Our Team

Mark Somers has 13 years of experience in the executive search industry specialising in the wealth and asset management sectors. He founded the Somers Partnership in 2005, a retained executive search boutique. Mark has assisted a wide variety of clients ranging from single and multi-family offices, private banks, private client investment management companies, trust companies and consultancies.

He started his search career with Norman Broadbent, a leading executive search firm, in 1998 as a researcher in its financial services practice. Mark then progressed to become a director of Norman Broadbent International where he successfully built a fully retained wealth and asset management practice.

Mark won a military university scholarship to Oxford Brookes University. He graduated in 1990 before attending the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, leaving the army in 1998 to pursue a career in executive search.

Mark is also on the Advisory Board of the Global Partnership Family Offices, and is chairman of the fundraising committee for Caring for Courage.

Adrian Laycock has held senior Wealth Management roles with UBS, as an Executive Director and BNP Paribas, as Head of UK onshore Wealth Management during the last ten years. These roles involved both building a significant book of assets as well as team building and management. This included the selection and hiring of private bankers from his deep knowledge of and wide ranging contacts within the industry. Adrian has more than 35 years experience as a Banker, involving a wide range of roles including corporate, institutional and retail banking.

Adrian holds an MBA from Warwick University Business School and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Astrid Bek is a leading executive search consultant in Switzerland, with over 30 years of experience. After earning an undergraduate degree in Business Administration and Marketing, she began her career in import/export in the oil industry. Subsequently, Astrid went into marketing and sales for a multinational firm.

In 1988, Astrid created her own firm, Objectif Cadres SA in Geneva, which became one of the few search firms in the area to successfully navigate the peaks and troughs of the market over the years.

Astrid is fluent in five languages.

Website: http://www.objectif-cadres.ch/index_en.php

Jo Somers has over a decade of experience in the banking and financial services sector and runs the operations of The Somers Partnership.

She started her banking career at HSBC, where she completed their graduate training programme after graduating from Warwick University. She subsequently worked as a credit analyst at Rabobank and as an international relationship manager at Royal Bank of Canada.

Jo left the City to set up and manage a small importing company, before helping to establish the Somers Partnership in 2005.

Alastair Wood has worked within the human resources (HR) and recruitment sectors since 1973 when he joined British Airways. Since then he has held a number of senior HR positions at a variety of financial and non-financial firms such as Nikko Securities, a leading Japanese investment bank, and Saudi Arabian Airways.

Prior to joining The Somers Partnership as a consultant in 2009, Alastair was head of Human Resources at Ansbacher, the London-based private banking subsidiary of Qatar National Bank.

Qualified with SHL to administer and interpret psychometric profiles, Alastair provides the clients of The Somers Partnership with an additional range of important capabilities.

Paul has 30 years industry experience. Prior to starting his own consultancy, he was Head of Private Banking for EFG Private Bank.  He previously spent 6 years as Managing Director and Head of Sales Mgt for UBS Wealth Management.

Alice is PA to the team, joining The Somers Partnership in 2010. She has over 10 years experience in administration and successfully ran her own property management business in south-west London for many years.

Stella Morris manages The Somers Partnership database. During her time with the company she has helped build an unrivalled private banking database to provide knowledge and access to the very best candidates and clients in the private banking world.

She has a publishing background and has spent over a decade in senior positions within Conde Nast. Stella has also garnered experience in finance and marketing for several smaller and medium-sized companies.

She is fluent in French and Spanish.