Your Leadership Hiring Partner

We’ve been there, we get it

External partners, internal mindset

Leadership hiring delivered by former in-house Talent leaders, tailored for modern hiring teams.

Our team has built and led Executive Search functions at Dyson and other industry-leading organisations, working closely with ambitious and inventive leaders to appoint exceptional leaders across Corporate Functions to Research, Engineering and Aerodynamics. 

We created Barker Owen to bring that same standard of in-house excellence to you. Working with an external partner shouldn’t feel corporate, stuffy or removed from your reality. It should be enjoyable, personal and grounded in a deep understanding of your culture, challenges and long-term goals.

We provide the partnership and outcomes you need, in the way that works for you. Whether you’re hiring a world-class executive or developing an internal Executive Search capability that rivals external firms and saves significant cost, we’ve done it ourselves and know how to help you do it too.

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  • Board & Executive

    • Board, NED & Advisors

    • C-Suite, Executive

    Senior Leadership

    • VP & Director

    • Global & Regional Functional Heads

    Functions we cover:

    • Corporate Functions

    • Design & Engineering

    • Research & Science

    • Supply Chain & Manufacturing

    • Robotics & Software

    • Digital, Data & AI

    • Sales & Marketing

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About us

We have first-hand experience across all aspects of Executive Search and and have hired talent in over 75 countries in a variety of sectors from Retail, Tech & Media to Research and even Formula One.

Our careers have been defined by an ability to deliver complex leadership hires, whilst doing the basics exceptionally well. Ultimately helping companies unlock real commercial success through the leadership teams we built.

After years of working in-house together at Dyson, the BBC and Aston Martin Formula One, we started Barker Owen to be the external partner we never found as hiring leaders ourselves; an Executive Search company that understands and empathises with internal complexity and ambiguity along with the pressure to continually deliver results at pace, and to budget.

When you work with us, you’ll have us operating as an extension of your team, deeply invested in your goals and challenges.

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Sam Barker | Co-Founder & Partner

Led Talent and built Executive Search at Dyson, Aston Martin F1, BBC Studios,  Fortescue-WAE, Colt Technologies and Danone.

Sam has delivered countless highly confidential, high profile Executive and Board placements partnering some of the most innovative business leaders worldwide. 

Most recently Sam scaled Talent Acquisition at Aston Martin F1 including optimising hyper-niche hiring such as Aerodynamics.

Superpower: Gets straight to the heart of the issue — pinpointing the real performance drivers, stakeholder dynamics and outcomes that matter.

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Dave Owen | Co-Founder & Partner

Executive Search Partner by trade turned Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Dyson in Singapore.

Dave has also been a Hiring Strategy Advisor to the BBC and a handful of innovative Hiring Tech startups including Popp, Hackajob, Talent Spaces and Clu as former VC-backed Founder himself.

Dave’s specialty is researching and sourcing for talent roles that have never existed before.

Superpower: Creatively solving complex hiring problems using tech-powered strategies.

Get in touch

Interested in working with us? Or want to discuss our latest Executive Search opportunities? Please get in touch, we’d love to connect.

You can connect on LinkedIn or send us email at;

sam@barkerowen.com or dave@barkerowen.com