The team

Anastasia Shah

Project Coordinator

Anastasia has a passion for people. Since reading Anthropology and Archaeology at Southampton and SOAS, she found executive search an exciting place to exercise her education and interests. After work in a boutique public sector search firm; Anastasia joins Tucker Stone at an exciting time, broadening her scope of experience whilst honing her expertise in delivering an unparalleled experience for candidates and clients alike.

A self-confessed data nerd – she enjoys tinkering and playing around with spreadsheets and datasets… till she has to revert and start again. Equality and Inclusion are close to her heart, she leads workshops and roundtables to support organisations in empowering agency through trust, honesty, and openness.

In her free time, Anastasia can be found penning artfully long letters, reading archaic history books and ruining lots of paintbrushes and paper as she attempts to paint watercolours.

Gemma Vaughan

Head of Candidate Experience

Since graduating from Oxford Media & Business School in 2018, Gemma has held various roles across a range of industries within Executive Search. After spending 3 ½ years in a large corporate, she made the switch to Tucker Stone in 2022 and has never looked back! Gemma brings her experience as a Team Assistant, Executive Assistant and Researcher to head up our Candidate Experience. She is the custodian for our candidate community, ensuring that we provide the best experience for every candidate we engage with.

Outside of work, Gemma is a keen runner and enjoys the odd Joe Wicks HIIT workout. When not exercising, Gemma loves hanging out with her friends and enjoys an amber ale or two down the pub!

Hugo Tucker

MD & Founder

Hugo has 25 years’ experience working in the resourcing industry, the last 18 of which have been in HR search. He has a passion for recruitment and enjoys working at an Executive senior level across a diverse range of clients. He recognises the poor reputation the industry has (and unfortunately often deserves) and relishes breaking that mould.

Initially he worked in Search and Selection across all industry sectors and functions recruiting a breadth of positions. This included setting up a number of practices for larger firms, building a start-up Search business, focused on VC backed ventures, and running a commercial function for a global resourcing company.

Hugo met Olivia in 2005 and having run a boutique HR & Change Search business together, they decided to set up Tucker Stone in 2010. It has been an awesome adventure and has allowed them both to build an honest, relationship driven boutique Search company that focuses on best practice and instinct.

Hugo enjoys recruiting across all HR specialisms but is particularly experienced in CPO and CHRO appointments. He also leads the international practice which has grown exponentially in the last 2 years placing a number of global HR leaderships positions in the US and mainland Europe.

Hugo’s clients are diverse and include corporate organisations and private equity houses: News Corp, Dow Jones, GSK, Montagu PE, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Nomura and SoundCloud.

Hugo lives in Surrey with his wife Maithili and their three children, Poppy, Lyra and Bertie. He has two miniature Dachshunds (Mr Bojangles and Colonel Buzzington) who run a very noisy house. Hugo likes to cook, particularly in his wood fired oven, and play old man tennis when he can.

Mark Ladds

Partner - Interim

Mark has over 16 years’ recruitment experience with the last 12 years specialising in interim Human Resources recruitment. This experience has predominantly been gained within 2 well-known HR recruitment brands where Mark led their respective Interim Practices whilst also personally delivering senior level interim HR and change/transformation hires.

Over this time, the relationships he has made with clients and candidates alike have grown into a network that spans all industry sectors and numerous geographies. Mark loves working in the interim market and truly believes in the benefit and value-add that an experienced consultant can bring to an organisation.

Mark joined Tucker Stone in 2019 as Interim Partner where he leads on all senior interim HR appointments across the L&OD, Reward, Resourcing, Talent, HR Ops and Generalist HR space.

Mark lives in Berkshire with his wife Sharyn and their two children Joshua & Isla. Outside of work, when he’s not operating as a taxi service for his children, Mark enjoys attempting to improve his BBQ skills and getting outside on the trails for a long run.

Moyra Corbett

Search Partner

Moyra brings over twenty five years’ experience working in HR search and senior HR leadership roles for well-known FMCG and retail brands. Having run a successful HR search firm for ten years where she partnered with a number of globally recognised organisations across diverse sectors to help them attract the best talent, Moyra made the move to Tucker Stone three years ago, to work as part of a larger team. Moyra has successfully led searches across UK and Europe for leadership positions, including CPO and HRD appointments, as well as senior management roles within the Talent and Development, Employee Experience, Resourcing, Reward and People Operations arena. In addition to Moyra’s search expertise, she is passionate about leadership and career coaching. Having successfully completed the Professional Certificate in Coaching at Henley Business School, Moyra has continued to develop her coaching practice, working with a range of clients as an executive leadership and career coach to help them unlock the barriers that might be holding them back and to help them transition into a new role or organisation.

Moyra lives in West Berkshire and is married to Nick and has one step-daughter Amy (now living in Australia). Outside of work, Moyra loves to spend time exploring the countryside, catching up with friends and enjoying good food and wine. Any excuse to travel features highly on Moyra’s agenda – be that to Cornwall, Africa or farther afield!

Olivia Stone

MD & Founder

Olivia has spent 18 years recruiting within the People space, and has worked with businesses across the globe, large & small, across all industries. Over the last few years, Olivia has focused on partnering CEOs and placing CPOs in Private Equity-backed businesses, where the need for commercial, results-driven HR is in extremely high demand. Often, the mandate comes during a time of growth or significant business transformation, and the impact a truly capable HR leader can have can be seen almost immediately. It is incredibly challenging but enormously rewarding work.

Olivia has always said “It’s all about our network,” and she is proud to have worked with, partnered, and placed, some of the best HR leaders in the world. “We spend valuable time nurturing and growing our network of the best of the best in HR leadership – our candidates really matter to us. It seems extraordinary that this marks us out from many other search firms, but time and again it’s true.”

Hugo & Olivia have worked tirelessly to build a team of world-class HR Search Partners, and are incredibly proud of the reputation the name Tucker Stone garners in the industry. Their team is their biggest asset – real experts, all bringing unique personalities to the table, but all sharing the desire to do great work.

Olivia continues to champion the role that Tucker Stone plays in the HR search space – as a trusted and challenging partner to clients, and a loyal and proactive advocate of their candidates. Tucker Stone is called upon when there is a critical need for real expertise - be that a highly confidential search, a higher calibre of People Function, a rare set of skills, a reputational challenge, or the need for a modern, fast-paced approach to search.

Olivia lives in Suffolk with her husband, Adam, their two children, and more animals than it’s sensible to mention!

Rachael Bailey

Search Partner

As an HR search specialist and keen relationship builder, Rachael has proven stakeholder management skills and a track record of delivering innovative resourcing methodologies in line with business objectives. Her natural consultative nature lends itself perfectly to a broad range of companies who benefit from Rachael’s tailored approach.

For over 25 years, she has built an extensive knowledge and prominent network across the HR and people functions; especially in the commerce and industry markets. This has been achieved through active engagement with professionals in the field, fostering long-term connections with industry experts. Additionally, Rachael loves organising tailored events such as roundtables, providing a platform for HR professionals to come together, share ideas and gain valuable insights.

By joining Tucker Stone, Rachael is now eager and excited to further leverage her expertise and passion for HR with like-minded individuals. She is always looking to extend her network and support forward-thinking organisations and HR professionals in finding their best-fit roles and partners.

Away from the world of HR, some of Rachael’s personal passions include travel, visiting the theatre (there’s a wannabee thespian in there somewhere!), retail therapy and eating out. Being based in West London with her family (husband, son & daughter) allows regular trips into the capital to experience the delights it has to offer.

Vanessa Blackburn

Search Partner

Vanessa spent the first 27 years of her career having fun and being challenged across a range of international organisations in HR leadership roles. All these organisations had one thing in common, a strong customer ethos, something that is still fundamental to how she likes to work.

She made the move into HR Executive Search over 5 years ago and hasn’t looked back! She is entirely driven by the desire to provide the best level of support to both her candidates and clients and is known for a strong sense of quality and the ability to spot excellent talent.

She has had the privilege of working with some of the most progressive organisations in HR, who strive to develop the employee experience, such as American Express and Nike. Having been on the on the other side of the table, she has made it her goal to constantly raise the bar on both candidate and client management experience.

She has enjoyed the last 5 years in Executive Search immensely, spending time in two very different established businesses. She now feels she has found her home at Tucker Stone in an entrepreneurial, empowered environment that recognises the value a deep expert in their chosen field of HR can bring to the team.

Known to many as Ness, she has a strong desire to achieve the best she can and gets a real kick out of recognising the potential of both individuals and organisations. She always loved being an HR Business Partner and was in her element as she moved into specialising in all things Talent. She continues to be both engaged and motivated by the progression of the HR function and loves the multiple directions a career in HR can take you. She’s particularly interested in Employee Engagement and Performance and loves anything to do with Data and Analytics!

She lives in Brighton with her husband Bob and her children Nancy and George and is desperate for them to stay with her forever, but at 18 and 22 realises this dream will be cut short in the not-too-distant future. Hopefully her three dogs and two horses will fill some of the gap!

Anastasia Shah

Project Coordinator

Read Bio

Gemma Vaughan

Head of Candidate Experience

Read Bio

Hugo Tucker

MD & Founder

Read Bio

Mark Ladds

Partner - Interim

Read Bio

Moyra Corbett

Search Partner

Read Bio

Olivia Stone

MD & Founder

Read Bio

Rachael Bailey

Search Partner

Read Bio

Vanessa Blackburn

Search Partner

Read Bio

There’s nothing like working with people who love what they do. Our results come through expertise, integrity, challenge and an uncompromising desire to exceed expectations – all wrapped up with a bit of Tucker Stone personality.

Hugo Tucker, MD & Founder - Tucker Stone