Graphite Partners
Chair, since October 2025
Jo Sellick with Max Williamson, Founder and Managing Director, Graphite Partners
In their words
“I wanted a founder as Chair, not a corporate leader who has built a business for someone else. I wanted someone who has experienced the highs and lows and always had skin in the game. Very few recruitment founders have founded, scaled and exited a business, and Jo has. What struck me was that Sellick Partnership kept growing substantially after he sold it. He built a sustainable business on the right operational foundations, which is exactly what we want to build at Graphite.
“For someone with his track record, Jo is a low ego individual. He’s happy to get stuck into the detail, no task is beneath him, and he’s more interested in what’s right for the business than in who gets the credit. I’d recommend him to any entrepreneurial, founder-led people business looking to scale: he’s pragmatic, acts quickly and has good instincts.”
Max Williamson, Founder and Managing Director, Graphite Partners
The business
Graphite Partners recruits for private equity funds and corporate finance houses, with a decade-long track record and a blue-chip client base. Based in the North of England, with offices in Manchester and Sheffield, it is led by Founder and Managing Director Max Williamson. In early 2026 it launched an Executive Finance division, placing finance leaders and Chairs into private equity-backed and high-growth founder-led businesses.
The brief
Graphite had strong foundations and clear plans to expand. In 2025 Max set out a ten-year plan to build a business with real equity value, one that can run independently of its founder. He brought Jo in as Chair at the start of that journey to help develop and implement the business strategy and turn that ambition into reality.
How Jo works with them
As non-executive Chair, Jo works with Max and the leadership team on strategy, growth and governance as Graphite expands. The leadership team now meets monthly to review performance for the month and quarter, pinpoint the challenges and agree how to fix them, with Jo bringing a second pair of eyes and often a different perspective.
What’s changed
Graphite started 2026 strongly and launched its Executive Finance division at the start of the year. Jo helped assess both of its 2026 Director hires and get them over the line. The second, who will lead Graphite’s expansion into the Midlands, will be announced in Q4.