FEATURED CASE STUDY
How a Private Family Office Built a Confidential Global Hiring Function
Sector(s):
Single Family Office
SPECIALISM(S):
A broad spectrum of services
LOCATION(S):
Gibraltar
The Situation
When a private single family office needs to build a team across multiple countries, the open market is not an option. The candidate pool is too small, the principals too prominent, and the stakes too high for anything other than a fully confidential, relationship-led search.
This client required a retained partner capable of managing highly sensitive appointments across private household, family office, and international staffing functions. Any search would need to draw exclusively on a candidate network with genuine experience of UHNW environments, not job boards or advertising.
Achieve Professionals was appointed as retained partner, beginning a relationship that has now spanned a number of years.
Key outcomes at a glance:
- 50+ placements delivered across a multi-year retained partnership
- 7 countries covered, including the UK, UAE, US, and Europe
- Full spectrum of roles from household staff to C-suite operations leadership
- Zero confidentiality breaches across every search, regardless of seniority or location
- Salaries up to £150,000+ with consistent quality at every level
The Approach
Every search was conducted entirely off-market. Candidates were engaged under confidentiality agreements before the client’s identity or any specifics of a role were disclosed.
Rather than advertising, the vast majority of placements were sourced through Achieve Professionals’ existing relationships and proprietary candidate database. This gave the client two things that an open search cannot reliably provide:
- Tight control over who was aware of each vacancy
- Access to candidates who were not reachable through conventional recruitment channels
This approach is central to how we work within private family office recruitment. The most capable UHNW professionals are rarely looking. They are found through relationships built over years, not through a job posting.
The Results
Scale of Placements
Over the course of the partnership, Achieve Professionals placed in excess of 50 candidates for the client. This sustained volume demonstrates the capacity to deliver across a high number of searches without compromising on quality or discretion.
Breadth of Roles
Placements spanned the full spectrum of family office and private household functions, from senior leadership to specialist support roles:
- Senior Leadership: Global Director of Operations, Assistant Director of Operations, Events and Lifestyle Director
- Household & Estate: House Managers, Housekeepers, Private Chefs, Butlers, Facilities Engineers
- Family Support: Personal Assistants, Rota Nannies, Maternity Nurses, Family Nurses
- Professional Services: Family Office Lawyers
International Reach
Searches were conducted across seven countries: the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, Dubai, the Netherlands, Israel, the Bahamas, and the United States.
Salaries ranged from entry-level household positions through to senior leadership roles exceeding £150,000 per annum. For further context on compensation benchmarks in this space, see our UK Family Office Salary Guide 2026.
Confidentiality Maintained
At no point across the partnership was the identity of the client’s principals or the nature of their requirements compromised. This outcome was achieved consistently across every search, regardless of seniority or location.
In a UHNW context, that is not a small achievement. It requires a process, a culture, and a candidate network that treats discretion as a baseline rather than an afterthought.
The Impact
The partnership gave the client a recruitment function it could rely on for its most sensitive and highest-stakes appointments, without needing to manage the risk of an open search.
Senior operational hires were delivered to a strong standard despite requiring significant market knowledge and candidate assessment. The consistency of confidentiality across dozens of placements has allowed the client to treat Achieve Professionals as a trusted, long-term extension of its own team, rather than a transactional supplier.
That distinction matters. A transactional supplier fills a vacancy. A trusted partner understands the office, knows the principals’ standards, and builds a pipeline of talent that is ready before the brief is written.
Client Feedback
"We have found Lewis Clennell and the wider Achieve Professionals team to be responsive, commercially aware and genuinely committed to getting the right outcome. We would not hesitate to recommend them to any organisation seeking specialist, discreet recruitment support within private household, estate, or UHNW environments."
Global Director of Operations and Estates
Single Family Office
