We run the entire recruitment process for our clients, in full consultation throughout, providing them with quality, accurate and comprehensive information. We work as an exclusive partner for all roles and are happy to include internal or other referred candidates as part of our process.
Executive Search Service
Founded in 2011, The PIE Exec Search is an executive search consultancy with unrivalled knowledge and experience of the international education industry.
I'm Hiring
I'm Looking For A Job
We have unrivalled knowledge of the international education industry and extensive headhunting experience working with education partners around the globe to help them with their mid-to senior level hiring needs.
We are renowned for our unique, global network of professionals working across the industry and
our ability to find just the right candidate for each role we take on.
Why The PIE Exec Search?
We Understand International Education
The PIE Exec Search works exclusively in the international education industry and across the globe. Our database is deep and we benefit from a knowledge of and networking within international education that generalist education recruiters cannot match.
We Know Our Candidates
We understand international education candidates’ competencies, what drives them, as well as the experiences that are aligned to roles in the industry.
Diversity & Inclusion
We recognise the importance of improving the level of diversity and inclusion within organisations and in our industry. We help our global clients access and attract diverse talent pools and match with company cultures that embrace inclusion to create a collaborative workforce.
Experienced
Let’s Get You to the Right Place
I’m Hiring
If you’re looking for first-class candidates who will help your business or operation flourish, simply click here.
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I’m a Job Seeker
If you’re looking for exciting new career opportunities and the most effective job hunting experience, search no more.
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The PIE Exec Search Approach
01. Media Reach
We benefit from our wide media reach via www.thepienews.com, which has reached over 5 million people. We now regularly have more than 400K unique visitors to our website each month.
02. Reputation
We have gained a reputation as experts in the international education industry. We can help build diverse teams in different countries and recruit in complex regions. Candidates come to us because they know we can provide them with the best options in the market.
03. Advertising
We utilise local job boards if required, with the added value for our clients free of advertising on our own, successful jobs board, The PIE Jobs.
04. Headhunting
For all roles we run an extensive search campaign using our vast industry network to approach candidates directly. We are able to access high calibre individuals who are not actively seeking a new position, but who could be interested in learning about a career opportunity.
05. Social Media
We have over 65K followers across our social media channels. This reach enables our consultants to connect to a large number of candidates across the sectors we recruit for.
06. Market Knowledge
The extensive market knowledge our consultants have is invaluable when sourcing candidates. They have in-depth knowledge of candidate availability and movement within the market, and the skill sets required for success.
07. Timeframe
The estimated timeline to deliver a final shortlist for a specified brief is 4-6 weeks.
08. Guarantee
An important guarantee of the quality of our work is that if we fail to make an appointment after the first shortlist is presented, which is very rare, we will carry out a repeat of the search at no additional charge.
09. Psychometric Testing
Hire with confidence – an increasingly common feature of a hiring process is the use of psychometric testing to help give a better all-round evaluation of a candidate’s suitability and hiring potential. Ensuring the right fit for both a role and the team/company culture will go a long way to reducing ‘bad hires’ and the resulting costs to your business. Psychometric tests are commonly used to support an informed hiring decision, but are not the answer in isolation. We can advise on psychometric test options and how tests can be integrated into an interview process via our trusted third party partner, Thomas International.
Unrivalled
Flexible
What Our Partners & Candidates Say
Working with the team at The PIE Exec Search enabled us to find our right fit candidate for our role opportunity in the UK swiftly and smoothly. Hadil was easy to work with, very proactive and in tune with our requirements. The timezone difference between the UK and Australia posed no barrier at all and we’d certainly be happy to partner with the PIE again in the future.
Sin May Leong, Senior Vice President Human Resources
EduCo
The PIE Exec Search team genuinely have their finger on the international education industry pulse. That’s why Enroly relies on them for specialised staff recruitment projects.
Jeffrey Williams, CEO & Co-founder
Enroly
My experience working with The Pie Exec Search has been nothing short of exceptional. I am delighted to endorse The Pie Exec Search.
I have been fortunate to work with good recruiters in the past, but The PIE not only facilitated my recruitment with guard.me , they became apart of the journey with me and to this day we continue to both take satisfaction in the joy I have in working with guard.me. In 14 months I have already enjoyed promotion to the position of CEO and Executive Director of guard.me Europe.
Mark Sheerin. Guard.me
CEO & Exec Director
Earlier this year we were looking to fill a unique role in Canada and searching for someone with specific experience who would be able to get started without much training or upskilling. By partnering with Hadil and the team in PIE’s Career Division we were able to quickly find a pool of diverse and talented individuals, all of whom had the experience we were looking for. Thanks to PIE’s international network they were able to help us fill our position with the right individual to achieve our goals.
Kelly Cummings, HR Director
Pearson
I can highly recommend Hadil and the team at The PIE Exec Search for their professionalism in supporting UCD with a senior appointment in China. Client communication was excellent throughout the process, and UCD was able to review a broad pool of potential candidates before moving to interview and pre-employment testing. Not only was the search & recruitment process handled efficiently, but the team at The PIE Exec Search was always on hand to provide advice & guidance, which I found invaluable.
Dr Douglas Proctor, Director
UCD Global, University College Dublin
We engaged PIE’s Career Division to hire an executive leader in Admissions. We knew they would have access to talent that we couldn’t reach and they could reach out to people in a discreet and professional manner. They listened to our needs, assessed the talent pool and brought a host of qualified candidates. They managed the whole process of screening, interviews, reference checks and salary negotiations. They were a great service to us and provided us with an amazing team player who has been a wonderful fit for our team and our organization.
Dr Jason Dewling, President
LaSalle College Vancouver
Hadil is a consummate professional. She seeks to understand the client’s needs and works tirelessly to present the candidates that are going to be the best fit for your organisation and its goals. Her support in recruiting an exec marketing post in Sept 2019 couldn’t have gone any smoother. I highly recommend Hadil and the team at The PIE Exec Search.
Natasha Traynor, Group Marketing Director
Oxford International Education Group
Operating across multiple time zones, continents, organisations and during a global pandemic the PIE Executive Search team took the lead and worked on finding us a quality pool of candidates. The role was niche and they listened and delivered on the profile of candidates we were looking for with helpful feedback, validation and support along the way. Hadil managed to juggle the challenges presented with professionalism and genuine understanding. We have just on boarded the successful candidate and are looking forward to achieving the ambitious goals that we have set out. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend and work with PIE Executive Search again. The quality of service, insights and commitment to delivering our objectives was exemplar.
Alison Jenkins, Director, Future Students
The University of Queensland
Meet the Team
Amy Baker
CEO
Amy is an international education expert with over 20 years’ experience in the industry. As CEO of The PIE, she divides her time between recruitment, editorial oversight and strategic growth for The PIE. An expert on the international education sector, since setting up The PIE in 2011, Amy has hone a successful Exec Search division that is renowned for being able to identify the right talent for businesses keen to scale in the international education sector. She has a BA in Journalism with French from City University.
Nick Golding
Business Development Director
Nick brings to The PIE Exec Search team extensive experience, having worked in almost every facet of international education and student recruitment – directing Cambridge Education Group’s meteoric growth; setting up extensive agency networks and regional offices; operating joint-ventures with universities, drama schools and premiership football clubs; and, latterly, investing in and working for EdTech innovators. With this wealth of experience, he understands the nuanced blend of values that is required for success in international education, and has worked with a spectrum of stakeholders from government departments of education and private equity ownership to global brands, such as Nike. Nick is passionate about inclusion & diversity and has recently worked with Oxford and Cambridge colleges as well as other universities around the world on their widening participation programmes.
Lisa Phillipps
Executive Search Director
Lisa is a Chartered Accountant by background who moved to Education in 2010 as a Finance Director / Bursar in Kent. Here she led the non Academic side of a 1200 pupil school, including building new primary campus and setting up a new nursery (for her son to attend)! Lisa then spent 5 years in Abu Dhabi focusing on bilateral relations and communications. Since returning to the UK Lisa has been working strategically in International K-12 developing commercial growth strategies and headhunting Senior Leaders in both K-12 and Higher Education.
Jessica Glauser Guiver
Search Director
Jessica Glauser-Guiver has over 20 years’ experience in international student recruitment & admissions. Her career in IE started when she graduated from New York University with a Masters degree in International Education. She currently co-hosts a weekly podcast called Destiny Benders, focusing on the stories of people who work in international education. Originally from Switzerland, Jessica has 3 passports (UK, USA, Switzerland) and has spent her life moving between those 3 countries. She also taught English in China and worked at an international school in Austria for a few years. With two boys who have had enough of moving around, Jessica and her family have settled in Hampshire. In her free time, Jessica watches Formula 1, explores historic sites and goes on long country walks, preferably ending up in a pub with a pint.
Rongrong Walker
Jobs Board and Search Manager
Rongrong completed her postgraduate studies in Tourism in China before she joined the international education industry in 2009. Having worked in Beijing and London, her roles have covered student recruitment, business development, student services and progression management. At The PIE, she is responsible for growing the use of our jobs board and oversees the day-to-day operations of The PIE Jobs and provides technical support to job posters, she is also responsible for assisting with global recruitment briefs via The PIE Exec Search and offers candidate support via The PIE Careers.
Simone Rensch
Search Director
Simone is an experienced journalist and networker in the education sector. She grew up in Denmark and Thailand, where she attended an international school, before moving to London for university. After graduating with an undergraduate in journalism and a postgraduate degree in human rights from UCL, she began her journalism career working for B2B magazines. She is passionate about diversity and providing everyone with equal opportunities to network and grow in their careers. In her tenure at EducationInvestor Global, where she was deputy editor, she set up the Business Women in Education community. Growing the network from an idea to a global network with over 450 members, Simone has hosted many events, written extensively about investment in education and is a well-known face within the sector. In her free time, she looks after her toddler and is always on the hunt for good coffee.
Hadil El-Agami
Global Account Director
Hadil heads up at The PIE Exec Search, since joining in 2014, she has successfully placed numerous candidates globally into senior executive positions across the sector. Alongside recruitment, Hadil offers Career Coaching via The PIE Careers, she understands the struggles of identify career direction and carrying out an effective job search. Job seekers at any level are able to learn from her international education expertise about how to navigate a job search, tackle applications, job interviews and enhance chances of finding a new role. Her coaching style is compassionate and client centric and with extensive experience working alongside hiring managers globally, she understands recruitment from both sides. She is of Egyptian descent and bi-lingual English/Arabic, and has a BSc in Business Administration with a specialism in International Marketing. She is an advocate of diversity and inclusion in a workplace and recognises that improving this can create a collaborative workforce.
Victoria Heron
Global Education Career Coach
Victoria’s career in international education spans the public and private sectors, specializing in global marketing and recruitment, student mobility, English Language, executive management and operations. Victoria’s career began in Canada where she led the marketing and recruitment for Navitas’ two Canadian pathway colleges. Victoria then returned home to Australia and joined Deakin University where she directed Deakin’s global student mobility program. After 5 years at Deakin, Victoria was appointed General Manager, ANZ for Kaplan International Languages, with operational oversight of six English Language Schools. Victoria’s leadership encourages engagement and collaboration, development of high-performing teams and provides positivity and motivation to achieve goals.