Jodie Garrington
Founder | Partner | Board & Non-Executive Search Specialist
Jodie Garrington is a founder of NED Capital and a senior executive search professional with extensive experience advising businesses, boards, and investors on senior leadership and non-executive appointments. With a career spanning more than fifteen years in executive search and leadership advisory, Jodie has built a reputation for combining rigorous assessment with a highly personal, values-led approach to board composition.
At NED Capital, Jodie plays a central role in shaping the firm’s strategy, culture, and client proposition. She works closely with business owners, investors, chairs, and executive teams to strengthen governance, improve decision-making at board level, and support long-term sustainable growth. Her work focuses particularly on helping organisations understand what they truly need from non-executive directors—beyond job titles and CVs—and how the right board dynamics can materially change outcomes.
A Career Dedicated to Leadership and Governance
Jodie’s professional background is rooted in executive search, where she has spent her career advising organisations on some of their most important and sensitive decisions: who to trust with leadership, influence, and oversight.
Her experience spans senior executive appointments, partner hires, and board-level roles across a wide range of sectors, with particular strength in professional services, finance, and growing owner-managed and investor-backed businesses. Over time, her focus has increasingly moved towards non-executive and board appointments, reflecting a belief that strong governance is one of the most underutilised levers of business performance.
Unlike traditional recruitment, board and non-executive search requires a deep understanding of behaviour, judgement, and context. Jodie has developed her practice around these principles—recognising that the most effective non-executive directors are not defined by job titles alone, but by how they think, how they challenge, and how they contribute in the boardroom.
Co-Founding NED Capital
NED Capital was founded to address a clear gap in the market: the need for a specialist, governance-first approach to non-executive and board appointments. As a co-founder, Jodie was instrumental in defining the firm’s purpose, positioning, and methodology.
From the outset, NED Capital was designed to be different from generalist recruitment firms. Its focus is exclusively on boards, non-executive directors, chairs, and fractional leadership—recognising that these roles require a distinct assessment lens, a different type of candidate network, and a higher standard of advisory support.
Jodie’s contribution to the firm reflects her belief that boards should be intentionally built, not incrementally assembled. She works with clients to understand not just who they want to appoint, but why—and how each appointment will affect board dynamics, governance maturity, and strategic decision-making.
Philosophy: Boards That Add Real Value
At the heart of Jodie’s work is a simple but powerful idea: boards exist to improve the quality of decisions.
Too often, non-executive appointments are made reactively—driven by compliance requirements, investor pressure, or familiarity—rather than by a clear understanding of what the business genuinely needs at that stage of its journey. Jodie challenges this approach, encouraging clients to think more deliberately about board composition, capability gaps, and behavioural balance.
Her philosophy centres on several key principles:
1. Governance Before Prestige
A strong board is not about big names or impressive CVs. It is about independence, judgement, and the ability to challenge constructively.
2. Complementarity Over Cloning
The most effective boards are composed of individuals who bring different perspectives, experiences, and thinking styles—while still sharing core values.
3. Behaviour Matters
How someone behaves in the boardroom is often more important than what they have done before. Listening skills, emotional intelligence, courage, and integrity are critical.
4. Context Is Everything
What works for a listed business may not work for a founder-led SME or a private equity-backed company. Board roles must be designed for the specific context and future ambition of the organisation.
These principles underpin Jodie’s advisory work and form the foundation of NED Capital’s approach.
Expertise Across Business Stages
Jodie works with organisations at a wide range of stages, each requiring different governance solutions:
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Founder-led and owner-managed businesses seeking their first independent non-executive director
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High-growth SMEs looking to professionalise governance and prepare for scale
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Private equity-backed businesses navigating transformation, exit planning, or leadership change
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Established organisations refreshing board composition to meet new strategic or regulatory demands
In each case, Jodie helps clients articulate what “good governance” means for them—balancing challenge with support, independence with alignment, and experience with adaptability.
Supporting First-Time Non-Executive Directors
A significant part of Jodie’s work involves supporting experienced executives who are stepping into non-executive roles for the first time. She recognises that making the transition from executive to non-executive leadership requires a shift in mindset, influence, and responsibility.
Through NED Capital, Jodie provides guidance to candidates on:
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Understanding the legal and fiduciary responsibilities of NED roles
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Navigating the difference between operational involvement and strategic oversight
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Building a credible and sustainable portfolio career
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Selecting board roles that align with their values, experience, and long-term goals
Her approach is supportive but candid—helping individuals assess not only whether they can do a role, but whether they should.
The Midlands and Regional Leadership
Jodie leads NED Capital’s presence in the Midlands, a region she sees as central to the UK’s business landscape. The Midlands is home to a diverse mix of ambitious SMEs, professional services firms, manufacturers, and investor-backed businesses—many of which are increasingly focused on strengthening governance and board effectiveness.
By building a strong regional network of chairs, directors, investors, and advisors, Jodie ensures that NED Capital’s work is deeply connected to local business realities while maintaining national reach. She believes that trust and long-term relationships are essential in board search, and that regional presence plays a key role in delivering high-quality outcomes.
A Relationship-Led Approach
Clients and candidates alike value Jodie’s relationship-led style. She is known for taking the time to understand people as individuals—their motivations, concerns, and ambitions—rather than viewing appointments as transactional outcomes.
This approach is particularly important in board appointments, where success depends on long-term chemistry and mutual respect. Jodie often works with clients over many years, supporting multiple appointments as organisations evolve and governance needs change.
Her work is characterised by discretion, integrity, and honesty. She is willing to challenge assumptions, ask difficult questions, and slow the process down when necessary—because the cost of a poor board appointment is far greater than the cost of taking time to get it right.
Thought Leadership and Market Insight
As a founder of NED Capital, Jodie contributes to the firm’s thought leadership around governance, board effectiveness, and the evolving role of non-executive directors. She is particularly interested in:
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The growing importance of governance in SME and mid-market businesses
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The rise of portfolio careers and fractional leadership
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Board diversity beyond demographics—focusing on cognitive diversity and lived experience
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The balance between challenge and support in high-growth environments
Through NED Capital’s platform, Jodie supports initiatives that educate both businesses and aspiring non-executive directors, helping to professionalise the board market and raise standards across the sector.
Values and Professional Integrity
Jodie’s work is guided by a strong personal value system. She believes that trust is earned through consistency, transparency, and accountability—and that these qualities are just as important in search advisory as they are in governance.
She is committed to ethical recruitment practices, inclusive board composition, and long-term value creation. For Jodie, success is not measured by the number of appointments made, but by the impact those appointments have over time.
Looking Ahead
As businesses face increasing complexity—from economic uncertainty and regulatory pressure to technological change and evolving stakeholder expectations—the role of boards has never been more important. Jodie sees NED Capital’s role as helping organisations navigate this complexity with confidence, clarity, and strong governance foundations.
Her focus remains on building boards that are capable, courageous, and future-ready—boards that do more than comply, and instead actively contribute to better outcomes.
About Jodie Garrington at NED Capital
As a founder of NED Capital, Jodie Garrington combines deep executive search expertise with a genuine passion for governance and leadership. Her work reflects a belief that the right people, in the right roles, asking the right questions, can transform organisations.
Through NED Capital, she continues to support businesses and leaders who take governance seriously—and who understand that the strength of a board often determines the strength of the organisation it serves.
