Executive and leadership recruitment: the people who decide where your organisation goes next

Some hires change an organisation. A chief executive who sets the direction. A finance director who makes growth affordable. A head of people who builds the culture everyone else works in. The best are usually in a job and doing well, and the wrong one is expensive.

Cathedral Appointments is a recruitment agency based in Exeter, with a presence in Plymouth and Taunton, recruiting for South West organisations since 1988. We make senior appointments confidentially, on permanent, interim and fractional terms.

Talk to Clodagh Murphy, our Executive Director, on 01392 575692.

What we recruit

Leaders in every function. A leader who sits in one discipline also appears on that discipline’s page: Accountancy & Finance, Financial Services, Engineering, Manufacturing & Production, Logistics & Supply Chain, HR & People and IT & Tech.

• Chief executives and managing directors. The person who sets the direction and carries the organisation with them.
• Finance, operations and commercial leaders. Finance directors, chief operating officers, heads of operations and commercial directors. The people who turn a plan into a business that works.
• People and technology leaders. HR directors, heads of people, CIOs, CTOs and heads of IT and digital. The ones who build the team and the tools around it.
• Engineering, manufacturing and supply chain leaders. Engineering and technical directors, operations directors, heads of manufacturing and heads of supply chain. The ones who make and move what you sell.
• Board and non-executive appointments. Chairs, trustees and non-executive directors, for boards that want new skills and a wider view.

What’s shaping senior hiring

Three things are shaping who employers need, and how they hire.

Directors are confident in their own organisations, but cautious about hiring. The Institute of Directors’ Economic Confidence Index for September 2026, from 650 responses collected between 11 and 29 September, found confidence in respondents’ own organisations rising to +10 from -5. Headcount expectations were still below the long-run average (-2 against +10), and cost expectations high (+79 against a series average of +67). When hiring is cautious, every senior appointment gets more scrutiny.

Interim and fractional leadership is established. The Institute of Interim Management’s 2026 survey, answered by interim managers themselves, found about a quarter of their latest assignments were delivered fractionally, an average assignment lasting ten months, and change or transformation the most common reason for an assignment (37%). Interims were cautious about demand, though: 41% expected the market to decline.

A senior appointment matters more to get right first time. Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, the time limit for tribunal claims rose from three to six months on 1 October 2026, and the qualifying period for unfair dismissal is due to fall from two years to six months from 1 January 2027.

However you need a leader

Permanent. A leader for the long term, found through a search that goes well beyond advertising.

Executive search. When the right person isn’t looking, we approach them directly and in confidence, so your search stays private until you decide otherwise.

Interim. The leader has left and you need someone at the helm now, for as long as it takes to find the next one.

Fractional. Senior expertise for a day or two a week, for the growing business that needs a finance director or chief operating officer but not yet a full-time one.

Hiring leaders to the South West

Senior people from London, Bristol and further afield will consider the South West for the way of life as well as the work, when the role is right. We know how to introduce a role to someone from outside the region, and how to help them settle once they accept. For a local organisation, that widens the field well beyond the people already here.

How we run a leadership search

• We start by listening. The organisation, the challenge, the people the new leader will work with, and what success looks like in the first year.
• We map the market. We identify who is doing this job well, in the South West and beyond, and approach them in confidence.
• We test fit as well as skill. Interviews and references, and where it helps, psychometric profiling, so you understand how a leader will work with the team they’re joining.
• We benchmark the role. What a chief executive or finance director costs in the South West, and what will tempt the right person to move.
• We stay until they’re settled. Offer, notice period and the first few weeks, because a search only ends when the new leader is in the role and working.

Questions we get asked

Do we need a search, or will an advert do? For most leadership roles the best people are in a job and doing well, so an advert on its own rarely reaches them. We usually combine a direct approach with a carefully worded advert if the organisation wants one.

Can the search be confidential? Yes. We can run a search without naming the organisation until a candidate is ready to talk, which matters when the role is filled by someone still in post.

What is the difference between interim and fractional? An interim leader is full-time for a set period, usually to cover a departure or a change. A fractional leader works part-time on an ongoing basis, so a smaller business gets senior expertise without the cost of a full-time hire.

Should we promote from within or search externally? Often the answer is both. An external search tests your internal candidates against the market, so you appoint knowing they are the best choice and not just the only one. We can run a confidential search with an internal candidate in the running.

Your contact

Clodagh Murphy, Executive Director.

Clodagh leads our executive and leadership recruitment and works with boards, owners and senior leaders across Devon, Somerset & Cornwall.

Clodagh Murphy: 01392 575692 | clodagh@cathedralappointments.co.uk