Joanna Penney

Zachary Daniels has always worked in executive search, but it’s traditionally been more of a niche offering. With Zac [Clements, co-founder] and Nick [Irving], I’m excited to be making executive search a specialist division at ZD.

ZD clients and candidates in the luxury space may remember me from my first spell with the team. Luxury remains a specialism, but my executive search role goes far beyond that – and beyond retail – to include digital, transportation, travel – complementing the finance and HR exec search function we already offer.

My recent background is as head creative writer for a digital agency. Like recruiting, it’s a role that’s really about relationships, stories and the ability to present a client or candidate in the right way. The messaging really matters. That’s particularly the case when you’re sitting down to listen to someone’s story, and then retelling it for an executive market.

I have an absolute fascination for those stories. I love working with people who are deeply passionate about their career and the journey that they’ve been on. I understand how challenging it can be when you’re targeting roles of real impact. Only today a candidate said to me: “I just want to thank you for making me feel like I’m not on a pointless journey in trying to find my next role.”

I find it hugely rewarding to know that I’ve made a difference.

I’m so happy to be back with ZD. I’ve missed the culture. More than that, when I’ve looked at other recruitment companies, I’ve found myself thinking ‘ZD wouldn’t do it like that.’

So it’s good to be creating a different sort of executive search function where they do it exactly like that.