Meet the Team

Julian brings more than 25 years’ experience within Executive Search, partnering with Pharmaceutical Technology and Commercial Education organisations around the globe, supporting clients and candidates with a strategic, consultative, and knowledgeable approach.

Julian has worked with the major players in Pharmaceutical Technology and Services businesses. He has built significant commercial teams across the world for start-ups, as well as securing executive leadership for $1B plus market leading players. Julian has supported pharmaceutical organisations to secure C-level talent, SVP’s, VP’s across Sales, Client Success, Professional Services, Marketing, Product and more. With over 30 years in recruitment, Julian has placed BD professionals in the eClinical space across the US and throughout Europe and Asia.

Julian has also led Spencer Group to become a leading award-winning player in the Commercial Education market based on a passionate commitment to deliver outstanding results on a global basis. Personally, he has placed leadership in K12, International Development, Assessment, Pathway, EdTech, HE and Academic Publishing across the world. He has led assignments to secure Chairman, NEDs, CEOs, COOs, CIO, CTO, CDIOs, CAOs, CCOs, CMOs, Regional CEOs and GMs as well as National and Regional Directors.

“We are non-hierarchical, non-political, and purely focused on delivering outstanding outcomes for our client’s candidates and team.”

Alex has 13 years’ experience within Pharmaceutical Technology and Commercial Education putting him in a strong position to genuinely add value when consulting with clients. His passion in sharing knowledge and insight with his talented team is a critical factor in ensuring our delivery team continues to maintain the highest standards of success for our clients.

Alex has worked across General Management, Sales, Marketing and Product within Commercial Education. He has successfully completed assignments including CEOs, Managing Directors, Commercial Directors, and Directors of Global Development. Alex has significant experience across OPMs, EdTechs, Pathway, International Schools, and English Language, working with anything from pre-revenue start-ups through to multibillion dollar global corporates.

Across the Pharmaceutical Technology space, Alex has worked across the whole of eClinical; AI, Cardiac Safety, CTMS, eCOA, EDC, RBQM, Respiratory, RTSM, and many other product areas. He has led assignments from individual contributors to Global SVPs of Sales Strategy and Development, supporting players from pre revenue start-ups to billion plus t/o global enterprises. Alex has also played a lead role in major project delivery placing between 14 – 24 individual contributors within global enterprises in the eClinical space over a 12-month period.

“I’m passionate about the team, the quality of people that we have and the fact that we are always committed to delivering extremely high standards.”

Micah Coston brings global executive search experience across the education sector.

He has expertise in placing senior leadership into higher education and specialist institutions ranging from the executive team, including VC’s and Principals, to professional services and research leadership, as well as non-executive roles including Chairs and NED’s. In 2023 Micah has introduced a new practice to Spencer Group, Innovation in Education, and leads this practice alongside his role as Delivery Consultant at Spencer Group, recruiting across the Commercial Education, EdTech/Digital, and E-Clinical landscape.

Micah holds a BMus in Music, an MA in Performance Studies, an MA in Shakespeare Studies with Distinction from the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, and a DPhil in English Literature from the University of Oxford.

James has over 15 years of recruitment experience consisting of a combination of agency, in-house, and retained executive search.

James has run assignments for Commercial Education clients including in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, UAE, and the EU. James’ placement activity includes: Chief Revenue Officer for a European EdTech, Chief Procurement Officer overseeing 6 separate colleges within US Higher Education, Director of Human Resources within an early year’s education provider consisting of over 500 schools within 37 US states and Director of Human Resources for a non-profit Children’s centre in Philadelphia.

James has supported key mandates across Pharmaceutical Technology, within small, mid-sized, and large global commercial businesses across all industries, including those in the Pharmaceutical and eClinical industry. Most notably, James has led successful senior level engagements for commercial leaders and business development teams during times of client transformation and high growth.

Colin has over 20 years’ recruitment experience, with over ten of those years with Spencer Group in the Pharmaceutical Technology market.

Colin specialises in Commercial, Business Development and customer facing Operational roles across Europe and the United States from East to West Coast including Regional and Strategic Accounts Business Development Directors for business profiles from start-up/emerging tech companies, through to publicly listed global research giants. His honesty and extensive management experience have helped him to carve out a respected niche in the marketplace, enabling him to provide significant support to Spencer Group searches.

Coming from a background in Teaching, Examination and Tutoring, Peter supports both the Commercial Education and Pharmaceutical Technology markets for Spencer Group. He has over 7 years of Executive Search experience at Spencer Group placing high profile individuals across the UK, Europe and the USA across Business Development.

He has delivered assignments that include: C-suite, VPs, Sales Directors and Business Development Directors/Managers. In addition to this, Peter has partnered with clients to build their Customer Success teams, securing their VP Customer Success, then working with them to build a team of Customer Success Directors across Europe and America.

Emily has over 11 years’ experience in Executive Search. As a Senior Delivery Consultant focused purely on Education, Emily is adept at engaging market leading talent and creating long term partnerships.

Emily has expertise delivering mandates that most recently include: CIO major MAT, Sales & Marketing Director OPM, European Business Director OPM, General Manager International Education, Managing Director Education Provider, Sales Director EdTech, Chief Marketing Officer Higher Education, Dean of Business with an Alternative Provider, Principal for K12 schools in China as well as 3 x Regional Directors for a major MAT and a National Head of Sixth Form. Emily is committed to supporting organisations where educational excellence is embedded in their purpose. Emily prides herself on securing first class talent and creating long term partnerships within commercial education.

Joining Spencer Group in 2023, Rebecca has over 8 years’ recruitment experience at a senior level, whilst also having led and managed successful Delivery and Research Teams.

Rebecca is highly experienced in delivering on international assignments across the UK, Europe and USA, with extensive expertise in completing C-Suite mandates such as CFOs, Financial Directors, Regional Directors, Marketing Directors and Sales and Business Development Directors across the Technology Markets. Rebecca has significant exposure across small, mid-sized, and large global commercial businesses across all industries.

Hannah-Mei began her career within executive search in 2018 after graduating from The University of Reading. In 2020 she joined Spencer Group as an Executive Research Consultant, gradually progressing to Research Manager in September 2022.

Hannah prides herself on the strategic and targeted sourcing of candidates. She is passionate about solving any problems clients may have and supporting candidates in their career progression, whilst also making an impact on the improvement of the human condition working in the sectors of Pharmaceutical Technology and Commercial Education. Recent placements Hannah has supported include C-Suite appointments, SVP’s, VP’s and Commercial/Business Development positions, in collaboration with our CEO Julian, and Hannah specialises in searching for candidates for multi-faceted major eClinical players.

With a BSc in Psychology and Business from Ashton University, Alice joined Spencer Group in September 2020, progressing from a Research Consultant, through to a Senior Research Consultant and more recently, Research Manager.

Her role along with Hannah is to lead the Research team, ensuring their successful personal development and smooth running of Spencer Group assignments across both Pharmaceutical Technology and Commercial Education.

Recent placements that Alice has supported include VP Client Success, Client Success Directors in US and EU, and Business Development Directors for a global risk-based software solutions business. Alice has unrivalled tenacity and determination to unearth the very best and most qualified individuals, through a wide range of search tools and advanced search techniques to unearth all relevant professionals and fully map the markets for our clients.

Eve works as a Lead Research Consultant for Spencer Group, having extensive experience in supporting our Delivery team within Commercial Education, and more recently activity with eClinical and Pharmaceutical Technology projects.

Eve provides support to the Delivery team in candidate generation and search, and market mapping and database management. Eve has successfully led the sourcing of candidates for a variety of C-level placements within OPMs, Pathway, EdTechs, Universities and K12. Recently, Eve has worked on the successful appointment of a Senior Director of Academics Chinese for a K12 schools’ group in China, a Chief Digital and Information Officer for a schools group, and a VP of New Partnerships for a leading OPM.

Travis joined Spencer Group in 2022, with a Masters and degree from Queen’s University Belfast.

Having gained Research experience as a Recruitment Assistant during his time at Queens University Belfast, Travis is equipped with the skills and education to provide significant support to our in-house Research and Delivery teams. Since joining in early 2022, Travis has quickly become involved in assignment activity across both the Commercial Education and Pharmaceutical Technology sectors, supporting the placements of Senior and Business Development talent, across the US and Europe.

Joining Spencer Group in 2022, Yashoda has a significant academic background. Completing her BSc in Neuroscience in 2016 at Hamilton College, Yashoda has continued to excel and more recently has completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Nottingham.

With over 6 years’ experience Yashoda has quickly become an invaluable member of the Research team. Her most recent support to Spencer Group assignments includes Business Development Directors in eClinical and Director of Admissions in Education. Yashoda has a keen interest in driving efficiency processes and learning more about Spencer Group’s sectors in order to take on new challenges.

With prior research experience, and having completed his second MSc in 2022, Alex has studied at the University of Bath in Sociology, International Relations and Management and joined Spencer Group in late 2022 as part of our internal Research team.

Since joining the team, Alex has provided invaluable insight into the Education industry, with a focus on the Asia Pacific Region. In addition to this Alex has supported on assignments at Spencer Group including Principals, Chief Product Officers and Chief Technology Officers for the Education sector, and is now moving in to developing with in eClinical in order to expand his capabilities.

Ivana joined Spencer Group in 2014 having completed a degree in Business Management from the London Metropolitan university.

As an integral part to the Spencer Group team, Ivana heads up Spencer Group’s central Operations function, which supports the business in matters relating to Finance, Property, IT, HR and more. Day to day Ivana focuses on ensuring that the everyday running of the business is parallel with our longer-term strategic objectives, and that our internal teams have the processes and services available to drive the smooth execution of our Executive Search Assignments.

Joining Spencer Group in March 2021 as Executive Assistant to our CEO Julian Minett, Katie leads on all of Julian’s day to day activity and organisational support and as such has become invaluable in ensuring the smooth operation of Julian’s business priorities.

A highly organised, focused and driven Executive Assistant, with over 8 years’ experience in providing support to C-Suite Executives and Senior Leadership Teams, as well as experience in People Management, Marketing and Business Administration. Prior to Spencer Group Katie gained a CertHE in Nursing Education through her studies in Paediatric Nursing at De Montfort University and a DipHe in Psychology via The Open University. Katie’s genuine interest and passion for Medicine and People Development enables her to provide exceptional support to Julian, as well as the wider Spencer Group team.

Joining the team in early 2022, Donna has been a crucial part in driving efficiencies at Spencer Group.

She has introduced new technologies and processes which have significantly improved the workings of Finance, HR, Operations and Delivery. As a highly experienced Office Manager and EA, Donna’s passion lies in streamlining processes to maximise time and opportunities within the business.

Donna also provides key support as Executive Assistant to our Co-Director, Alex Sawyer, ensuring the smooth day to day running of his Executive activity. Donna’s focus is to support both the needs of the team, and the company business objectives at Spencer Group.

Paul joined as Chairman in 2007, with over 30 years’ experience within executive search and recruitment.

As a highly experienced Chairman and Investor, Paul provides exceptional support to Spencer Group, helping the leadership team in the successful development and implementation of business objectives, allowing us to further enhance and build upon our client experience and trusted partnership.