Simon Johnson

Spear’s Review

‘We’re a small firm, with few hands off,’ says Simon Johnson, director at Marshall Oliver, a search firm established ‘at the height of the financial crisis’. He formed the company in 2009 to meet the demands of the private banking industry at a time when it faced ‘increased scrutiny’ from the public. ‘We operate in a specialist market, in close partnership with clients,’ he explains. ‘We add value and we like the fact that we do something that matters.’ 

Clients tend to arrive by word of mouth, and reach beyond the UK market to include Swiss and European private banks and more – many of whom ‘continue to view London as the world’s finance centre,’ says Johnson.