The Board

Ian Temple - Executive Chairman

As one of the founders of Hydrogen Group, Ian has held the position of Executive Chairman since 2005. Starting out in recruitment in 1994 for Computer Team Group, Ian was quickly promoted to General Manager for the South of England. In 1997, he set up his own recruitment company, Finance Professionals. The success of which led to the creation of Law Professionals and HR Professionals, which together formed Pro Ltd. In 2005 Pro Ltd merged with Partners Group Ltd to form Hydrogen Group.

As an entrepreneur himself, he is proud to be on the Inner East London Board of the Young Enterprise charity and is actively involved in the local community. Ian is a Chartered Accountant and a member of the Nomination Committee.

Tim Smeaton - Chief Executive Officer

As one of the Hydrogen Group founders, Tim was appointed as Hydrogen’s Chief Executive Officer in 2008 from Chief Operating Officer. Over this time, Tim has led Hydrogen to achieve significant global expansion, growing the EMEA region and launching offices in Australia and Singapore.

Working for Computer Team Group in 1994, Tim became Sales Director for the South of England. In 2000, he went on to co-found Partners Group Ltd, which developed into a £20million turnover business by 2005, the same year it merged with Pro Ltd. Under Tim’s leadership Hydrogen is regarded as one of the most respected specialist global recruitment groups.

Martyn Phillips - Non-Executive Director

After being promoted to CEO from Operations and HR Director of B&Q, Martyn brings a wealth of HR and management experience to the Hydrogen board. Joining the team as Non-Executive Director in 2006, he strongly represents the client view and is CIPD qualified. He is Chair of the Remuneration Committee and a member of the Audit and Nomination Committees.

Ishbel Macpherson - Senior Independent Non-Executive Director

Ishbel joined the Hydrogen board in 2006. With over 20 years of investment banking experience, specialising in UK mid market corporate finance. Holding positions as Head of UK Mid-Market Corporate Finance for Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, and Head of UK Small Cap Corporate Finance for ABN AMRO, Ishbel now holds a number of Non-Executive Director roles. Currently the Non-Executive Chairman of Speedy Hire plc and Non-Executive Director of GAME Group plc, Dignity plc and May Gurney Integrated Services plc, she also chairs the Audit and Nomination Committees and is a member of the Remuneration Committee.

John Glover - Finance Director

After joining Hydrogen in 2007, John was appointed to the board in 2010. As a Chartered Accountant, with over 20 years working in Finance at BP plc, John has extensive experience in business management and control, change management, process reengineering and global systems implementation, all of which are invaluable in driving Hydrogen Group forward.

Ian Fallmann - Non-Executive Director

Ian joined Hydrogen as Non-Executive Director in 2010, following over 20 years working in the Far East. He spent 15 years at Bloomberg LP Japan, as Managing Director for the Asia-Pacific region. During that time, Ian gained extensive experience of working in a multi-cultural environment and growing various businesses in Asia, a key region in Hydrogen’s 2012 Vision.

In addition to his position at Hydrogen, Ian is a professional executive coach. He is a member of the Remuneration, Audit and Nomination Committees.

Senior Management Board

Dan Church - Client Services Director

Dan graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 1996. He worked for 2 years as an Insurance Broker before moving into IT Recruitment for Computer Team Group, where he managed their Financial Markets Permanent desk. Dan is a co-founder and Director of the Partners Group which was launched in 2000. He has direct responsibility for international business development for Hydrogen Group and manages the Group’s external relationships with key clients.

Daniel Fox - Recruitment Director, Technology Contract

Daniel started with Project Partners in April 2003. After demonstrating excellent performance within his niche area of Business Transformation specialists, he progressed his career and was promoted to Manager of the Major Accounts Division in 2007. He was responsible for the development and management of the Project Partners major accounts function within Financial Services. Daniel was instrumental in the development of many of the groups most profitable accounts; Norwich Union, with whom we placed over 630 contractors over 5 years, Barclays Group with whom we are a top 3 supplier, and more recently Lloyds Banking Group, where we currently have over 550 contractors onsite.

Experienced in managing large account teams across Financial Services and Industry and Commerce, Daniel was promoted to Director of UK Contract for Project Partners in October 2009. His reputation for ensuring that our clients receive the highest standards of service delivery have ensured that Hydrogen remains a top three supplier to all of the accounts with which we work. Daniel is now a member of the EMEA leadership board. He also acts as an Account Director for some of Hydrogen’s largest major clients across other brands within the Group.

Rory Ferguson - Recruitment Director, Energy, EMEA

Following his graduation from Southampton University and a short service career in HM Forces, Rory joined global recruiter Harvey Nash plc. Over 12 years he built numerous teams within the Technology sector and by the time he left in 2006, he was responsible for running their IT recruitment business headquartered in London. He left to join a niche player within the financial services sector, rebuilding their permanent recruitment practice and joined Hydrogen Group mid 2009. His initial focus was within the technology brand, Project Partners, but in January 2011 he assumed the leadership of Darwin Park, Hydrogen’s energy practice. In addition to his strategic responsibilities, Rory maintains a keen interest in managing and building key client relationships.

Simon Walker - Regional Managing Director, Asia

Simon started with Project Partners in July 2000 to proactively develop the Project Partners Contracts Team within the business. After building a strong portfolio of blue chip clients, Project Partners quickly became known as a leading brand within the technical, project and change professionals space. Simon progressed to Sales Manager in 2004 and in 2006 assumed overall responsibility for Project Partners, which covers mainland Europe and the UK. When Hydrogen Group PLC was created, Simon became a Director and was appointed to the Executive Board. Since then, Simon has been promoted and is currently Regional Managing Director for Asia.

Andrea Sevenoaks - Marketing and HR Director

Andrea is responsible for the Marketing and People functions globally. She joined the business in 2002, having held key marketing roles in business services firms including Datamonitor and Emap Communications. A member of the Global Executive Board, her extensive experience in communication, engagement and facilitation are key to the successful delivery of the Group’s Vision.

Ivan Jackson - Regional Managing Director, ANZ

Ivan graduated from Salford University with a degree in Business Management. After 2 years spent working at ABN Amro he joined Finance Professionals in 1999. Ivan was instrumental in building Finance Professionals' banking team into a market-leading business, and was promoted to Director. After an internal move in 2004 he became responsible for building the strategy that allowed Law Professionals to become one of the largest legal recruiters in London and a key international player. as well as being responsible for HR Professionals, whose focus on performance-driven HR experts has helped create a highly specialised recruiter. Ivan is now located in Australia as Regional Managing Director.

Abigail Waudby - Director, Asia

Abigail Waudby joined Hydrogen in 2007 where she initially ran the UK’s permanent Business Transformation and Technology team. From there, she set up the office in Singapore - Hydrogen’s first office in Asia. Abigail has managed large FS and non-FS PSL accounts, in addition to the staffing for Integration programmes globally. Abigail has extensive experience in major account management and developing teams that deliver high quality solutions in very competitive time frames. She is a member of the APAC board and has recently moved to Hong Kong to open our second office within Asia.

Emma Halls - Director, ANZ

Emma began her recruitment career in 2002 as a trainee in Finance Professionals’ research team. She quickly showed her ability to deliver and perform, moving her from Consultant to Team Leader to Manager. In her Managerial role, Emma also took the additional responsibility of running the Front Office team in the UK and was responsible for winning and executing a number of major projects for investment banks. In 2006, Emma was given responsibility for an entire Hydrogen division and promoted to Director of Finance Professionals City, where she was tasked with establishing Hydrogen’s presence as a leading London City recruitment specialist within the financial markets. Emma’s achievements allowed Hydrogen to identify her as a high potential future leader. In 2008, she went through an intensive development process to ready her for taking over and moving to the newly incubated Australian office. Emma is currently Director of Australia where she is continuously growing headcount as well as NFI for the region.