Private Scotland-based recruitment firm Head Resourcing has created Atkinson Macleod Executive Search which will focus on board and senior executive level searches for the private and public sectors.

The new executive search firm will be run by search industry veterans Paul Atkinson and Ian Macleod. Atkinson is the founder of Head Resourcing.

“Ian has over 30 years’ experience and he is certainly one of the most well-connected head hunters in the UK, responsible for putting in place many of our finest business and public sector leaders,’ Atkinson said.

The new company has stated that while there is uncertainty due to Brexit, they remain confident in launching the new search firm.

“There’s work out there. I would not describe the market as buoyant but there’s people moving on all the time,” Macleod said. “There’s always going to be appointments, you just have to make sure you are speaking to enough people.”

Atkinson Macleod will initially focus on Scotland but is expected to branch out into England in the next few months.

“We are seeing a seismic shift in the expectations of our future managing directors, CEOs and board-level individuals. All modern organisations require diversity and higher levels of digital understanding at the top. Paul and I understand this change and believe we are ideally positioned to help in this search for key executive talent,” Macleod said.

Macleod worked as managing partner of Odgers Berndtson in Scotland and before that he worked with executive search firm Norman Broadbent.