HeadFirst Global, the workforce solutions and HR tech platform, has appointed Simon Blockley as Regional CEO, UK & Europe — a newly created role that expands his previous remit as UK CEO. The London-announced appointment brings the company's UK and European businesses under a single leadership structure at a moment when organisations are rethinking how people, specialist talent, and AI can work together to deliver better outcomes.

Blockley is no outsider hire. He has spent more than 12 years with the organisation, including leading its UK business, and carries over 25 years of experience in resourcing and managed services — a track record that positions the move as continuity as much as change.

One Leadership Structure for Two Key Markets

The combined regional structure is designed to help HeadFirst Global serve clients more effectively across the UK and Europe, with a more joined-up approach to market expertise, specialist talent networks, and technology. The company says the model also strengthens its ability to help clients redesign, access, and govern the capability they need across an increasingly blended workforce — one that mixes employed staff, contractors, and specialist talent at a time of skills shortages, cost pressure, and evolving regulation.

Group CEO Edzard Overbeek framed the appointment around a broader market shift: organisations moving away from thinking in roles and headcount and toward outcomes, and asking how human expertise, specialist capability, and AI combine to deliver them. He credited Blockley with a deep understanding of that shift and expressed full confidence in his ability to carry the company's vision across the region through its next phase of innovation and growth.

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A Stronger Platform for the Intelligence Era

For his part, Blockley pointed to the strength of the company's teams and client relationships built over his 12 years with the business, describing the unification of the UK and Europe as a stronger platform to help organisations access the right capability, adopt new blended ways of working, and deliver better outcomes. His appointment follows the departure of Marion van Happen, who stepped down as CEO, Europe after finalising the implementation of the group's new target operating model — handing over, in her words, with great confidence in Blockley's leadership.

About HeadFirst Global

HeadFirst Global positions itself as the leading work orchestrator built for the intelligence era. Formed through the union of HeadFirst Group and Impellam Group, it pairs a technology and data platform with global managed services leadership and specialist talent communities — a single ecosystem blending people and AI agents to deliver outcomes at scale. The group reaches 80+ countries, with a talent community of 1.5 million, more than €12bn in gross invoice value across the UK & Ireland, Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific, and over 40 years of heritage in the world of work.