on corporate communications, media

relations and financial PR.

Olivia joined Taylor Bennett in October 2009. She graduated from St Andrews University with a degree in Art History after

which she spent time working for a Japanese Equity Hedge Fund before moving to an executive search firm where she

was a researcher in the asset and wealth management sectors. Olivia supports the consultants across a broad range of searches

covering a variety of practice areas.

Veryan Nield began working with Taylor Bennett in 2008 having had 20 years of international experience in industry, focusing on

communication. With a degree in Engineering and a Post Grad in Marketing, she began her career in Marketing at a FTSE 100 company. Following an

MBA from Cranfield, Veryan worked in internal communications, change management, and organisational development both in-house and

in an agency. She is responsible for managing our client audit process and for providing marketing counsel.

Having graduated from Royal Holloway, University of London, with a degree in History, Seri joined Taylor Bennett in

February 2008. She assists consultants with research and administrative projects, as well as being responsible for

organising events. With a keen interest in music journalism, Seri writes music reviews in her free time for CMU Daily,

Unicorn Jobs’ sister music business publication.

Helen completed an internship with the company and joined as a full time employee in August 2010 after graduating from

Loughborough University in 2010 with a degree in International Relations. She spent her gap year working in

France. At Taylor Bennett, Helen assists the consultants with research and administrative projects. She also provides PA

support to Chantal Tregear and Matthew Wall.

Susanna joined Taylor Bennett in 2009 and is responsible for the accounting functions within the Taylor Bennett Group.

She graduated from Goldsmiths’ College with a degree in French and English, and is fluent in French. Prior to joining Taylor

Bennett she had 20 years experience working in the UK Film Industry. This included working as a production

accountant on such pictures as The Full Monty and Mrs. Brown.
sjw@taylorbennett.com