Nick Vaughan returns to Hamlyn Williams as CEO
Hamlyn Williams has welcomed back founder Nick Vaughan, who takes on the role of CEO. He spent the last four years in the technology sector, and hopes to use his new skills to boost the capabilities of Hamlyn Williams’ offering in its recruitment consulting work.
Founded by Vaughan in 2011, Hamlyn Williams is a global specialist recruitment consultancy with local offices across North America, Europe and Asia, and over 160 colleagues. The Cardiff-headquartered firm supports clients in the financial services, professional services, technology, life sciences and manufacturing industries.
Vaughan initially stepped away from the business in 2019, to spearhead Selligence. The technology start-up builds technology to enable autonomous predictive intelligence for use by sales, marketing and customer success professionals – and Vaughan remains a board member of the firm.
But after four years away, Vaughan believes that now is the right time to return to the company he helped build. Now, he aims to put the time spent in the technology sector to work – in particular the expertise he has developed in the intricacies of cutting-edge technology such as AI.
Vaughan commented, "My journey with Selligence has given me an entirely new perspective on both leadership and technology. The future of work is about leveraging tech and AI tools to understand people and anticipate market needs. Hamlyn Williams’ next chapter of growth will incorporate technology with cutting-edge sales and leadership techniques, more commonly seen in high-growth tech organisations. This will revolutionise how colleagues, clients and candidates interact with us as a business, and I'm thrilled to bring this vision to our driven team at Hamlyn Williams.”
The firm had been led by Brian Van Aken since 2022. The change in leadership comes at an important time for Hamlyn Williams’ clients, as the meteoric rise of inflation from the last 18 months seems to be stabilising – while the economic outlook improves in the UK.
Companies within Hamlyn Williams’ core markets are therefore building for the future, with expansive hiring programmes. Considering this, the company is strategically positioning itself to double down its core focuses on life sciences, financial services, professional services, and engineering sectors.