Organisational change, culture and talent across EMEA
Madrid, Spain
Open to senior permanent roles in organisational change, People & Culture and Talent Acquisition leadership — in Spain, the UK, or remote across EMEA
I've spent most of my career building and reshaping People and Talent functions for complex, multi-country organisations — Baker McKenzie across 30+ EMEA offices, Fragomen across nine, and earlier roles at Sodexo and Mitie. The scope has varied; the work has always come back to the same things: making the function actually perform, and being someone people trust to tell them the truth about why it isn't.
I completed IE University's AI and Agentic Systems programme in June 2026, alongside further IE courses in workflow automation and building web applications. AI isn't the headline of this work, but advising organisations on what it changes for their people means engaging with it properly rather than forming a view from the outside.
I co-founded Newbery Advisory with my wife in June 2026, a change management and AI adoption practice that she runs. Building it has sharpened how I think about why technology change stalls inside firms.
I'm open to senior permanent roles in organisational change, People & Culture and Talent Acquisition leadership, in Spain, the UK, or remote across EMEA. If something here is relevant, the contact section has the detail.
"A trusted advisor and someone we relied on implicitly. He could talk to anyone, regardless of position or title, and provided calm when there were storms."
Peter S. Salib
Director of Inclusion, Diversity & Equity | Baker McKenzie
"Gareth led with authenticity and intention and brought dedication to his work. Organizations looking to improve will be well-served and fortunate to have him on their team."
David Palumbo
Partner, Chair – Transactions Practice | Baker McKenzie Canada · Top 25 Most Influential Lawyers in Canada
"Gareth combined rigorous data-driven insight with empathy and practical delivery. A trusted advisor across all levels, building strong partnerships with fee earners and business services throughout the firm."
Fatima Choudhury
Director of Inclusion, Equity & Enterprise Transformation | Baker McKenzie (Gareth's line manager)
"Calm under pressure, hard-working, and able to provide strategic advice but also get his hands dirty. His ability to quickly grasp new searches makes him an ideal candidate for demanding recruiting assignments."
Gary Whyld
Partner Recruiting Senior Manager | Latham & Watkins (Previously managed Gareth at Fragomen)
"A highly skilled communicator, able to quickly build effective relationships with stakeholders, candidates and colleagues alike. He has a rare quality of matching confidence with humility."
Matt Lomax
EMEA Senior Talent Acquisition Manager
In June 2026 I co-founded Newbery Advisory with my wife — a change management and AI adoption practice that she runs. Building it has sharpened how I think about why technology change stalls inside firms.
Baker McKenzie's EMEA region ran across 30+ offices in markets with sharply different cultures, legal frameworks and management norms. The organisation needed people programmes that could land consistently across that diversity — on inclusion, on leadership development, on cultural change — without a standardised framework or a mandate that Partners had agreed to follow.
In a 950-person London office, I worked alongside one other recruiter to drive a more direct, more data-leaning hiring model — reducing agency dependency, improving quality of hire, and building something closer to a genuine advisory relationship with Partners.
Purchased, rebranded and ran a boutique TEFL recruitment and training business, connecting teachers with schools across Europe and Asia — primarily China, Vietnam and Thailand. Managed all aspects of operations, client relationships, candidate support and online training delivery. Business sold in 2019 to pursue senior in-house roles.
Led the regional Talent Acquisition function across EMEA for a global immigration law firm — 9 offices, a geographically dispersed team and a high-volume, multi-disciplinary recruitment portfolio.
Talent Acquisition Specialist (RPO), Korn Ferry / Futurestep at Fragomen — 2014–2015. Embedded on site in London, directly employed by the RPO arm; delivery performance led to a direct-hire offer from the client.
Talent Acquisition Partner, Mitie — 2012–2013. Reduced agency spend by approximately £150k annually, covering frontline facilities management and security roles alongside office-based hires.
Talent Acquisition Advisor, Sodexo — 2010–2012. 85 per cent direct-hire rate, approximately £200k in annual agency savings, averaging 13 hires per month.
Career break, Belize — 2009–2010. Full-time voluntary work at a small charity running a children's home for approximately 30 children.
Managing Consultant, Search Consultancy — 2003–2009. Led one of the company's highest-performing teams, generating approximately £200k in annual fee income through headhunting and executive search.
I'm open to senior permanent roles in organisational change, People & Culture and Talent Acquisition leadership — in Spain, the UK, or remote across EMEA. If you're a recruiter with a relevant brief, or a People leader thinking about what comes next for your function, I'd welcome a conversation.