Jonathan Harper leads the firm’s global Consumer Practice and is a member of the Board and CEO and Private Equity practices. He also oversees our industry practices, ensuring clients benefit from the collective experience and insights of our global experts across talent, strategy and governance as they build high-performing leadership teams and organizations.
Jonathan’s client work includes CEO, board director and C-suite assignments for a range of FTSE 350, Eurofirst 200 and Fortune 500 clients as well as family-owned, venture capital and private equity owned companies. 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. He has co-authored several studies on effective leadership in the consumer sector.
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 450 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.