City SearchMaps was created by Mark Dupont.

An Australian, I grew up in Melbourne and moved to the United Kingdom in 1987, graduating in Philosophy and French at the University of Bristol, then spent three years teaching and translating, in Switzerland and Belgium. I settled in London at the end of 1995 and began working in executive research in March 1996, specializing from the outset in City banking searches.

I worked in-house for several executive search firms (Executive Access, Egon Zehnder, Jonathan Wren, Carr-Lyons, Thompson & Associates) before returning to freelance research in 2003 and joining the Executive Research Association.

As an in-house researcher it often seemed to me that too much time was spent on irrelevancies. The essential value of a researcher is to produce, for assignments requiring a search approach, a shortlist of qualified candidates from a wide trawl of the market - a search map. Most of this is achieved within 10 days. In creating City SearchMaps I made this job my focus again.

I have done searches across the full spectrum of areas in investment banking, asset management, insurance, private banking, broking and other financial industries.

When working on large assignments or at especially busy times I often enlist the help of professional research associates, but most of my work, especially the candidate approaches and subsequent communication with candidates, is done by me.

I am passionate about research. I strive to make tenacity, resourcefulness and thoroughness my watchwords.

We typically work to a daily rate and I agree fees with my client before commencing each assignment, taking into account their needs and budget.

We sometimes work on a project basis, if this makes sense from the clients and our perspective.

Apart from VAT, we have no charges for placement, or telephone costs or other administrative costs. We charge only for research time.

We offer recruitment professionals a simple, no frills service.

A minimum of typically 6 qualified, interested candidates per search assignment

Fast, accurate results based on 16 years experience in financial recruitment research

Confidentiality and discretion at all times

Consistent results based on a commitment to long-term partnerships

Commitment to staying with the search until the client is fully satisfied

Research based on original telephone research and direct sourcing of the market

Pro-active lateral thinking in sourcing candidates

As an alternative to shortlist presentation: extensive identification of candidates in target market area