Our People

James Strickland is an entrepreneur, investor and passionate about the recruitment space. With over twenty years in the recruitment space, James worked tirelessly with his colleagues building Passionate About People to a business that had 80% contracted revenue 20% permanent revenue, delivering over £11M of GM, £3.2M of EBITDA with 150 staff covering MSP, RPO, Statement of Works and traditional contract and revenue within STEM and Construction. The business was sold in September 2018 to Staffline Plc. 

James is always focused on growth and return to shareholders. James truly understands how to create strong and profitable recruitment companies through innovation, drive and passion. James is well networked within the recruitment sector identifying the next opportunity.

Raymond Pugh, co-founder of Passionate About People, is an entrepreneur, investor and strategic leader specialising in the Human Capital space.

The last two decades have been spent with his colleagues building Passionate About People until it was sold in September 2018.  During this period, Raymond launched the marketing leading Recruitment Process Outsourcing solutions provider, Datum RPO.  As CEO, Raymond designed the architecture and strategic direction from the ground-up and quickly become the dominant RPO solutions provider in the Engineering, Infrastructure, Facilities Management and the Construction sectors. Ray is highly experienced at delivering substantial revenue growth and NFI focused on Permanent Programs and Contingent Workforce Solutions, with unrivalled knowledge in the industry.

Alan Beresford is a proven leader of resourcing businesses, particularly in the technical sector.  Having built Passionate About People Ltd with his colleagues, over a twenty-year period, literally from nothing, there is very little in the lifecycle of a business that Alan hasn’t experienced nor navigated.  As CEO of Omega Resource Group his focus was working with a large team delivering monetary targets, a winning culture ensuring all clients received the best in class. This led to the development of Omega Engineering Services which provided our highly technical clients with a statement of work labour solution that was later sold separately to Belcan in the US.  

A people person with entrepreneurial flair and boundless resilience, Alan has an in-depth knowledge of the resourcing space, and the cornerstones required to grow, stakeholder satisfaction, and be different within our vast industry.  

Ian founded Air Energi in 1988. Since 2008, Ian has taken the position as Executive Chairman, completed two sales to PE and was the architect of the Airswift merger in 2016, backed by private equity firms LGV Capital and Wellspring Capital and the Airswift/Competentia merger in 2021, backed by Wellspring and Reiten. 

Ian has thirty years of experience in the energy industries and technical workforce solutions and recently in 2021 helped merge tech platform Buzzhire with the Berry Recruitment Group to form the largest UK tech platform in staffing. Now a diversified investor, Chairman and NED of PE backed, mature private businesses and start-ups Ian currently works with eCommerce/fintech post revenue platforms. Mature businesses interests include Berry Recruitment Group/BuzzHire and EPI Group.

Michael is an experienced Private Equity investor, Non-Executive Director and finance professional with almost 25 years of experience working in the private equity industry. Michael commenced his career at long-established Merchant Bank, Hambros, in 1988 advising corporates on M&A. 

He joined the private equity industry in 1997 and latterly had an 18-year tenure at LGV Capital, part of Legal & General Group plc. At LGV Michael was involved in both making & managing investments, sitting on the boards of businesses as a Non-Executive Director dealing with strategic development, management evolution, maximising exit opportunities and refinancings. Michael worked with Ian Langley, joining the board of Air Energi before leading its merger with Swift for LGV to form Airswift, ultimately selling LGV’s residual stake to the joint venture partner.  Michael is involved with several small businesses as both an investor and adviser.