As Freshminds turns 25, Managing Director James Callander reflects on our history, achievements and staying power
I have been at Freshminds for most of my career and when speaking at events over the years and referencing Freshminds’ age I have almost thought of Freshminds as a fast-growing child (with a village of proud parents) – from the infancy of the start-up years, confidence and capability-building of primary school to the acceleration forward and growth of senior school and university.
This year, as Freshminds heads towards our 25th anniversary in September 2025, I think of us as at an exciting generational ‘coming of age’ moment.
We historically built a brand working with young, super smart people. Many of those with whom we worked with in the early 2000s are now managing partners, CEOs, COOs and leaders in the worlds of non-profit and government.
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Today, we work on roles and projects from junior analysts to CEOs – but the core thread that runs through Freshminds and our envied network of Minds is hard work, analytical understanding, emotional intelligence and drive.
Freshminds was founded by two fantastic entrepreneurs, who on leaving Oxford University in 2000 aged only 22, decided that rather than take job offers at McKinsey and Company, founding a network-powered research and recruitment firm called Freshminds might present a better ‘roll of the dice’ for their early careers. And now, some 25 years later, with a few lows and many more highs along the way, the rest is history.
While in the last decade the story of the young, disrupter entrepreneur has become fairly standard in Europe and the US – back in 2000 this really was quite an unusual move in London and helped us to lead the way in inviting entrepreneurial and innovative thinking into the worlds of research, on demand consulting and headhunting. Many of these professional service industries had been dominated by stalwarts and had not changed much for the previous 40 years.
"The core thread that runs through Freshminds and our envied network of Minds is hard work, analytical understanding, emotional intelligence and drive."
At our centre, we remain an entrepreneurial and ambitious business looking at the ways in which we can best support our clients and candidates within the changing world of consulting and work.
We have over 300 alumni, have completed over 10,000 projects, placed 8,000 individuals and teams into projects across the world and continue to focus on offering the highest standard of client service – while also aiming to be a great place to work and to develop your career. We have also paid directly and indirectly many millions of pounds in taxes in the UK and firmly want to champion the importance of enterprise, entrepreneurs and job creation in the UK.
Today, Adam and I have the privilege of running the company and setting its course for the years ahead, building on our platform of experience, reputation and and being ready for new opportunities.
If you have been with us from any point on our journey over the last 25 years, from the early years to more recently – please do get in touch by emailing marketing@freshminds.co.uk to share your Freshminds’ story – we would love to hear about how we helped with your project, job or broader career.
We aim to host a number of candidate, alumni and client events over the next 12 months to celebrate this milestone.
Clearly Freshminds is not actually a young adult, but we have strived to be a high quality and supportive organisation for thousands of people (young and older) over the last quarter of a century. And that is a huge point of pride to our team. While we are very excited about what AI can bring to the world, we know at heart that it is the human understanding of motivation, hopes, dreams and ambitions (and fears) which is provides the oil in the engine. We want to connect people so they can really thrive in their careers, projects and roles and in turn (and more importantly) enjoy the ‘life’ element of that ‘work life balance’.
Here’s to the next 25!
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