James Rust

James is one of our four founders. Having co-founded the business in 1999, James sits on the Board and provides a strategic perspective to help drive the growth of the business. James is keen to enable technology at Leathwaite to constantly improve the company’s product offerings and services. Most recently, he has been working with clients in the Middle East to attract and successfully hire senior management talent from around the world.

James has always been interested in technology and is always looking for innovative ways to build new streams for Leathwaite. For instance, James built and launched The Pay Index – a tech start-up, spun off Leathwaite, focused on careers and pay data. James is also passionate about social mobility for students.  He recently launched a platform / app to help students from disadvantaged backgrounds gain access to mentors in the workplace across a variety of sectors.

Prior to Leathwaite, James spent two years with Armstrong International. Before this, he spent five years working in recruitment, successfully building a similarly aligned team of 30 at Robert Walters.

James lives in Surrey with his wife, Sarah, and has watched his two children graduate, and enter the workforce. As well as being a keen Marathon runner, James enjoys watching cricket, is (very) slowly getting better at golf.  He also likes his water sports,  and is currently learning how to wing foil.