Executive Search & Leadership Advisory · London

Inspiring leadership.

Entry 01 · The Firm1805 Ltd · Est. 2016

1805 is a data-driven leadership advisory partner — an executive search, leadership assessment and talent advisory business, built for what comes next.

The majority of 1805’s work is with private equity portfolio, FTSE 250 and challenger businesses. Our clients are focused on transformative growth, be that Series C stage, towards IPO, restructuring or international expansion.

We operate at the critical inflection points of corporate growth — integrating talent analytics with international perspective and proprietary technology, to give boards, investors and CEOs the real-time intelligence and objective insight required to secure exceptional talent.

We build the leadership engines that power transformational growth.

Leadership succession · Sustainability · Agility · Data & digital leadership

Entry 02 · What We DoFour areas of support
Area 01

Executive Search

  • Board & CEO appointments
  • Chief Officers — Commercial, Sustainability, Digital, Finance
  • Functional leaders — FDs, CROs, COOs, Data & Analytics
Area 02

Market & Organisation Insight

  • Market Insight & Competitor reviews
  • Growth culture & organisation development
  • Pre-deal / acquisition Team evaluation
Area 03

International Growth

  • New region & country team builds & mobilisation
  • Specialist knowledge of UK, Australia, Singapore and Middle East
Area 04

Leadership & Talent Advisory

  • Organisation Design
  • ‘Level Shifting’
  • Leadership & Team assessment
  • Mentoring

We support the Exco and Boards of business across these areas — with agility, transparency and speed.

Entry 03 · Who We AreThe ship’s company

Led from London, Simon has known and worked with 1805’s associate partners for 15 years plus. The team has a strong core, built on trust through delivery.

Plate · Ascent

Transformation, integrity and impact.

Portland stone · London
Entry 04 · Why 1805The approach

Inspiring Leadership is at the core of 1805. Challenging search industry norms, we act as a quasi in-house partner for the long term.

Our leverage model is different. A specially-trained agent workforce stacks the time-consuming tasks that would occupy a conventional research team for weeks — significant capability that goes well beyond the usual list of names.

Boutique hunger with big-firm experience: experienced practitioners lead every search, underpinned by a market-leading proprietary technology stack.

Advice underpinned by evidence, not opinion — we act as an extension of our clients, not just a service provider, giving control and knowledge back to them with speed and accuracy of execution.

We work principally to a retained, fixed fee model and 1805’s current clients are relationships that have all continued to grow over the last 4 years. Transformation, integrity and impact readily describe 1805’s approach.

Agility · Transparency · Speed
Entry 05 · The EngineDriven by Saigan

Saigan is 1805’s proprietary intelligence platform — built, owned and refined in-house since 2024, not a wrapper around a third party. Not an appendix, but what the firm is built on: the same intelligence layer beneath every search, which is why the work is consistent, evidenced and refreshable.

Component 01

Cultivation Database

The structured memory of every conversation the firm has had — continuously enriched from primary sources, queryable in seconds. One data lake, not a universe re-mapped for each search.

Component 02

AI Workforce

40+ specialised agents — enrichment, normalisation, classification and scoring. Continuous, not on-demand, and at a depth a research team cannot match by hand.

Component 03

Brief Matcher

Five-dimension scoring against the mapped market — functional fit, industry, company calibre, leadership scale and cultural fit — turning a brief into a ranked, evidenced field.

Component 04

Reporting Engine

Client-designed dashboards and outputs, in two modes throughout — a development-oriented report for the candidate, a deployment-decision report for the Board.

The result is a different economics of search: research that traditionally took months, compressed to weeks without sacrificing fidelity; a transparent evidence trail — the names we rejected alongside those we put forward; and a compounding advantage, because every engagement makes the next one better-evidenced. The science of search is now AI-augmented; the art remains human — partner-led judgement, on evidenced ground.

Data → Information → Insight → Advice

Entry 06 · Dispatches1805 News · A view from here
Dispatch 0110x — Exco scaling up for international expansion1805 has been the executive search partner to 10x Banking over 4 years.Dispatch 021805 & Mason Wilhelm — UK / Australian partnershipA distinctive, UK & Australia executive search and Board advisory capability.Dispatch 03Richard Davies to join Allica Bank as CEO from RevolutAllica Bank has announced the appointment of its new chief executive.Dispatch 04Trussle CEO appointment — 1805 successDigital mortgage broker Trussle appoints Ian Larkin as CEO.A view from here1805 — What’s in a name?For 1805, it is all about the qualities and competences behind what won the day at Trafalgar.
Plate · London

A quasi in-house partner — for the long term.

51° 30′ N · 0° 07′ W
Entry 07 · Make ContactRetained · Fixed fee
London
Simon Black · Managing Partner
Telephone
+44 (0)7803 010 386
Email
office@1805.uk.com
Registered
1805 Ltd · UK registered business · Company No. 10177517
© 1805 Ltd · Company No. 10177517Privacy Policy51° 30′ N · 0° 07′ W