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In the UK food and fresh produce industries, technical professionals—those in food safety, quality assurance, and compliance—are the backbone of operational success. They ensure products are safe, meet regulatory standards, and maintain brand reputation. Yet, when you look at the top of the organogram, the MD and CEO roles are rarely occupied by someone from a technical background. Why? Of course, it isn’t the case for everyone – there are exceptions to this and some exceptional examples of great technical professionals making brilliant MD and CEO’s. Myself and Claire Donovan, who we recently had the pleasure of having as a guest on the The MorePeople Podcast, discussed this very topic I posed the question to her as to why there aren’t more technical individuals that make it to board level, whether that’s technical directors or a technical person that climbs up to MD or CEO level. 1. Commercial and Strategic Bias Claire comments, “I think it’s a combination of things – we tend to be, in our makeup, quite risk averse and quite questioning, and I think that’s critical for a technical role. You’re always worried about what could go wrong, we tend to be glass-half-empty individuals. That risk aversion can then be impactful on the way we communicate - We have to learn for the first words coming out of our mouths to not be no – it might be can I think about it? So that has an impact, I think, on the way we’re seen in terms of leading businesses. I think boards tend to look for - particularly bigger boards where technical might not automatically be an executive position – the board tends to look for commercial acumen.” The path to the top in food businesses often favours those with P&L responsibility—typically from commercial, sales, or operational backgrounds. MDs and CEOs are expected to drive growth, manage stakeholders, and deliver bottom-line results. While technical professionals are crucial in safeguarding compliance and risk management, their roles are often seen as cost centres rather than revenue drivers, despite Technical personnel having budgetary responsibility and commercial understanding. 2. Lack of Cross-Functional ExposureWhilst most technical professionals frequently interact with customers, suppliers and internal business functions, they often do not have exposure to investors and may, due the specialist nature of their qualifications, not venture into leading other areas of the business landscape such as operations and commercial. This limited scope can make them less visible when leadership positions open up. 3. Leadership Perception and Soft Skills The stereotype persists that technical professionals are process-driven and detail-oriented but lack the strategic thinking, negotiation skills, and charisma often associated with top leadership. While not necessarily true, those in technical roles may not always be given the same leadership development opportunities as their commercial counterparts and may have to be clear with their executive team that they wish to develop in that direction. 4. Risk vs. Reward Mindset Technical professionals are trained to mitigate risk, ensuring food safety and regulatory compliance. Meanwhile, business leaders must take calculated risks to drive innovation, enter new markets, or push profitability. The contrasting nature of these mindsets can create a barrier to career progression. Claire comments: “Particularly as I’ve explored the INED world people don’t necessarily want technical as it’s not necessarily a field they feel they’re weak in but they do need audit and risk so as I’ve gone from being employed to now working on various projects, the way I’ve found myself on boards is with that audit and risk piece. Again, there's a little about glass half empty, but businesses need to think about their risks and put stuff in place to stop them happening because if you don’t think about your risk, then it comes and knocks on your door.” Breaking the Ceiling If technical professionals want to break into the C-suite, they need to broaden their experience beyond their core expertise. Taking on commercial projects, engaging with customers from a commercial perspective, and gaining and or showing financial acumen can make them stronger candidates for leadership roles. Equally, businesses must recognise the value of having technically-minded individuals at the helm—especially in an era where food safety, sustainability, and compliance are more critical than ever. Claire comments, “I tend to talk about diversity of thought – it’s not necessarily about whether I’m male or female; it’s about diversity of thought. We bring a different view, a different lived-in experience, and a different set of reasoning. If you're not careful on your board, and everyone looks the same and agrees, then you don’t get that challenge and that disagreement in private, agree in public. You need the challenge around a board to really push the board; otherwise, you just end up saying yes, and you don’t see troubles coming up behind you.” Is it time to rethink the route to the top? Could the next great food industry leader come from the technical ranks? Absolutely—but only if both professionals and businesses challenge the status quo.

Looking back over the last 25 years, what are you most proud of achieving with MorePeople? There are so many things! For one, creating a business that’s lasted 25 years – immensely proud! When you start up a business, you, of course, hope you’ll be successful, but you never know for sure. Part of me thought we’d start MorePeople, grow it to a decent size and then sell up; we kind of thought of the business as our retirement fund. We threw everything we had into starting MorePeople. I’m so proud of the people who work here and those that have been here along the way, so many great people have joined us on this journey. We always wanted people to work here and enjoy the environment and enjoy working here and I think we have achieved that.We wanted to be able to do high-level recruitment as well as headhunting and recruit for all levels whilst providing a consistently good service and value for money. The idea was to focus on a client and be able to fill all functions in their business, which we now do!How has the recruitment landscape changed since you first started MorePeople? There are significantly more recruiters out there now compared to when we started. When MorePeople started there were only a few recruitment companies who specialised in our sectors; they tended to be generalists or big city headhunting companies. There were nowhere near as many specialists as there are now!And of course, how technology has changed in 25 years to use for recruitment!This leads us on to our next questions: how has technology changed the way MorePeople operates over the years?When we first started, we were using fax machines, and candidates were sending their CV’s to us in the post! Google was only just becoming popular, and our main form of communication was a phone. I remember that around 2002, the Grocer had around 150 pages of job adverts, and even Farmers Weekly had 15-20 pages. We were creating multiple print adverts with an external graphic designer. Now, naturally, everything is online – job boards, LinkedIn, email, etc and we don’t do any print advertising!I can’t not mention AI, the rate it’s growing and how we’re all finding ways to use it. I think the challenge for recruiters is to ensure CVs are accurate and reflective of the actual person.What have been some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced over the years, and how did you overcome them? Of course, I have to mention COVID-19. The same for most business owners, I’m sure. I couldn’t get my head around everyone being told to stay at home. For 6 weeks, everything stopped; we had no idea what was going on – we didn’t know how to advise on interviews, some clients were shut down, we couldn’t get hold of anyone, job offers were being cancelled. We couldn’t answer any of our candidate's questions, it really was a terrible few weeks. But as everyone was getting to grips with what was allowed and finding workarounds, the food industry started to pick up, which in turn meant we did too. As with everyone, we picked up using Teams, Zoom, etc for interviews, which in the end has been a massive benefit for recruitment processes and can speed up some processes!Another tough period for a business owner, and most people, was the 2008 recession. It’s the only time we’ve had to cut staff due to economic activity and our first and only year we went backwards and did not grow!What’s been the most surprising or unexpected aspect of running MorePeople for 25 years?I don’t often get surprised, but I suppose it is surprising that I’m still in recruitment and still loving it as much as I did. I still get a massive buzz from helping candidates and clients.What key values or principles have guided the company’s growth and success?This is a great question. I think I’ve always been paranoid about customer service and paranoid about doing a good job. I want our team to genuinely care. Of course, we don’t always get it right, but we always want to address any mistakes. We always aim to hire people who are kind, courteous and want to give a good service consistent with how we started. We were told 25 years ago that recruiters don’t call back and are terrible at communicating, and I’ve tried to ensure for the last 25 years that we do not operate that way. There was a gap in the market for people who knew the sector, could recruit for it AND gave great customer service to candidates and clients. In the early days, we only employed people who had sector experience. Andrew was our first hire, not from the industry but someone who had past recruitment experience. Over the years, he made me realise in order to grow, we would have to employ people with different experiences. Can you share a moment when you knew MorePeople was making a real impact in the industry? There was a point when we were starting to get asked to speak at conferences so we knew we were starting to make an impact. This has continued, and now members of our team are being asked to contribute to industry events, and this shows that the wider sector is interested in what we have to say and it’s not just about the transactional recruitment piece. Also, we’ve had many instances when candidates refer us to friends or family due to the experience they’ve had, so we knew we were having an impact when this started happening. Someone in the earlier days got their son or daughter to work with us – you know you’re doing something right then!If you could go back to the early days, what advice would you give yourself?We probably didn’t employ extra staff fast enough; we could have grown faster earlier, but I’m not unhappy we didn’t, as we grew slowly and steadily. There are plenty of recruiters who are younger than us but bigger. In hindsight, I could have pushed us a bit faster. We also stayed in the old office too long and it wasn’t fit for purpose – we needed a more open plan approach faster as the old office restricted our ability. Do you have any standout stories or memorable placements that reflect what MorePeople is all about?Over the years, we’ve made thousands of placements so it’s hard to pick out ones in particular. But I will say there’s been a few occasions when we’ve had some really emotional and powerful thank you’s from candidates from going over and above to get them a job when things have been really and touch and go for them financially, and to know we’ve genuinely helped someone in distress does always stay in my mind. If you had to sum up the journey of MorePeople in three words, what would they be?Exhilarating, and I don’t want it to stop!Relentless… there have been times I’ve really had to bust through that brick wallAn amazing journey(It is Guy Moreton after all, so it wasn’t going to be 3 words…)

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