The hot-shot headhunters

JUST EIGHT weeks after Anna Mann left Whitehead Mann, the headhunting firm she founded almost 30 years ago, another senior partner has announced he will quit. Philip Marsden, 48, the only senior executive to receive a bonus this year, told colleagues and clients last week that he was going to take a gap year.

The former boss of GKR, bought by Whitehead Mann in 2000, follows a startling number of senior management and big fee earners out of the door in the past two years.

Chairman Peter Foy quit last September for 'personal reasons'. Chief executive Gerard Clery-Melin resigned in November 2002 as the group reported a halving of pre-tax profits. Two months earlier, senior partner Nigel Smith, with the firm for more than 20 years, defected to rival The Miles Partnership.

Simon Bartholomew left and Peter Evans went to Russell Reynolds. Manjit Wolfstenholme, former co-head of investment banking at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, is to leave, having only joined in January.

Some say the firm got too big, questioning whether a quoted public company with hundreds of employees is the most effective framework for head-hunting. Marsden says: 'It is about people, however much you institutionalise the business. If I was to go back into it [headhunting] after a year, I would have to ask what is the best environment for me?'

Nigel Smith says: 'In a big firm, you have too much management. You lose the intimacy you get in a small firm.'

Whitehead Mann's reputation has not only been tarnished by departures but also by recent appointment mishaps. First, Sainsbury's shareholders decided the chairman it had found was not up to the job - and Sir Ian Prosser, Mann's farewell task, had to 'deselect' himself.

Second, the chief executive it had picked for British Land, Philip Yea, pulled out at the last moment after being persuaded by rivals to take the same job at 3i. Third, Luc Vandevelde, who for a short time after his arrival at Marks & Spencer looked like its salvation, proved ultimately to be a disappointment.

Whitehead Mann used to be the first call for any company seeking a board-level appointment. It boasts of acting for nearly 60 of the FTSE 100 companies, but it is not clear how many of these were Mann's personal clients. Despite initial indications that Mann, who is in her fifties, had agreed a long-lasting, non-compete clause, rumour is that Mann, under the guise of new consultancy MWM, is headhunting again.

'Anna Mann retired?' scoffed one rival. 'I saw her last week lunching at Mark's Club ... and it didn't look like a social engagement.'

Recent arrivals such as Carol Leonard, while well-respected, may not have the clout to keep companies from placing assignments elsewhere. Sainsbury's has appointed Egon Zehnder while M&S has turned to Russell Reynolds for its new chairman.

To some extent, turmoil at Whitehead Mann mirrors tumultuous times for the industry in general. The 2001 recession hit hard. International players such as Heidrick & Struggles sacked partners, closed offices and laid off hundreds.

Listed companies such as Michael Page and Whitehead Mann saw share prices plummet. After hitting 233 1/2p three years ago, Page stock tumbled to 78 1/2p last year, although it is now around 170p. At Whitehead Mann, the fall was even more dramatic. In 2001, the shares reached 467 1/2p but they crashed to just 82 1/2p by 2003 and are now around 277p.

Swollen by acquisitions, the firm struggled to find work for its 400-plus employees. Ultimately it had to lose a quarter of its workforce. Boutiques such as The Zygos Partnership sprang up. Big outfits, some said, had their day.

Nigel Smith says his old firm will never regain its former prominence: 'I think everything has its cycle.' The company became a victim of its own success. Off-limit clauses, stopping headhunters poaching appointees from companies they work for, mean the more clients a firm has, the smaller the pool it can fish in.

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