Croft & Co appoints Partner to launch dedicated Buy Side capability as firm expands into investment-led hiring

Boutique executive search firm Croft & Co has appointed Mark Young as Partner, marking a strategic expansion of its senior team and a move into dedicated Buy Side hiring for asset managers and hedge funds.

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The appointment reflects Croft & Co’s next phase of growth: extending its front-office search expertise beyond advisory-led hiring into firms that directly control capital, investment strategy and long-term value creation.

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Mark brings more than 20 years’ executive search experience working with investment firms across the Buy Side. Prior to joining Croft & Co, he ran his own boutique search firm for ten years, following eight years at Sheffield Haworth across EMEA and Asia. Earlier in his career, Mark spent eight years in front-office roles as a Fixed Income Salesman at HSBC and Nomura in London, giving him first-hand commercial insight into the markets he now advises.

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Mark’s appointment signals Croft & Co’s intention to formalise and deepen its coverage of investment-led organisations, where hiring decisions are increasingly shaped by longer time horizons, risk management and alignment with capital strategy. As the firm’s first Partner hire dedicated to this area, Mark will strengthen its offer to asset managers and hedge funds at a time when senior hiring decisions carry greater strategic weight.

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Commenting on the appointment, Alex Croft, founding partner of Croft & Co, said:

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“Mark’s hire is a very deliberate step for us. We’re expanding beyond advisory-led mandates into firms that directly control capital and long-term investment decisions, where the cost of a mis-hire is felt over years, not quarters. Mark brings the experience, judgement and commercial understanding needed to operate at that level, while fitting our senior-led, precision approach.”

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Mark Young added:

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“I am delighted to have joined Croft & Co to build their Buy Side coverage and contribute to the growth and ambition of the business as it continues to scale.”

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Founded in 2024, Croft & Co operates across London and Paris, specialising in front-office financial services hiring across M&A, private equity, asset management and hedge funds. The firm combines executive-search rigour with a highly focused, senior-led delivery model, working on a small number of mandates at any one time and sourcing primarily passive candidates. Its work is concentrated on mid to senior-level roles across the UK, France and wider EMEA, with a growing number of cross-border and team build-out assignments completed over the past year. 

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As seen in The Recruiter and Global Recruiter.