Our team
Richard Segal
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Ric has spent his entire career helping build leadership teams for some of the world's most successful ventures and has helped amazing people to fulfill their ambitions and potential.
Ric has worked with some of the fastest-growing consumer companies globally including Allbirds, Reformation, Harry's, Nextdoor, Away, Pangaia, Voi, DoorDash, and many more.
He also partners with the most successful Venture Capital and PE-backed companies such as Andreesen & Horowitz, Sequoia, Index, Advent International, Bain Capital, and Hellman & Friedman to help them hire impactful leadership talent into their portfolio companies such as InPost, Hermes, and WorldPay.
Earlier in his career, Ric placed senior talent at Skype and Zong before their eBay and PayPal acquisitions. He also made the first hires in Europe for the likes of Admob (now Google), Makerstudios (now Disney), and Wayfair ($10bn IPO).
Lizzie Segal
Co-Founder & Partner
Lizzie is the Co-Founder of Founders Keepers. Before FK, she spent some years in executive search and recruitment, focusing predominantly on Finance & Investment roles. Earlier in her career, she worked as a Management Accountant for a large restaurant chain. Lizzie now oversees the day-to-day operations of Founders Keepers across business operations, finance, and internal hiring.
Hannah French
Partner
Hannah is a Partner at Founders Keepers, where she helps fast-growth tech companies build their senior management teams. She has spent her entire career working in executive search for high-growth companies globally across tech sectors including SaaS, big data, ecommerce, fintech, medtech, and proptech. Hannah is passionate about helping her clients to hire executives who will make a long-term positive impact on the company’s growth. She also enjoys mentoring early-stage companies on how to plan for hiring as they scale.
Stephen Rosenthal
Partner
Stephen advises a broad range of clients across the venture capital, private equity, and listed spectrum on key senior hires. More generalist than a specialist, Stephen’s areas of focus include Product, Data, Commercial, Marketing, and Communications mandates.
Joining FK from The MBS Group, where he led the Digital and Technology Practice, Stephen’s earlier career saw him spend more than a decade within technology and governmental communications, including six years with Google.
He established the Campus London project, the UK’s largest early-stage incubator hub, developing a deep knowledge of the global technology startup community.
Sim Lamb
Partner
Sim has worked in search and recruitment for over a decade and today helps start-ups, scale-ups, and innovative business leaders build out their leadership teams. Sim specialises in People and Talent, and she has passionate belief as well as deep insight into the value these leaders bring.
Lucy Broer
Director
Lucy joined Founders Keepers in from JCA Group (now part of Heidrick & Struggles) where she spent five years hiring CEOs, Chairs, Non-Executive Directors, and other C-suite executives for FTSE 100 & 250 businesses. She worked predominantly across Consumer and Retail and was later responsible for heading up the JCA Research team. Alongside her Director role at Founders Keepers, where she works mainly on NED, CEO, COO, and CHRO appointments for scale-up businesses, Lucy heads up Learning & Development for the team. She has an MA from the University of St Andrews and is a mother to two children.
Katriona Windsor
Director
Katriona specialises in senior-level hires in the marketing, commercial, and growth space. She brings over 15 years of experience working with the world's most ambitious and innovative businesses. Her clients have ranged from exciting, scale-up businesses such as carwow, infogrid, and Finisterre to large institutions such as Burberry, Google, and Sky.
Katriona has a deep interest in consumer-facing businesses, those that sit at the intersection of creativity and technology, and those that are moving through digital growth and/or transformation. She has a particular passion for how digital is changing consumer behaviour and the impact this has on a business' talent needs.
Dominique Askew
Principal
Dominique focuses on building senior management teams for fast-growth, international tech companies. Prior to joining Founders Keepers, she worked on Executive Committee and Non-executive Director assignments for global blue chip, FTSE 100 & 250, AIM businesses and private equivalents. After a BA at Durham University, Dominique qualified as a solicitor with “magic-circle” law firm, Allen & Overy, before joining JCA Group (now Heidrick & Struggles) in 2013, and Founders Keepers in 2019.
Jessamy Vero
Principal
Jessamy joined Founders Keepers in 2021 from the TMT Practice at Egon Zehnder.
She specialises in advising clients in the Consumer Digital, Media, and Technology space on Board, CEO, and C-suite hires. Jessamy brings experience working with a range of clients from FTSE 100 and global blue chip organisations to high-growth PE and VC-backed businesses. She is passionate about unlocking potential in businesses by finding transformative and purpose-driven talent.
Jessamy started her career in the New Delhi, India office of Odgers Berndtson. She graduated with a BA from Durham University before completing a Master's in International Marketing and Business from Newcastle Business School.
Daniel Finer
Principal
Daniel joined Founders Keepers in January 2022 to lead CTO and VP Engineering searches for start-ups, scale-ups, and PE-backed businesses across Europe. Previously at Marlin Hawk, Daniel led executive search and talent consulting projects for Financial Services clients, hiring C-suite executives into the following functional areas: CTO, CIO, CDO (Digital & Data), Product, and Engineering. Daniel graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in International Relations, obtained at the University of Leeds.
Alicia Allen
Principal
Alicia joined Founders Keepers originally in 2021 in a freelance capacity and has since returned to our team on a permanent basis. Previously at The MBS Group, Alicia specialised in the consumer space at the Board level across retail, leisure, and hospitality on a global scale conducting searches on behalf of PE-backed, privately owned, and FTSE 100 clients. Her range of cross-functional experience spans commercial, marketing, technology & engineering, digital, data, and general management. Prior to this, she worked at a boutique executive search firm also specializing in the consumer space. Alicia entered Executive Search after five years working in Communications, having graduated from the University of Leeds with a BA in Art History.
Alice Garber
Principal
Alice joined the Founders Keepers team in 2019 from Arkesden Partners, a Financial Services search firm where as a Consultant she led appointments within leading Private Equity funds worldwide. Previous to this, Alice started her career working in outplacement, assisting senior directors in career transition after gaining a Psychology degree from Northumbria University.
At Founders Keepers, Alice is passionate about delivering notable hires to drive growth and innovation amongst the most disruptive companies. Whilst she is a generalist, she has a broad specialism and interest emerging across financial, commercial, and operational hires.
Lee-Roy Fredericks
Principal
Lee-Roy joined the Founders Keepers team in late 2022 following a successful 8.5-year career in the technology division of the global, listed recruitment firm Robert Walters.
He started his career in South Africa before moving to London to lead and grow a large team across Product Management, Go-to-Market, and Digital Transformation. Lee-Roy has experience working with a broad range of cross-industry clients, from pre-seed to large FTSE-listed businesses, and prides himself on fostering meaningful and impactful relationships. A University of Durham business graduate, Lee-Roy has a keen interest in commercially-focused roles.
Lida Manukyan
Principal
Lida joined the People and Talent practice at Founders Keepers in 2022. Previously, she was Head of Talent Acquisition - UK at Netflix. Lida is originally from Los Angeles and moved to London in 2018 to build scripted and non-fiction Original Content & Studio teams across Europe, Middle East, & Africa at Netflix. Lida holds an MBA from the University of Southern California, a BA, Broadcast News from Pepperdine University, and is a qualified yoga teacher.
Alexander Dial
Head of Strategy
Alex joined Founders Keepers as a graduate of Oxford University.
Over his time at Founders Keepers, he has worked with a number of early-stage start-ups in emerging sectors and is passionate about helping truly innovative businesses. Following 3 years in the London office, Alex moved to Berlin to establish the German team for Founders Keepers where he is currently based. He is skilled at identifying the best and most diverse digital talent to disrupt and transform teams, across a wide range of sectors, with a specialism in DeepTech. He also works on a variety of strategic and commercial topics for the business.
Rea Loizides
Senior Associate
Rea is part of our People and Talent practice, helping innovative founders and organisations with finding their People leaders. Prior to this, Rea was working for an international executive search firm where she was primarily focused on hiring Partners and Senior-level executives in the Business and Professional Services sector. Rea studied Law at the University of Hertfordshire and obtained her MA in Medical Ethics and Law from King’s College London.
Daria Koren
Senior Associate
Daria joined Founders Keepers in 2022 from consumer-specialist executive search firm The MBS Group, where she focused on senior appointments across the fashion, luxury, and lifestyle sectors. Prior to this, she obtained her degree in Modern Languages at the University of Cambridge. She is fluent in Spanish, Italian, Croatian, and Catalan, and has spent time living and working in Rome and Barcelona.
Evi Symeou
Associate
Evi joined Founders Keepers in 2022 after working as a structural engineer at Eckersley O’Callaghan. Prior to this, she obtained her integrated Master’s degree at the University of Leeds, completing her third year at the University of Western Australia, Perth. She is passionate about tech and innovation, with a particular interest in FinTech, BioTech, sustainability, and impact. In addition, she loves to travel and is currently learning Spanish.
Evie Tomkins
Associate
Evie joined Founders Keepers in 2022 from EY where she was a Consultant in their Financial Services Consulting practice. Prior to this, she graduated from the University of Exeter with a degree in Economics and Geography. Aside from work, Evie is an animal lover and has recently signed up to be a volunteer for a charity that walks dogs for the elderly.
Daniel Giles
Associate
Daniel joined Founders Keepers early in 2022. He graduated with a degree in Psychology and spent the following year completing an internship within an international Diversity and Inclusion team at a global law firm.
Outside of work, Daniel is a keen health and wellbeing enthusiast and can often be found in the gym or staying active outdoors (weather permitting!).
Hannah Burt
Associate
Hannah joined Founders Keepers in 2022 after completing her MA in Political Economy from the Berlin School of Economics and Law. Before moving to Berlin, she gained experience working in a variety of roles in Barcelona, Houston, and Edinburgh. Outside of work, Hannah stays active through a variety of sports, and she completed her first half-marathon in 2021. In addition, she keeps herself busy perfecting her German and French language skills.
Anna Aldridge
People & Ops Manager
Originally from London, Anna was brought up in Southern Spain and is a fluent Spanish speaker. When she returned to the UK in 2015, she began her career in office support and administration. Prior to joining Founders Keepers, Anna gained extensive experience in the recruitment industry, as well as having the opportunity to work as a Team Assistant in the private office of a high-profile and consequential politician.
Since joining FK in 2018, Anna's role has naturally evolved with her strengths and interests, and she now manages our scheduling processes and people operations across onboarding, HR policies, and employee engagement amongst other things.
Shauna Wentzel
Executive Assistant
Shauna joined Founders Keepers in 2021 from a leading specialist Executive Search firm where she was responsible for the smooth running of the office and providing support to the Managing Directors and Partners. Prior to this, she worked for one of the top management consulting firms as a Senior Operations Specialist for their Canary Wharf Office.
Before moving to London in 2009, Shauna graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree - specialising in Marketing and Management from the University of South Africa.
Khulood Al Ibrahim
Marketing Associate
Khulood is based in Berlin and handles all things marketing for FK. She brings in past experience in executive search coupled with a love for community management, content, client relations, and BD. Outside of work, she's an amateur writer and an avid consumer of good movies.
Sophie Heywood
Search Coordinator
Joining Founders Keepers in early 2022, Sophie comes to us from a career in the Arts. She gained a degree in Vocal Studies and Opera from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, during which she was fortunate enough to perform as part of the London Symphony Orchestra Discovery and tour with the Philharmonia Orchestra.
Following her graduation, she started her career managing some of the most prestigious classical arts venues in London.
Isuri Fernando
Analyst
Isuri joined Founders Keepers in early 2023 as an entry-level analyst. Prior to this, she completed a legal internship in M&A and Capital Markets at an Italian law firm consequent to her LLB in Law with Business at Queen Mary University. Before moving to London, she was born and raised in Milan and is proud of her Sinhalese origins. Outside of work, she maintains her interests in copyright and trademark law within the luxury fashion and lifestyle industry.
Jessica Murray Southall
Executive Assistant
Jessie joined the Founders Keepers team in January 2023 as an Executive Assistant. Prior to her appointment, she worked extensively as an EA and operations manager in the event and technology space.
A keen traveler, her work has taken her all over the world in a diverse variety of roles. Graduating from Roehampton University with a BA in psychology, Jess retains a keen interest in social causes and human behaviour.
Advisory board
Brent Hoberman
Board Member
Brent is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Founders Factory (corporate-backed venture studio and accelerator), Founders Forum (global community of founders, corporates, and tech leaders), and firstminute capital (2017: $100m seed fund with a global remit, backed by Atomico, Tencent and over 30 unicorn founders). Previously, Brent co-founded lastminute.com in 1998, was CEO from its inception, and sold it in 2005 to Sabre for $1.1bn. Technology businesses Brent has co-founded have raised over $750m and included Karakuri and made.com.
Brent was awarded a CBE in the 2015 New Year Honours List for services to entrepreneurship.
