Why AVIIA? The story behind the name and the values behind the business.

Finding the name

I wanted a name that felt modern, distinctive and different from the traditional Executive Search world. It needed to work across different sectors and markets, but more importantly, it needed to represent the kind of business I wanted to build.  Most of the early names sounded like I was in the Avengers...!

I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted the business to stand for. I wanted something that felt human, ambitious, progressive and values-led, while also reflecting our approach to combining experience and relationships with technology and innovation.

The name AVIIA ultimately came from that thinking. It is deliberately different. But for me, the name is more than just a brand. It represents a new chapter and a new way of thinking about Executive Search.

The intention is simple: to bring together the best of human expertise, relationships, insight and technology to deliver better outcomes for organisations and candidates.

Why values matter to me

Having spent many years working in recruitment and Executive Search, I’ve seen first-hand the difference that a good process can make.

At its best, Executive Search is about much more than filling a vacancy. It is about understanding an organisation, its culture, its ambitions and its challenges, and then finding the person who can genuinely make a difference.

That requires trust.
It requires integrity.
And it requires people to believe in the process.

That is why our values are so important to me. They aren’t words that sit on a website or appear in a presentation. They are intended to shape how we work, how we make decisions and how we treat people - all people. 

At AVIIA, our values are:

Accountable
We do what we say we will do.
Accountability is about taking ownership, being honest and being prepared to have difficult conversations when they are needed. Our clients trust us with some of their most important appointments, and we take that responsibility seriously.

Values-led
For me, this is fundamental.
The way we work matters just as much as the outcome. We want to work with organisations and people who share our commitment to doing things properly, fairly and with integrity.
That means putting people at the heart of the process and making sure that our approach is transparent, professional and respectful.

Impactful
Ultimately, Executive Search should make a difference.
We want the people we appoint to have a meaningful impact on the organisations they join, whether that is helping an organisation grow, navigating significant change, strengthening leadership or delivering its purpose.
Our role is to help identify those people and create the conditions for great appointments to happen.

Innovative
The world of work is changing rapidly, and Executive Search needs to change with it.
Technology and AI are creating opportunities to make search more intelligent, efficient and informed. But I don't believe technology replaces relationships, judgement or experience.
I believe the future is about bringing those things together in the best way possible.

Agile
Things change. Organisations change. Markets change. People change.
We want AVIIA to be a business that can respond quickly, think differently and adapt to what our clients and candidates need.
Being agile means being open-minded, listening carefully and not being constrained by the way things have always been done.

Building something I believe in
Creating AVIIA has given me the opportunity to take a step back and ask a very simple question:

What should Executive Search look like in the future?
My answer is a business that combines experience with innovation, technology with human judgement, and commercial thinking with genuine purpose.

A business that is ambitious, but never loses sight of the people at the centre of every appointment. And a business where our values genuinely influence the way we work.

That is what AVIIA means to me. The name may be new, but the thinking behind it has been shaped by years of experience.

Now it’s about building something that puts that experience to work in a different way and we are ready to go. ‍

AVIIA