Winston Johnson

I’ve specialised in finance recruitment for the consumer industry — recruiting accountants through to finance leaders and executives — since 2010.

I love what I do. The part I’ve always enjoyed most is the people, and creating relationships that go beyond the standard candidate or client association. You become friends, and having done this for a while now, I’ll often find myself helping someone I placed many years ago recruit for their own team. To have the people who were once your candidates return to you as clients is really rewarding,

The most important part of what I do…

… is listening. That’s vital because it’s the only way you can deliver what people want. Empathy is important too. By that I mean my own empathy — because I think people can tell whether you care about a result — but also being able to see the connection between clients and candidates.
A key success factor in any role is a person’s relationship with their line manager, so the compatibility of client and candidate is essential to long-term success.

Trusted finance recruitment expertise in the retail & consumer space

We set up a specific finance recruitment division at Zachary Daniels because the needs of finance in the retail and consumer market are a little different to those outside of it. You’re dealing with highly qualified professionals even at relatively junior levels and the roles we recruit for span the traditional ‘transactional’ finance space to board-level finance directors who may have roles that are far more commercial, strategic or governance led.

It’s here that our years of experience can help make a real difference. Senior decision makers trust me because, in many cases, I’ve partnered with them before and they know what I can deliver. But even with a new relationship, years in the market count for a lot. There are few situations I haven’t seen and few roles I haven’t recruited. I’ve recruited into Europe, Africa and the Middle East. I’ve worked with existing start-ups all the way through to top international brands – and when you have a track record of recruiting into a certain space, that’s often a credible reason for them to see what you can do for their business.

Doing recruitment well

I’ve known Zac [the Zac in Zachary Daniels] since we worked together in a previous business. We reconnected years later after ZD had launched. I really liked the leaders of the business. I liked its culture. It was a mature group of people who wanted to ‘do’ recruitment well and do the right thing. That appealed to me. The opportunity to create a finance division from scratch appealed even more.

Away from recruitment

Outside of work I play a decent amount of golf (which is very different to saying I play golf decently). I love live music. I box with some of the ZD team and I love to travel with my fiancé whenever we get the chance.

To discuss your finance recruitment plans, please contact me directly on 07375 058 174 or via winston@zacharydaniels.co.uk