Headhunter Odgers hires former Heidricks asset management specialist

Odgers said Morgan-Thomas had joined as a partner in London, to focus mainly on board-level asset management appointments. She would also have a role outside financial services, handling senior positions in sports organisations.

Heidrick said in June this year that Morgan-Thomas was leaving the firm's London practice, at a time when it announced it was shedding 13% of its global workforce because of the economic downturn.

She had worked for five years at Heidrick, which has recently undergone a number of changes that did not suit everyone at the firm. It went public in 1999 and the same year its financial services practice was transformed by the purchase of the US search firm, Sullivan & Co.

Odgers Ray & Berndtson, formed through the merger last year of Odgers with Ray & Berndtson, expanded early this year by acquiring the Berwick Group, a niche financial services practice.