Based in London, Jonathan Harper leads Spencer Stuart’s Consumer Practice globally. He is also a member of the Board, CEO and Private Equity practices. Jonathan is passionate about working with clients to attract and develop the best talent from around the world to build diverse, engaged and high-performing leadership teams. His client work includes CEO, board director, regional president and general manager roles, as well as functional assignments in marketing, communications and customer management, for a range of FTSE 350, Eurofirst 200 and Fortune 500 clients. He also advises on C-suite succession, merger integration assessment, top team effectiveness and cultural change programmes.
Jonathan is an acknowledged market leader and frequent speaker on consumer industry leadership trends, corporate brand, corporate culture and the role of the corporate communications and corporate affairs leader in helping their businesses to create societal value. He has co-authored several studies on effective leadership in the consumer sector, marketing and corporate affairs.
Broad leadership experience
- In addition to his client work, Jonathan is a member of the firm’s global executive team. He previously led the Consumer Products practice, the global functional practices and the Consumer and Marketing Officer practices in EMEA.
- Jonathan has more than 25 years of executive recruiting experience across a broad range of senior management positions for leading multinationals, private equity-backed and family-owned companies as well as marketing services organisations. Since joining the firm in 2005, Jonathan has completed more than 400 top management searches.
- Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, Jonathan was a partner at another leading search firm. He has spent the majority of his career in search after starting out as a management trainee at Rothmans of Pall Mall.
Jonathan is a graduate of the University of Surrey, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in French, German and European Studies. He speaks English, French and German and has lived and worked in France, Central and Eastern Europe as well as Central Asia. Jonathan is also a member of Pancreatic Cancer UK’s Development Advisory Board.