Headhunting honcho

Brian Hamill saunters into Imprint’s swish Sheraton Street head quarters in swanky Soho in exuberant spirits (and slightly hoarse – he has a love of fine wine and good conversation). He’s been celebrating Europe’s Ryder Cup victory over the Yanks during the weekend and soon begins recounting the reasons why he’s a renowned and authoritative voice in the recruitment sector, rather than the Irish rugby legend or superstar golfer he once dreamed of becoming.

After leaving university and cutting his recruitment teeth with Hays, the business graduate found a liking for the thrill of the recruitment world and decided to strike out on the entrepreneurial path at the precocious age of 24. He founded the Walker Hamill agency in London in 1988, with backing from fellow Irishman Pierce Casey, currently a director of Alchemy Venture Partners and formerly Apax Partners director.

‘My friend Pierce funded it as a start-up with £50,000 and Apax on board as private equity backer,’ recounts Hamill. From small acorns the business grew into a search and selection agency with international reach and a top-notch reputation for delivering quality candidates to blue-chip clients.

‘By 1998, we had built up a business we were able to sell for £28 million,’ Hamill recalls. After it was sold to London- and Dublin-listed Marlborough International, Hamill was appointed to the board, where his duties covered scoping out international acquisitions and managing operations in Europe. However, the entrepreneurial bug soon bit once more and he threw off his Marlborough shackles, leaving in September 2000 to set up current endeavour Imprint.

First listed buy-and-build
‘By late 2000, I had already begun thinking about how I might set up something new,’ he recalls, ‘probably a buy-and-build venture. And after considering various options, I decided that we would need a good currency, not only to buy businesses but also to attract the right people into the group.

‘So, we decided to take the public company route through a friends-and-family placing of £1 million, involving Jon Moulton [Alchemy Partners’ managing partner] and a bunch of other people that Pierce and I had met in the past.’

Imprint began trading in the summer of 2001, having already listed on AIM in May 2001, and it’s not an exaggeration to say this was a bold move. Imprint was the first start-up recruiter on AIM. Hamill tirelessly led the flotation, outlining his vision to the City’s great and good, who readily warmed to his convincing message.

‘We said to them, "Come in on a sector that has not traditionally covered itself in glory and we will build a multi-tiered recruitment group," achieving this by creating strong, lasting partnerships with clients on a global basis. The institutions loved it,’ he recalls. All seemed to be going well, then 9/11 struck.

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