Who we are

A search firm built on one conviction:
talent defines consulting.

Summary

Founded 2021 · LondonIncorporated in London in 2021 and consulting-only from day one.

Management Consulting focussedWe focus exclusively on the management consulting space — Partner, Principal, Director and Manager hiring, and whole teams. One market, covered properly.

Where we operate

GermanyEurope’s largest economy and, on BDU’s measure, its largest consulting market: €49.0bn in 2025, of which BDU classifies €12.6bn as strategy consulting — a wider definition than the strategy houses alone. Manufacturing, automotive and the Mittelstand anchor demand; restructuring, AI and sustainability are the fastest-growing lines. Home-grown global names: Roland Berger, Simon-Kucher, Horváth, Porsche Consulting.

SwitzerlandA compact, high-value market: management consulting of roughly CHF 2.4bn (WGMB, 2022) within an economy of some CHF 870bn. Pharma in Basel, banking and insurance in Zurich and Geneva, commodities in Zug — and some of the highest partner day rates in Europe. Every global firm runs a dedicated Swiss practice.

United KingdomThe world’s fifth-largest economy and a £21.8bn consulting industry in 2025 (MCA Annual Industry Report 2026). Financial services is among the largest buyers of consulting work, with public sector, energy and TMT behind it — and 31% of UK consulting fee income is now earned overseas. Home-grown firms gone global: L.E.K., OC&C, PA Consulting, Baringa.

Wider EuropeA large and fragmented market, clustered in France, the Netherlands and the Nordics. At Partner level, mandates are increasingly cross-border by default — which is why we run Europe as one market map rather than many.

United StatesThe world’s largest economy and largest consulting market — management consulting estimated at over US$125bn in 2025. The modern industry was invented here: McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Kearney and AlixPartners are all US-founded. We work the US corridor mainly for European firms building American practices — and the reverse.

Appointments we make

TeamsPractice-level appointments — a Partner and the colleagues their commercial engine depends on, each recruited as a separate search. Viability, cohesion and covenants are tested discreetly before anyone is approached.

PartnersEquity and fixed-share appointments: origination, client following and practice leadership. Our centre of gravity, and the level where the economics of a move are least well understood.

DirectorsPrincipal and Director appointments — delivery leadership with early origination, and the level from which a firm’s next partner cohort is built. Often the hire that decides whether a practice scales.

ManagersEngagement leadership, including strong Senior Consultants. We work selectively at this level — usually behind a Partner anchor or as part of a practice build, where the delivery tier has to arrive with the leader.

Partner with us on a search Talk to us about a move

The people

You brief us. We do the work.

+Hover the “ask me about” labels — each one is a real conversation we enjoy having

Founder & Partner

Ben Appleton

Ben founded Strat-Bridge and runs every client mandate personally. A London-based New Zealander, he has specialised in professional-services recruitment across Europe for more than ten years, focused on the management consulting space — particularly operations strategy and the AI economy.

Outside the firm, Ben shares his Māori culture across Europe through haka and waiata — he is proud of his heritage and hails from the Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Whakatōhea and Ngāi Tahu iwi of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Ask me about team movesLifting a practice without breaking it — cohesion, covenants and who the team actually follows.

Or the DACH marketWhich German firms are actually investing, and what a UK-to-DACH move really involves.

Or the hakaGenuinely. He performs across Europe. It is a better story than most partner conferences.

Partner

David Stone

David leads client management and project delivery across the DACH and UK regions, with over ten years in international executive search within professional services — consultancies, strategy houses, private equity and technology services. He also advises clients on talent advisory and D&I initiatives, and builds the firm’s learning & development programmes.

David is an avid traveller — 65 countries and counting — and enjoys building diverse, international teams.

Ask me about partner economicsBuy-ins, revenue credit, guarantees, covenants — the mechanics behind our explainer series.

Or German consultingDelivery across the DACH region — and how the German market differs from the UK at partner level.

Or travel65 countries and counting. It is also why he is good at building diverse, international teams — he has spent a lot of time being the outsider in the room.

Finance Director

Anthea Tuakanangaro

Anthea is a London-based Chartered Accountant from New Zealand with Big 4 experience at PwC across the UK, Europe, New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific. She owns the firm’s financial and operational performance — reporting, compliance and internal systems — and partners with the founder on commercial decision-making, keeping the business set up for scalable, sustainable growth.

Outside the firm, Anthea is proud of her Polynesian heritage — from the islands of Mauke (Akatokamanava) and Rarotonga (Tumutevarovaro) in the Cook Islands — and stays connected to the Pacific and Māori community in London.

Ask me about the numbersFinancial visibility, strong controls, and commercially driven decisions — pragmatic and hands-on.

Or the Cook IslandsMauke and Rarotonga — and the role culture plays in building connection and community.

Our foundations

Recruitment is hard, and people matter.

That sentence is the whole reason this firm exists. A senior move is a capital decision, made by a person, at a vulnerable moment, on incomplete information — and the industry around it is not always built to honour that.

So we did not workshop a set of values into existence. We took ours from tikanga — Māori principles carried, tested and lived across centuries, through immense change — the kind of change our own industry is living through now — and still intact. They were never written for business. That is precisely why they hold: they were built to govern how people treat one another when it is difficult, when there is something at stake, and when nobody is watching.

These four are our tuapapa — our foundation. The floor the whole firm is built on.

+Choose a value to read what it means, and what it looks like in our work

Manaakitanga

Care and dignity

Often translated as hospitality, but it is stronger than that: it is the recognition of responsibility for those under your care. When a candidate or client steps into our process, they are in our care — and that carries obligations. Nobody is left waiting for news that never comes, nobody is talked down to, and nobody is treated as another entry in a pipeline.

It also has a boundary. Manaakitanga does not mean being a doormat — care extends to our own people and our own standards too.

Our litmus test: am I doing the best for them?

Whanaungatanga

Relationships

We call this one “be real.” In Māori practice you introduce yourself through pepeha — your mountain, your river, your people — before any business is done. How you introduce yourself matters: it creates the openness that lets a real conversation happen. We bring that into our work, sharing who we are first and inviting you to do the same.

The result is relationships that outlast any single mandate, and a network built on genuine connection rather than proximity. It is also how we challenge clients to hire with an inclusive mindset.

Our litmus test: would this relationship survive the deal falling through?

Tika & Pono

Right and honest

An internal compass: the things you will not compromise, whoever is paying. For us that means advice that does not bend to the fee — telling a candidate to stay put when staying is right, and telling a client when the brief is wrong.

And it means honesty without cruelty. Candid feedback, delivered constructively — what the gap actually is and what would close it — never a brush-off, never brutality dressed up as candour.

Our litmus test: what will we not compromise — and did we hold it today?

Kaitiakitanga

Guardianship

Stewardship held over time — of careers, of relationships, and of the culture this framework comes from. In practice we describe the work itself as he mahi whakamana: the work of uplifting others. Mana is built through the integrity of the work, not the telling of it.

It is why we measure a placement at year two rather than week two, and why the advice keeps coming long after the deal is done.

Our litmus test: will this still look like good guardianship in five years?

What we believe

Five convictions.

+Hover any belief for what it means in practice

Precision over volumeOne market, covered properly. We take fewer mandates and run every one personally — firm-defining hires, not transactional placements.

Advice before placementWe tell candidates to stay when staying is right, and clients when the brief is wrong. The fee never decides the advice.

Confidential, alwaysA tight circle on every mandate. Nothing you tell us moves without your approval — on either side of the table.

Publish what we learnMarket maps, sentiment reports, partner economics — anonymised and put in public. Thought leadership you can check, not claim.

Long-term over quick winsWe judge a placement at year two, not week two — we would rather lose a fee than fill a seat that unravels.

25+combined years in consulting and professional-services search

200k+monthly impressions across the top five consulting markets

M→PManager to Partner — and whole teams moved together

2markets — UK and DACH covered together

Diversity & inclusion

Inclusion, in every mandate

Strat-Bridge recognises the influence we hold as a search and talent firm, and the responsibility that comes with it. We lead and advise on diversity and inclusion across every mandate we take, with an anti-discrimination approach to recruitment — regardless of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity or otherwise.

Read our full Equality, Diversity & Inclusion statement →

Questions

About FAQ

What is Strat-Bridge?

Strat-Bridge is an executive search firm focused exclusively on the strategy and management consulting sector, placing Partner, Principal, Director and Manager-level leaders — and whole teams — across Europe and the US.

What makes Strat-Bridge different from generalist search firms?

We work in one sector only. That focus means genuine networks at Partner level, market maps that are already current, and honest advice on how a move will actually land — for both firms and candidates.

Who leads Strat-Bridge?

Strat-Bridge was founded by Ben Appleton, who leads the firm’s search work alongside a senior team with deep consulting-sector experience.

Where does Strat-Bridge operate?

Our home markets are the United Kingdom and Germany, with active coverage of Switzerland and wider Europe, and searches into the United States. We cover the UK and DACH together, which is what makes cross-border moves between them work.

How do I start a conversation with Strat-Bridge?

Book a Partnership Scoping Call, email info@strat-bridge.com, or use the contact page for a confidential discussion about a hire, a team move or your own next step.

Partner with us.

Hiring, moving, or just mapping the ground — 30 minutes, no agenda needed. Coffee optional.

Hiring? Book a scoping call Moving? Start a confidential conversation

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