About Simmons & Hanbury


Legal, Compliance and Corporate Governance

Profile

Simmons & Hanbury was established to help organisations secure the best human capital within Legal, Compliance & Corporate Governance functions.

Our dedicated team of international consultants are highly experienced search professionals with significant functional expertise within their chosen areas. Our approach is highly consultative, and we boast a strong track record of success, completing over 1500 assignments across financial services, commerce & industry and professional services. We are rigorous in our search for highly skilled talent and finding the best diverse talent pools for our clients.

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Leadership team

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Matthew Simmons

Managing Director

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Jonathan Cartwright

Partner, Head of Legal Commerce & Industry

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Peter Jecks

Director, Compliance & Risk

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Nishma Bhatia

Research Lead & Operations Manager


Matthew Simmons

Managing Director

Matthew founded Simmons & Hanbury in 2018. He has advised on executive search and legal consultancy services for many global listed corporations over the last two decades. Prior to establishing Simmons & Hanbury, Matthew held various senior leadership positions, including head of legal practice and head of legal consulting practice at other global search firms. Over the course of his career he has developed an extensive network of cross-border candidates and clients within financial services.

Matthew has in-depth expertise within the financial services sector and has successfully completed search assignments for some of the most prestigious financial services firms in the world. This includes banks, investment funds, private equity houses and leading law firms. In addition, he has completed numerous assignments for corporations across a range of industries. He also leads several high-profile general counsel networking events.

Before moving into executive search, Matthew obtained a Master’s degree in Business Management & Marketing at the University of Westminster.


Jonathan Cartwright

Partner, Head of Legal Commerce & Industry

Jonathan joined Simmons & Hanbury in 2021 to lead and grow the commerce and industry practice. He has specialised within in-house legal search for several years, completing numerous retained search assignments for global multinationals, SMEs and UK based businesses. He works with some of the most well-known and recognised brands in the world. Jonathan has also successfully worked with law firms and consultancies in relevant areas such as IP, Technology and Data Protection.

Jonathan is adept at assisting private equity portfolio companies with the placement of their first In-house Counsel, as well as functional Heads of Legal and General Counsel appointments. Jonathan leads General Counsel networking events, partnering with top tier law firms to deliver industry leading content for a variety of in-house legal disciplines. 

Prior to joining Simmons & Hanbury Jonathan was Head of Commerce & Industry for a leading governance search firm and studied English at the University of Birmingham.


Peter Jecks

Director, Compliance & Risk

Peter joined Simmons & Hanbury in 2021 to lead and grow the risk and compliance practice. He has specialised in this area for several years, completing numerous searches throughout Europe within banks, investment funds and private equity firms. He also works with consultancies, insurance businesses as well as commerce and industry firms.

Peter has experience of assisting a variety of organisations with senior searches across Risk and Compliance on both a permanent and interim basis, as well as heads of specific departments. He has held several networking events, partnering with top-tier law firms and consultancies providing content on specific regulatory topics.

Prior to joining Simmons & Hanbury, Peter worked within the Compliance & Risk teams for two leading governance search firms.


Nishma Bhatia

Research Lead & Operations Manager

Nishma joined Simmons & Hanbury in 2022 as a Research Lead and Operations Manager to create an operational infrastructure for the organisation to facilitate continued growth.   

After graduating with a degree in Accounting and Finance, Nishma has worked in support/research roles within the recruitment and executive search industry. 

Prior to joining Simmons & Hanbury, Nishma was a Research Analyst & Operations Lead for a well-known market intelligence and executive search firm.


Non executive directors

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Chris Nelson

Non-Executive Director

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Mathieu Freville

Non-Executive Director

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Sunil Samani

Non-Executive Director


Chris Nelson

Non-Executive Director

Chris is an experienced CEO and Non-Executive Director within the human capital industry. He co-founded Pure in 1999 and grew the business to be a market leader in governance search and sold the firm in 2019 to Private Equity. At Simmons & Hanbury Chris is responsible for advising the Founding Partner & Managing Director on growing the business and strategic initiatives. Chris has a wealth of industry contacts and a C-suite network spanning over 30 years within executive search.


Mathieu Freville

Non-Executive Director

Mathieu co-heads the Legal Department at XTX Markets, a global electronic market maker, which also encompasses XTX Ventures, it’s venture capital arm, having been with the firm since launch. Mathieu started his career at Simmons & Simmons’ derivatives group in London, where he trained and qualified as a solicitor, covering a wide range of derivatives and structured products. He then joined State Street’s Global Markets legal team, where he covered Futures and OTC clearing. Mathieu has over ten years’ experience in helping financial institutions operate in a highly regulated environment. Mathieu provides non-executive director services to the board of Hanbury Partners and advises the group on diversity & inclusion initiatives.


Sunil Samani

Non-Executive Director

Sunil co-heads the Legal Department at XTX Markets, a global electronic market maker, which also encompasses XTX Ventures, it’s venture capital arm, having been with the firm since launch. Prior to that, Sunil was at Morgan Stanley in the Fixed Income legal team, having joined there from Linklaters where he trained and qualified into the Derivatives and Structured Products team. Sunil has over a decade of legal experience in financial services, covering a variety of different disciplines and business areas; spanning the buy and sell side. Sunil provides non-executive director services to the board of Hanbury Partners as well as advising the group on diversity & inclusion initiatives. Sunil is also a trustee of the Aspiring Solicitors Foundation, a legal social mobility charity supported by Simmons & Hanbury and Hanbury Partners.


Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity & Inclusion

We understand the importance of developing and maintaining an inclusive business culture. Diversity & Inclusion is vital in managing people risk and to the attraction of top talent.

Simmons & Hanbury assists clients in building workplaces that attract, retain and release the full potential of diverse talent. We provide access to the widest possible human capital by removing bias from role design, search processes and reward practices. We achieve this by sourcing talent from all groups and ensuring everyone has the same chance to develop and advance. We are proud to be a supporter of the Aspiring Solicitors Foundation, alongside other leading institutions such as Allen & Overy, Linklaters, Barclays and Mayer Brown.

Aspiring Solicitors Foundation

We are proud to be a supporter of the Aspiring Solicitors Foundation, alongside other leading institutions such as Allen & Overy, Barclays, Linklaters and Mayer Brown. The ASF is a charity focussed on social mobility, with the aim of removing financial barriers to the legal profession. It provides financial assistance to aspiring solicitors by way of scholarships, laptops, books, equipment, and formalwear to help them fulfil their ambition of a career in the legal profession.

Aspiring Solicitors

Aspiring Solicitors provides much needed support to under-represented groups pursuing and continuing a legal career. AS works with leading law firms to increase the diversity of the legal profession across all diversity strands, resulting in over 1600 training contracts being offered to their members since inception. We are also happy to provide guidance to AS members and affiliates as they navigate through their careers.

Women in Leadership

We help organisations attract a proven pipeline of female leadership candidates. We identify high-potential female talent and help organisations communicate opportunities in ways that engage, encourage and appeal to women and men. Simmons & Hanbury has a proven track record of securing high profile positions for female candidates.

Race & Ethnicity

We ensure that all our search campaigns include a diverse pool of candidates from the widest range of ethnic groups.

Staff Mentoring

Our approach to diversity and inclusion is practiced across our firm, both internally and externally. We deliver tailored on-the-job training to our employees, as well as providing extensive personal development plans and professional skills programmes to all staff.

Wellbeing

Simmons & Hanbury is committed to investing in the long-term health and wellbeing of our employees: we provide private health insurance and offer ongoing rewards to enable an active and healthy lifestyle. We are committed to maintaining a culture of encouragement and achievement across our firm by providing support on mental health issues and nutritional advice.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Simmons & Hanbury is extremely proud to support the wider community and our environment. We have created a CSR programme that is meaningful to our employees and makes a positive contribution to society through the provision of both practical help and financial support.

A percentage of our revenue is donated to the charities listed opposite. We also recycle all waste possible and have reduced paper policies, to help make a positive impact on our natural environment. We also ensure our carbon footprint is offset for international business travel.

Our values

Our values

We understand the importance of developing and maintaining an inclusive business culture. Equality, Diversity & Inclusion is vital in managing people risk but also seizing benefits including attracting top talent.

Being accountable to our clients and candidates, and always acting with the highest level of integrity.

Accountability

We offer continued support and allegiance to our clients, candidates and employees.

Loyalty

We are passionate about innovation and using cutting-edge technology to provide a modern alternative to traditional executive search.

Passion

We are proud to be a confident and trusted partner to our clients and candidates.

Trust