Ambitious Ascent: The Candidate Targets £3M, Boosts Team for 2023 Growth Spurt

The Candidate, a company that finds people to work in digital, tech, and creative marketing jobs, has big plans to make £3m in 2023. To help them reach this goal, they’ve hired two new associate directors.

Niels Vaartjes, who used to work at software recruitment company Brightcloud, is now the US director. Mark Leader, who used to run his own company called Swift Digital Recruitment, is the new contract director. The Candidate hit its goal of making £2m in 2022, when it also added John O’Sullivan as a strategic advisor and chair.

Brian Matthews, who helped start The Candidate, said: “We want to create new departments and grow our business in London and the US. By finding people for both permanent and contract jobs, we also expect to grow in Executive Search.”

The executive search department, which finds top executives for companies, was a big area of growth last year. They’ve added more administrative support and plan to hire more people this year. This investment has resulted in exclusive partnerships with private equity firms and global agencies.

The data and technology department, run by director Leif Radford, has also done really well, growing by an incredible 400% since 2021. The Candidate’s marketing agency and B2B departments are also expected to help with this year’s planned growth.

Because of how well they did in 2022, The Candidate is moving into a new office in Manchester city centre after five years in their old place. The new office in Clayton House has an extra 1,000 square feet of space, more meeting rooms, and social areas for the team, which will grow to 40 members by the end of the year.