About Us

Founder, Leader Executive

Jonathan O’Hagan

Jonathan is a passionate talent acquisition specialist with a proven track record of helping organisations flourish through the power of people. Following an early career with the world renowned Franklin Covey and The DSGi Retail Group Jonathan moved into Executive Search in 2006. He quickly and successfully built an impressive reputation in the market establishing himself as the preferred Search partner to a number of blue-chip retailers and food & drink manufacturers in need of the best talent from across the world.

Throughout his career Jonathan has successfully handled over 1,250+ assignments across the globe and in 2011 he founded Leader Executive following a strong desire to provide a more well-rounded approach to Talent Management Solutions. As an expert in Talent Acquisition/ Executive Search, Jonathan’s burning passion today remains enabling people to turn up to work as their true authentic self; finding high performance through happiness and enabling business growth through people.

Project & Operations Director

Michelle O’Hagan

Coming Soon.

Head of Research

Jacquie Cooper

Jacquie started her Executive Search Research career in 1995 following an earlier career as an HR Manager for Whitbread Plc. After 6 years ‘ in house’ as Head of Research Jacquie set up her own consultancy business ‘Effective Research’.

Over the years Jacquie has built a strong reputation for the identification and attraction of the hardest to find Senior Executives across a wide range of Industry Sectors within the UK, mainland Europe and internationally.

Creative Content Manager

Sam Khan

Samoneh is our Creative Copywriter and Content Manager. With a background in Psychology and Hospitality Management, she has an in-depth understanding of consumer behaviour (and satisfaction!) which helps her craft relatable copy including our briefing documents, adverts and engaging social content.

Previously Samoneh has worked across various industries including those within hospitality, lifestyle, health & wellness and education sectors, to name a few. She is proficient in both digital and print mediums, creating strong marketing materials to help Leader Executive stand out from the crowd.

Strategic Partner, Executive Coaching

Sam Waterfall

Sam is a career consultant and coach with an earned reputation for helping his clients land the jobs they want and significant pay rises. His clients land jobs with the world’s most sought after employers including the International Olympic Committee, The World Economic Forum, Aston Martin, Nike, Amazon, Virgin, Facebook, Red Bull Racing F1, Rolls Royce and the NHS to name but a few.

Sam is also an FMCG and food industry specialist where his experience spans working within the sector and helping his clients land jobs with B2C and B2B industry leaders including Quorn, Mondelez, Coca Cola, Reckitt Benckiser, Tesco, Superdrug and Brakes.

Sam specialises in helping senior leaders seeking lucrative promotions or returning to work after redundancy. If your job search is taking too long or if you’re struggling to get the job offers you want, then Sam is your man.

Strategic Partner, Executive Coaching

John Weaver

John is an experienced CEO and an International Coach Federation qualified business, personal and team coach. Following a tri-lingual MBA at ESCP John worked with Beiersdorf, Danone, Coca-Cola, Budweiser, Unilever and Nestle amongst others in sales and marketing management or in his role as a senior management consultant at Kearney.

Latterly as CEO, John has been involved in the acquisition, turnaround and sale of SMEs in the distribution and health and wellness space. John currently manages a portfolio career as a Director to businesses in commercial property, health products and as a coach to private individuals and organisations.

Strategic Partner, Organisational Design

Stuart Lee

Previously the Executive Vice President, East Balt Inc. Stuart is an experienced leader who specialises in executive leadership, strategic development & execution, business development on a global basis across various business segments of the food manufacturing industry. Stuart has a vast array of international experience in Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, Middle East, Africa, and the Far East regions.

Many who have worked with Stuart consider him as a transformational leader, who is driven by challenge and undeterred by obstacles, he is highly committed to furthering operational standards of excellence. Stuart has successfully delivered several business turnarounds with positive results for clients who have engaged his specific skill-sets many of which have been FTSE 100 or U.S. based global food manufacturing organisations.

Strategic Partner, Organisational Design

Ally Yates

Ally is a people and performance person. She works with organisations, teams and individuals to marshal the courage to change, build the confidence to take action and develop the capability to grow. With a focus is on organisational change, talent management and people development, Ally inspires self-belief through change programmes and the customised delivery of learning experiences, team facilitation and coaching.

Her long career has taken her across cultures and industries. She has a self-confessed sweet spot for first-line managers. “It’s a tough transition. Managed successfully, it sets people up for career success.”

Strategic Partner, Organisational Design

Anne Smith

Anne is the Talent & Development Lead across EMEA for the Kerry Group, the world’s leading taste and nutrition company.

Anne leads the entire talent & succession agenda for Kerry’s EMEA region, encompassing over 13,000 people through their Foods, Taste & Nutrition and Primary Dairy and Agri. Divisions.

With a Masters in HR Management and Industrial Relations, Anne has an impressive career of her own within the Industry spanning the past 15 years with a breadth of experience in senior generalist HR management and leadership roles.

Anne can be described as a driven Leader with a coaching and collaborative style passionate about inspiring, empowering and enabling people to realise their full potential achieving personal and business growth.

Strategic Partner, Organisational Design

Brian O’Hagan

Brian is an outgoing and motivational coach and mentor who has worked in strategic leadership roles at market leading FMCG food and beverage manufacturers including PepsiCo Foods, Whitworths, Aryzta Food Solutions, Matthew Algie Coffee and Bewley’s Coffee. With experience across dynamic categories such as impulse snacking, bakery, food to go and coffee, his skills include business strategy and transformation, change management, establishing strategic customer partnerships and creating, building and developing high performance teams & cultures.

Brian is a people-first leader with team-ship and collaboration being the two key pillars of his leadership principles and a major contributor to the success of the teams he has worked with over the years.

Strategic Partner, Organisational Design

Marc Cox

Marc is the Founder of The Company Spirit and creator of the philosophy and approach he calls ‘The Business Case for Love’.

For the past decade Marc’s been hired by CEO’s and Leadership Teams across the globe to help them create real behavioural change. Some of these organisations include McLaren Automotive, West Cornwall Pasty Company, Atrium Lighting and Crew Clothing to name just a few…

Marc helps organisations understand what their company stands for and what makes it different.

Through Marc’s unique approach he facilitates organisations to create authentic company values, a sense of purpose and set of beliefs that in turn, results in truly memorable experiences for customers and high levels of employee engagement.  Which as we know has huge benefits to the bottom line!

Finally, Marc is the author of the much-acclaimed and superb book The Business Case for Love where Marc generously shares the secrets of how you can get your company bragged about in today’s ever competitive world.

Strategic Partner, Executive Coaching

Rob Sandall

Rob brings with him 32 years of corporate experience, working for global brewing giants Carlsberg, across sales, supply chain and human resources at Senior commercial executive level. The past 7 years Rob has worked at Board level for Thatchers Cider, the largest Independently owned cider maker in the UK, as Sales Director.

Rob is different to many “other” coaches. Rob has been a hands-on leader at Board level until very recently  – coaching and developing his team members daily to be as good as they could possibly be. The experience of managing the demands of a very pro-active Owner and non-exec team, alongside the demands of delivering exceptional sales and profit results year in year out, has given Rob a very real practical approach to supporting and coaching leaders who are experiencing similar challenges.