Locations

Exec Capital recruits C-suite executives, directors and board members for businesses across the UK. We work from two offices — London (167–169 Great Portland Street, W1W 5PF) and the West Midlands (Watling Court, Orbital Plaza, Watling St, Cannock WS11 0EL) — and run searches nationally from there. The pages below set out what senior hiring looks like in each city and region we cover, the kind of businesses we tend to work with there and the roles that come up most often. Whether the brief is a permanent executive search, an interim appointment or a fractional leader for two days a week, the approach is the same: understand the local market, then search wherever the right candidate actually is.

Senior hiring outside London is not a smaller version of London hiring. The UK economy is concentrated but not centralised. The ONS regional GDP bulletin shows London with the highest GDP per head in 2024, while the North East and North West recorded the fastest real growth of any English region that year. The Department for Business and Trade’s business population estimates put London and the South East at roughly a third of UK private sector businesses — which means around two-thirds sit elsewhere, many of them owner-managed or private equity-backed firms that need serious leadership but cannot draw on a London-sized talent pool on their doorstep.

London

London is where most of our regulated, private equity and family office work sits. The City, Canary Wharf and the West End hold the bulk of the UK’s banks, insurers, asset managers, PE houses and international headquarters, so briefs here often carry a regulatory dimension — a CEO or CFO who will need FCA approval under the Senior Managers Regime, or an independent NED for a regulated board. Our London office is staffed and used for client and candidate meetings.

South East, East and South West England

Outside the capital, the South East and East hold some of the UK’s most distinctive business clusters: university-led science and technology around Oxford and Cambridge, logistics and engineering along the M1 and M40, defence and maritime on the south coast, and aerospace and engineering in and around Bristol. Many of the businesses here are venture or private equity-backed, which shapes the brief — boards want leaders who can scale a company and report to investors, not just run it.

Midlands

Our West Midlands office in Cannock sits close to the M6 and M6 Toll, which puts Birmingham, the Black Country, Staffordshire and the East Midlands within easy reach. The region’s business base leans towards manufacturing, automotive supply chains, logistics and professional services, with a large population of owner-managed and family businesses. A good share of the work here is finance-led: FDs and CFOs ahead of a sale or investment, and MDs to take over from a founder.

North of England

The northern cities each have a different character. Manchester has the broadest mix of digital, media and professional services; Leeds is strong in financial and legal services and public bodies; Liverpool combines port, maritime and life sciences; Newcastle has software, energy and advanced manufacturing. The region also has an active mid-market private equity community, so we regularly see post-investment leadership changes — often through private equity executive search rather than a standard corporate hire.

Scotland and Wales

Edinburgh and Glasgow between them hold one of the UK’s largest financial services communities outside London, with asset managers, life and pensions providers and large bank operations centres, alongside energy and engineering. Cardiff has its own insurance and financial services base, a growing semiconductor cluster across South Wales and a large public and media sector. Searches here often involve regulated roles, and candidates frequently value staying in Scotland or Wales over a move south, which affects how a shortlist is built.

International

Our international work runs from the UK. It mainly involves overseas companies hiring UK-based leaders — a first UK Managing Director, a country CFO or a European head of operations — and UK businesses that need executives with cross-border experience. US companies setting up a UK entity make up a large part of this, and our guide to UK subsidiary senior hiring covers the practical issues: reporting lines into a foreign parent, UK director duties and local employment terms.

How regional searches differ

Three things change when a senior hire is based outside London, and they shape how we run the search.

• Pool depth. In London most C-suite briefs can be filled from candidates already working in the city. Regionally, the strongest people may be a commute or a relocation away, so the search has to test early whether a candidate’s circumstances fit the location, not just their CV.
• Working pattern. Hybrid arrangements have widened the field for regional roles, but most boards still want their CEO, MD or COO on site for a set number of days. Agreeing that before the search starts saves a lot of wasted interviews.
• Flexible options. Where a full-time permanent hire is hard to find or hard to justify, an interim executive or a fractional C-suite leader working two or three days a week can give a regional business senior capability without the full cost. This is especially common for finance and operations roles in smaller companies.

Board appointments follow the same logic. Listed companies applying the UK Corporate Governance Code 2024 need independent directors wherever they are based, and private and PE-backed boards across the regions increasingly want a NED with sector or finance experience. Our NED recruitment work covers both.

Frequently asked questions

Where are Exec Capital’s offices?

We have two: London, at 167–169 Great Portland Street, W1W 5PF, and the West Midlands, at Watling Court, Orbital Plaza, Watling St, Cannock WS11 0EL. The other cities on this page are places we recruit for, not office locations.

Do you recruit for locations not listed here?

Yes. The pages above cover the cities where we see the most demand, but we take briefs anywhere in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Tell us where the role is based and we will say plainly how deep the local market is.

Can you fill a regional role with someone from London?

Sometimes. Some London-based executives are keen to relocate or work a hybrid pattern; others are not. We test this at the first conversation rather than late in the process, so you only meet candidates who can genuinely commit to the location.

Do you place interim and fractional executives outside London?

Yes. Interim and fractional appointments are often the most practical answer for regional businesses, particularly for finance, operations and technology leadership, and they can be arranged on site, remote or a mix of both.