Group Legal Counsel & Company Secretary, Spring Group plc
T: +44 (0)20 7356 0719
Biographies
Amir Eilon
Non-Executive Chairman
Amir Eilon was appointed to
the Board on 13 January 2005 and
then appointed as Non-Executive
Chairman on 1 October 2005.
He has over 35 years’ international
capital markets experience in
corporate treasury, investment
banking and private equity. Following
corporate treasury roles at British
Steel and Esso Petroleum, his City
experience began at Continental
Illinois and Samuel Montagu. He was
subsequently head of global capital
markets at Barclays de Zoete Wedd
and Managing Director of private
equity at Credit Suisse First Boston.
He has his own corporate finance
advisory practice, Eilon & Associates,
and is also a Non-Executive Director
of Globus plc, a dry cargo shipping
company, and Silverjet, a businessclass
only airline, both publicly listed
on AIM and a Director of MK airlines,
a private international cargo airline
company based in the UK.
Peter Searle was appointed
as Chief Executive Officer to
Spring Group in October 2006.
He has extensive experience of
both speciality and mainstream
recruitment in a number of European
countries, Asia Pacific and North
America.
After successfully completing a
degree in business and marketing,
he joined Yellow Pages, initially in
a marketing capacity, later moving
into field sales and finally sales
management before moving into the
recruitment industry. Subsequently
he has spent 19 years working in
recruitment, 12 years of which were
with Computer People.
After the purchase of the Delphi
Group, of which Peter was Managing
Director, by Adecco in 1999, he
took on responsibility for all the
European and Asia Pacific offices of
the professional services companies
of the Adecco Group under the
speciality brand name of Ajilon.
This remit covered a total of 16
countries with a combined turnover
of almost £1 billion. In 2005 when
the Adecco Group restructured to
a zone organisation, he became
the Chief Executive of Adecco UK
in a role that covered a variety of
sectors including general recruitment,
IT, engineering, fi nance and RPO
(Recruitment Process Outsourcing)
and included brands such as Office
Angels, Jonathan Wren, Adecco
and Roevin Engineering. His
responsibilities covered 320 offices,
3,700 employees and 57,000 temps
and sub-contractors with a turnover
of £1.2 billion.
Peter Darraugh
Group Finance Director
Peter Darraugh was appointed
to the Board as Group Finance
Director on 5 September 2006.
Peter has been with Spring since
April 2001 and successfully fulfilled
the role of Finance Director of
the Group for four years before
his appointment to the Board.
Prior to joining Spring he was
Finance Director at Northgate
Information Solutions plc with
responsibility for the UK business,
its largest operation and for several
other subsidiaries in the UK and
internationally. After completing
a degree in Management Science
at the University of Wales and
Iowa State University, Peter joined
McDonnell Douglas Information
Systems, where he worked for
12 years, working as a systems
analyst and going on to hold a
number of senior management
positions in IT, commercial and
financial roles, including Commercial
Director and Finance Director. He is a
Chartered Management Accountant.
Andrew Pinder Senior Independent Non-Executive Director
Andrew Pinder was appointed
to the Board on 22 March 2005. He
served as the Government’s e-Envoy
at the Cabinet Offi ce from 2000 until
2004, reporting directly to the Prime
Minister, with overall responsibility for
the UK’s online strategy. As e-Envoy,
he promoted access to the internet,
helped bring the vast majority of
government services on line and
was the UK’s Central Sponsor for
Information Assurance.
His early career was spent in
information technology within
the public sector, culminating as
Undersecretary and Director of
IT at the Inland Revenue. He was
subsequently Director of Systems and
Business Operations at Prudential
Assurance from 1990 to 1994, and
at Citibank from 1995 to 1999, fi rst
as Head of European Operations and
Technology, and then Head of Global
Operations for Citibank’s Global
Transactional Services business.
Mr Pinder is a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Arts, Chairman of
Becta (a UK Government Agency
responsible for the use of technology
in the UK education system) and a
Non-Executive Director of United
Utilities Plc. He is also an advisor on
strategic technology, e-commerce
and e-government issues to a
number of organisations, including
several other governments.
Steven B. Fink
Non-Executive Director
Steven Fink is Chief Executive
Officer of Lawrence Investments
LLC, a privately owned company
with controlling and non-controlling
interests in approximately thirty
technology and biotechnology
companies. Prior to joining Lawrence
Investments, he was a founding
partner and continues to serve
as Managing Director and Vice
Chairman of Knowledge Universe Inc.
He serves as Chairman of the
Board of LeapFrog Enterprises
Inc., a NYSE listed educational toy
company, and Vice Chairman of
Heron International, a London-based
European real estate company. He
also serves on numerous Boards of
Directors, including Nobel Learning
Communities, Pillar Data, nCUBE and
NetSuite. He holds a B.S. from the
University of California at Los Angeles
and a J.D. and an L.L.M. from New
York University. He was appointed as
Non-Executive Chairman on 20 June
2002, having previously held this
role from June 1997 until May 2000
and served until 30 September 2005.
Steven remains on the Board as
Non-Executive Director and chairs the
Audit Committee.
Adam Cohn
Non-Executive Director
Adam Cohn was appointed to
the Board as a Non-Executive Director
in March 2006. He represents the
Group’s largest shareholder, ET
Training LLC. Mr Cohn is a Principal
at Knowledge Universe Limited
LLC., where he is responsible for
investments, financings and business
development for Knowledge
Universe and its portfolio companies.
Mr. Cohn has been at Knowledge
Universe, or related entities, since
March of 2000. Previously, Mr. Cohn
was with Whitney & Co., a private
equity firm. Prior to Whitney & Co.,
Mr. Cohn was an investment banker
in the Financial Sponsors Group at
Bankers Trust Company and Deutsche
Bank. Mr. Cohn has a B.S. in Business
from Skidmore College and a MBA
from Columbia University.
Jonathan Wright Independent Non-Executive Director
Jonathan Wright was
appointed to the Board as an
independent Non-Executive
Director in May 2006. Mr Wright
has over 20 years’ staffing industry
experience. He co-founded
the TSI Group, a VC-backed
recruitment start-up, in 1986.
Subsequently, Mr Wright spent
over 10 years at Alexander Mann
Group, where as Group Managing
Director he was instrumental
in achieving significant organic
growth in revenues and operating
profits and in building the
group internationally through
acquisitions. More recently, Mr
Wright established Hexagon
Human Capital, an investment
firm operating in the recruitment
sector (which was listed on AIM in
February 2007) and as a previous
Non-Executive Director at FDM
Group guided the business through
its successful IPO.
