Octopus Investments – Digital Platform GM

When £8billion fund management company Octopus Group required a General Manager for two of their growth Fintech businesses, they reached out to Princedale Partners to headhunt for them the most impressive leadership talent in Europe.

Key Criteria 

Position: General Manager – Growth
Company: Octopus Group
Sectors: Venture Capital, Investment Management, FinTech
Countries searched: UK, Germany, France & Sweden (northern Europe)

Headhunt Headline

When £8billion fund management company Octopus Group required a General Manager for two of their growth Fintech businesses, they reached out to Princedale Partners to headhunt for them the most impressive leadership talent in Europe. Princedale Partners was thrilled to be invited to work with them, as Octopus Group is a business we had long admired and were keen to partner.

Company Credentials 

The award winning founder & CEO Simon Rogerson has built an impressive group of businesses in a short time, spanning investment, renewable energy, property, venture capital and charity. At the heart of everything they do they obsess at delivering best in class customer experience in a simple and straight-forward approach

Search Summary

Working closely with several key executives at Octopus Investments, Princedale Partners was asked to help create a tight brief then appoint a general manager to lead two of their investment platform businesses Octopus Cash & Octopus Cash. 

Role Remit & Responsibilities

With both home-grown businesses and strong foundations laid down, this commercial leadership role offered a chance to bring a fresh perspective from outside the group to enhance the product, propositions and operations on both sides of the investment platforms / marketplaces.

Ideal Individual

Spanning peer-to-peer lending (Choice) and Cash savings, these fintech products required a dynamic, smart and customer savvy leader to grow the businesses. Bringing P&L experience, strategic thinking, digital product and customer experience was critical, hence our search focussed on headhunting individuals from across the growing disruptive fintech sector in London, Germany, France and Sweden in particular. In total we considered over 185 individuals

Princedale Process

As is our standard timeline for retained search, we delivered our shortlist of four top notch recommendations, following an early benchmark candidate recommendation. This was helpful for everyone as the new CEO was keen to understand the best level in which to recruit this role at and to see a range.

Recruitment Results

Princedale Partners placed a highly intelligent individual who was on the rise and who was looking for just this sort of opportunity to succeed in and build a reputation both internally and externally.. Our client also hired another of our recommendations from the shortlist into a separate growth leadership role and business which is always very satisfying when unearthing exceptional, much sought after digital leadership talent.