Why Us

Executive talent is the lifeblood of any business; setting strategy, motivating teams, delivering growth and driving change. So hiring the best, whether permanent or interim, in a timely fashion can set your business apart.

Aston Fisher understands this and applies its extensive resourcing experience in an agile and collaborative manner to identify the very best candidates with the right skills, experience and chemistry for its clients.

Why Aston Fisher?

Vision

  • To be the UK’s premium search and interim management boutique.

Mission Statement

  • We are a driven, highly collaborative team, passionate about what we do. We pride ourselves on being genuine partners to clients and candidates, pro-actively delivering outstanding results, over and above expectations every time.

Focus

  • We typically operate and are experts in the fields of Human Resources, Finance, Business Transformation and Leadership.
  • This combined with our broad industry sector knowledge enables us to understand your functional and business challenges and translate that into effective resourcing outcomes that deliver on your business strategy.

Agility

  • We understand the recruitment process implicitly; it’s not rocket science but we know how to combine efficient, proactive search processes with professional business and candidate engagement. This maximises the chance of success in a timely fashion and ensures your brand integrity is retained.

Interim Availability

  • We have relationships with the very best, proven, senior interim executives in the HR, Finance and Business Transformation domains, enabling us to deliver quickly on your resourcing requirements.

Value Centric

  • We are totally focused on delivering value to our clients. We think that this is about offering sound advice and guidance, being transparent, keeping you up to date with progress and working tirelessly to source and secure the right candidates for your business.

Values

  • Genuine
  • Collaborative
  • Passionate
  • Pro-active
  • Celebrate success

The Team

James Aston

With over 15 years UK and International executive search and interim management experience, James has delivered over 300 mandates for board level and corporate officer roles across a broad range of industry sectors and offers clients a network and depth of knowledge that reflects this. Prior to founding Aston Fisher, James built the HR practice of a leading boutique search and interim management firm and following the business' acquisition, became Managing Director of the acquiring company's generalist search practice. James graduated from Bangor University with a BSc. and MSc. in marine biology.

James Aston

Managing Partner
Debbie Jackson Comley

Debbie is Head of Research leading the research team to deliver searches and interim assignments. Her in-depth commercial awareness and over 10 years’ experience working in executive search has enabled Debbie to find winning ways to attract passive top talent against challenging time frames. Debbie is a recently qualified Prince2 Project Manager and has excellent communication skills. Debbie has a BA (Hons) Literature from the University of Lancaster and speaks conversational French.

Debbie Jackson Comley

Head of Research
Timothy Kneen

Tim has operated for over 30 years in global leadership positions in the Pharma industry. Originally from the UK, Tim's first degree was Biology at Birmingham University. Tim also completed a MBA at Ashridge Business School. For Merck KGaA, Tim moved from the UK to the Middle East as MD, then becoming Executive Regional President in different global regional roles – Intercontinental, Asia Pacific and Europe. Tim then became the CCO for Theramex – headquartered in London.

Timothy Kneen

Partner
Jamie Macleod

Jamie is a Client Partner focusing on Interim HR, Finance and Transformation requirements. He has delivered interim mandates across a range of assignments, including outside our core practice areas and has built up strong relationships with Clients who have repeatedly returned to him to deliver. Jamie can be relied upon, time and again, to marry his extensive talent pool of tried and tested interim candidates with high quality engagement in a timely and efficient manner. The value these candidates have added has ensured Jamie is the “go to” consultant Clients call on.

Jamie Macleod

Client Partner
Deborah Bonney

Deborah is responsible for the day to day operations at Aston Fisher. She is a pivotal member of the team working with the Managing Partner, the research team and Client Partners to help ensure that all business output is streamlined, client focused and continuously improving. Deborah comes with a wealth of experience having spent 30 years in South Africa building up an Estate Agency to become one of the leading agencies in the country. Deborah has strong administrative and people skills and is instrumental in helping the Aston Fisher boat go faster!

Deborah Bonney

Head of Operations
Stephanie Jackson

Stephanie leads Aston Fisher’s finance and HR functions. Combining organisational skills with broader business experience in Journalism, HR and Executive Search, Stephanie drives the perfect balance between commercial astuteness and practical delivery.

Stephanie Jackson

Finance and Operations
Sue Gutierrez

Sue Read gained her degree in PPE at Oxford University and started her career in Marketing with Diageo and then on to Tussauds (now Merlin). She has lived and worked overseas in Venezuela, Spain, France, Israel, Thailand and the USA. Since her return to the UK, she has been Director of Marketing and Admissions at leading independent schools and is now enjoying applying her people skills to the world of executive search.

Sue Gutierrez

Researcher
Leonora Owen

Leonora is a Candidate Manager focusing on Interim HR, Finance and Transformation requirements. She is passionate about delivering interim mandates across a range of assignments, including outside our core practice areas and is committed to building strong relationships with clients. Leonora can be relied upon, time and again, to marry our extensive talent pool of tried and tested interim candidates with high-quality engagement in a timely and efficient manner.

Leonora Owen

Candidate Manager