Franklyn Financial Management
Franklyn Financial Management was established in 1999 by Andrew Chatterton, Founder and CEO. Having grown organically through exemplary client care and outstanding advice, of approximately 2,500 St. James’s Place practices within the United Kingdom, Franklyn are now the one of the top 20 largest in the country, managing over £470m of funds on behalf of their HNW clients.
In 2024, following recent regulatory changes in the market, an exciting opportunity had presented itself for Franklyn to significantly develop their fund portfolio through acquisitive growth, and the company was beginning to explore several acquisitions of bolt-on complimentary businesses. To support this growth through effective integration of new acquisitions and through sound management and leadership of the Franklyn support functions, the business was looking to appoint a new COO.
Chief Operating Officer
With an ambitious vision to achieve £2Bn of funds-under-management within 5 years, recruiting the right COO to support this growth was essential to the team's vision. Sherrington Associates were retained to lead the search for the new COO in the summer of 2024.
The remit of the Chief Operating Officer would be to lead the operational teams across the business, whilst seamlessly integrating new acquisitions and driving sales performance by implementing robust performance metrics and coaching colleagues. To achieve this, the successful candidate would need a strong leadership background in driving growth and efficiencies within a fast-paced yet highly-consultative financial services environment.
Most importantly, the COO would need to flawlessly fuse with Franklyn's organisational culture and foster a winning chemistry with the CEO and senior management team. Sherrington were appointed as Franklyn's retained search partner due to our excellence in leadership assessment and notably our emphasis on achieving exceptionally high-levels of cultural alignment within all our placements.
The Search
Our assignment began with a comprehensive briefing led by the Managing Consultant and Lead Researcher. Taking the time to capture Franklyn's vision for the future was crucial to developing a compelling Recruitment Pack that would grab the interest of high-calibre potential COO's.
The research and mapping phase involved in-depth desk research to identify relevant financial services organisations across the region, including similar wealth management companies, large financial institutions, fintech's and other highly-regulated financial businesses that demonstrated similarities to Franklyn in terms of their growth story. Senior operations leaders within these companies were identified and after making a series of confidential approaches, our team engaged the interest of a longest of candidates which were subsequently reviewed with the client at a long-listing meeting.
Sherrington then conducted a series of competency interviews, assessing candidates on key competencies agreed within the Role Profile. Candidates were also asked to complete both values assessments and a supplementary 4A Leadership Assessment, which combined to provide our team and the clients with valuable insights into each candidate's potential for cultural assimilation if appointed.
The Result
Following an extensive search and selection campaign where over seventy C-level operations leaders were engaged, Sherrington supported the client's interview process, hitting agreed milestones for assessment. After a further two-stage interview process with the client, a successful appointment was made.
“Rob and Joe at Sherrington Associates have been fantastic with our recent search for COO, they took the time to visit and meet with us on multiple occasions to really get a feel for our business and the current Directors personalities to help match potential candidates. We were kept well informed through the whole process with clear communication and set expectations. They held our hands with the selection process and were on hand to give helpful input with interviews. They were a great sounding board for us and helped to guide us whenever we had questions. A very professional and smooth process from start to finish, would highly recommend, and will look to use again in the future.”
Charlotte Chatterton - Operations Director & Co-Owner, Franklyn Financial Management
