‘Massive coup’ as Bright Purple appoints Gillingham

By Peter Ranscombe
Published on 07/07/2012 18:47

BRIGHT Purple, the Edinburgh-based recruitment firm, has added a former senior Lehman Brothers executive to its management team to fuel an international expansion drive.

Ken Gillingham, who was Lehman’s chief administrative officer for technology services, will have a global remit and be based in the firm’s London 
office.

Bright Purple chief executive Nick Price said: “Ken’s appointment is a massive coup for our business.

“He has a wealth of experience and many contacts across the global financial services market. He is already opening doors to help us continue to grow the business.”

Gillingham spent nine years at Lehman Brothers before joining Nomura. He left the Japanese investment bank 18 months ago to set up a consultancy firm.

Capitalising on Gillingham’s international contacts will be key to the firm reaching the “ambitious” growth targets laid down last year by Price, under which the company aimed to grow turnover to £100 million.

News of his appointment comes as Bright Purple posts a 7 per cent rise in turnover for the year to 31 March to £39.3m, with growth slowly sharply from the near-
doubling of revenues in the previous 12 months.

Profits also dropped from £1.4m to £440,000 after the firm – which specialises in financial services and information technology recruitment – set up its own training academy and opened an office at Vilnius, in Lithuania.

Price said: “While many firms would give their right arm for 7 per cent growth in this climate, we are disappointed but certainly not undeterred by that result.

“There is no doubt that the current Eurozone situation is making it even tougher to do business in an already tough market place.”

But Price added that the “heavy investment” the firm had made in the past year would help it to grow its international business.

The latest results include the first contribution from the firm’s office in Singapore, which was opened last year.

Price recruited Iain Geddes, a former director of Glasgow-based recruitment giant Search Consultancy, to run the Far East operation.

Bright Purple was founded in 1995 by Price as Careercare and was re-branded seven years ago. The growth of the firm was aided by chairman Peter Flaherty, a key player in the City, who ran recruitment firm MSB between 1991 and 2001, growing its turnover from £4m to £200m.