Barton leaves headhunter Longbridge

The firm said she resigned to take time off and pursue outside interests related to the internet. She had been at Longbridge for six years and during past three helped develop e-bridge and its internet recruitment product, search-direct.

This matches employers and candidates without the intervention of an agency. Search-direct was initially aimed at lawyers but expanded to target banking the sector.

Frank Varela, chief executive of Longbridge, said the firm planned to hire a replacement for Barton.

Longbridge, which operates in legal and financial services search as well as insurance, energy and other sectors, has this year opened an office in Frankfurt and one in Sydney, which is headed by Philip McCann. Varela said the Sydney office aimed to hire more recruiters.

He said that in London the firm had added five new hires over the past year to its financial services practice, bringing the current total to 11 covering the sector.

In May, Colin Smith and Simon Miles, both headhunters, left Longbridge to join Global Markets Search's equity derivatives division.