Mind Partners UK, your international
executive search, interim management and senior advisory firm

Louis-Marie has 20 years of professional experience in the recruitment sector and in identifying and approaching potential candidates directly. He began his career with the leader in specialist recruitment before helping to create an international group.
Seeking a closer working relationship with his clients and candidates, he founded Mind Partners in 2013 to offer high-end, tailored recruitment services.
He now focuses on identifying executives and business leaders.
His experience and expertise also make him the preferred contact for decision-makers and investment funds' investment teams.
In 2018, he opened an office in London with Valéryane Elphick to help French intermediate-sized companies establish and structure their businesses in the UK.
In 2020, Louis-Marie completed his service offering by founding Mind Transition, the Interim Management division of the Mind Partners group, with Julien Richet-Cooper and Etienne Morice.

Valéryane Elphick is an experienced executive search, interim management expert, and entrepreneur with over 20 years of international experience in New Zealand, Australia, and the UK.
She co-founded Mind Partners UK with Louis-Marie Simoneau in 2018 and has launched multiple companies during her career. Her focus is on assisting European and French businesses, from SMEs to corporate family offices, with their expansion into Anglo-Saxon markets, specialising in senior leadership appointments.

Valéryane has a diverse industry background, including manufacturing industry (aeronautics, nuclear, construction, renewable energy...), FMCG (food, cosmetics...), pharmaceuticals, and commercial real estate. She also specialises in identifying and recruiting international talent for the French and European markets, providing a unique cross-border recruitment service.

Arnaud Leurent is a graduate from NEOMA Reims and Middlesex Business School in London. He is also a certified organisational coach from HEC Paris.
After 18 months as a Development Manager at the French Embassy in Quito, he spent the first 15 years of his career in senior international business development at Sagem, Oberthur, Airbus and Michelin.
He then joined Alma Consulting Group as a Commercial Director and later on became M&A Director at Rivière Consulting.

In 2010, he founded his own international consultancy and advisory firm. In 2020 All Winds, merges with Salveo/ADIT Group. Arnaud was appointed Deputy Managing Director. In 2025, he founded Valear Partners, a platform for Senior Advisors specialising in international development.
Over the past 15 years, he has supported more than 300 companies across all sectors on a wide range of international development challenges (strategy, buildup, go-to-market, etc.) in over thirty countries.
Today, Arnaud works primarily as a senior advisor and coach for international development and as a trainer for companies willing to accelerate their international growth and their performance by adopting best practices, tools, methodologies and networks. Arnaud is also a specialist for Latin America and Asia. His clients are mainly family-owned or LBO-backed large SMEs and mid-market companies, as well as investment funds such as Eurazeo, with whom he has been collaborating for 12 years.

Arnaud served as a French Foreign Trade Advisor for 15 years. He is currently a director at several companies and organisations, including OSCI and La Fabrique de l’Export, as well as Vice-President of Stratexio, and has been a speaker for Formatex and BPI’s accelerators for the past 10 years.

Thierry has 30 years of professional experience in companies and recruitment agencies.
Having developed export markets in the household equipment sector, he expanded his scope and worked for 15 years in Specialised Distribution as purchasing director (PPR/Kering and Kingfisher).
In 2011, he decided to draw upon his expertise in headhunting and recruitment. He has been helping stock exchange-listed groups and family-owned companies to source their management teams and specialists for over a decade.
Backed by solid expertise in the business and an excellent knowledge of the corporate world and recruitment, Thierry is a networker and a multi-specialist recruiter, specialising in complex recruitment assignments and identifying business leaders.
In 2026, he was appointed Director of Mind Transition, a role dedicated to accelerating the development of the Mind Partners Group's interim management business. This initiative aims to provide increasingly customized services to our long-standing clients, including family-owned SMEs, mid-cap companies, and private equity fund investments across France and the United Kingdom.

Pierre-Yves is a multi-disciplinary recruiter known for his versatility and global approach. For more than 15 years, he has assisted his clients in all types of professional occupations and business sectors with projects in France and internationally.
He excels in managing complex and innovative assignments (creating new posts, redefining scopes, sourcing rare profiles internationally), often with a strong technical element (including the industrial, technological, IS, IT and digital sectors.).
Pierre-Yves, active with business angels, venture capital and private equity funds, is the preferred contact for investment funds and their holdings, from start-ups to intermediate-sized enterprises, particularly in the field of impact (social, societal and environmental).
As a B Leader, Pierre-Yves supports companies in their B Corp certification and works closely with his clients to establish and develop their CSR/ESG policies.

Cynthia Ourizi is an experienced recruiter. She advanced through Adecco in Paris, managing specialist teams and high‑volume programs. In London, she strengthened ties at the French Chamber, advising companies entering the UK and nurturing an executive network. She returned to executive search in 2023, securing C‑level talent for banking, legal, and consultancy firms. Joining Mind Partners in March 2024, she leads cross‑border searches, from brief to offer, including market scans, candidate evaluation, and stakeholder coordination.

Sibylle is a Franco-British graduate of NEOMA Business School and has lived abroad for 20 years.
She started her career in Asia and London in sales, in the financial sector and then in SaaS software.
Keenly interested in café culture and convinced combining simplicity and healthy food is possible, she has opened a vegetarian restaurant in London alongside her corporate life.
In 2019 Sibylle joined Mind Partners UK, which was in the middle of its development phase.
She swiftly launched the Mind Partners group into the adventure of B Corp certification, which it obtained in June 2022.
Sibylle is now based in the Paris office, where she specialises in CSR and works on recruitment assignments as well as supporting SMEs in their sustainable development ambitions.
She mainly deals with industrial clients, tech and CSR projects.

Montfort may be the youngest member of the team, but he already has a good understanding of what's at stake in the world!
Once he had passed his A-levels, he chose to study philosophy to gain a better understanding of his environment and deepen his knowledge. He developed a critical sense, listening skills and an ability to summarise. And he gradually developed a desire for discoveries that were more in touch with reality... He flew to New Zealand, where he spent a year wwoofing, living as close as possible to local life.
Like a concrete expression of the philosophical theories he had learned earlier, Montfort discovered through this experience the complexity and richness of human relationships. He also honed his desire to work in a professional environment that places these relationships at its heart, and decided to return to train in Human Resources.
In November 2023, Montfort joined the firm as part of a work-study programme for his Masters in Human Resources.

After 15 years working in communications in France and abroad, in agencies and companies, Gaëtane joined Mind Partners in 2016.
Familiar with all types of environments and customers, Gaëtane adapts to and manages a variety of issues. She works with both very small businesses and international groups, particularly in the industrial, luxury and healthcare sectors.

Very much aware of Mind Partners' tailor-made approach, she also leads a number of the firm's internal structuring and development projects (communication, marketing and office management projects).

In 2018, Gaëtane obtained her certification in the Map&Match tool and offers a complementary service to our customers.

Since September 2019, Gaëtane has been living in the United Arab Emirates. She remains connected to her original missions and her presence in Dubai becomes an opportunity to intervene locally and regionally for our customers.