Compliance & Risk


We partner with a wide range of clients, including international banking groups, high frequency trading firms, asset managers, hedge funds, private equity firms, consultancies, and other financial services institutions to manage their compliance, financial crime & risk management talent requirements.

Our coverage spans the UK, US, mainland Europe and Asia, where we have access to an extensive international network of senior talent. We specialise in senior-level appointments, from Chief Compliance Officers, Heads of Financial Crime and their senior leaders to Heads of Risk and their management team.

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Seniority Levels:

Chief Compliance Officer

Global Head of Compliance

Global Head of Financial Crime

Chief Risk Officer

MLRO/Deputy MLRO

Deputy Head of Compliance

Head of Compliance Advisory

Director, Financial Crime

AVP/VP/SVP Compliance / Financial Crime

Head of Operational Risk

Contact Us

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Matthew Simmons

Managing Director

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Peter Jecks

Director, Compliance & Risk

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Lewis Roman

Associate Director, Compliance & Financial Crime


Matthew Simmons

Managing Director

Matthew founded Simmons & Hanbury in 2018. He has advised on executive search and legal consultancy services for many global listed corporations over the last two decades. Prior to establishing Simmons & Hanbury, Matthew held various senior leadership positions, including head of legal practice and head of legal consulting practice at other global search firms. Over the course of his career he has developed an extensive network of cross-border candidates and clients within financial services.

Matthew has in-depth expertise within the financial services sector and has successfully completed search assignments for some of the most prestigious financial services firms in the world. This includes banks, investment funds, private equity houses and leading law firms. In addition, he has completed numerous assignments for corporations across a range of industries. He also leads several high-profile general counsel networking events.

Before moving into executive search, Matthew obtained a Master’s degree in Business Management & Marketing at the University of Westminster.


Peter Jecks

Director, Compliance & Risk

Peter joined Simmons & Hanbury in 2021 to lead and grow the risk and compliance practice. He has specialised in this area for several years, completing numerous searches throughout Europe within banks, investment funds and private equity firms. He also works with consultancies, insurance businesses as well as commerce and industry firms.

Peter has experience of assisting a variety of organisations with senior searches across Risk and Compliance on both a permanent and interim basis, as well as heads of specific departments. He has held several networking events, partnering with top-tier law firms and consultancies providing content on specific regulatory topics.

Prior to joining Simmons & Hanbury, Peter worked within the Compliance & Risk teams for two leading governance search firms.


Lewis Roman

Associate Director, Compliance & Financial Crime

Lewis joined Simmons & Hanbury in 2023 as an Associate Director to work in the Financial Crime & Compliance practice. He has specialised in this area for several years and has expertise across all sectors of financial services, successfully delivering on numerous searches across interim, mid-to-senior and heads of specific departments. 

Lewis has experience of managing various large-scale projects for leading global financial institutions, more specifically high-volume KYC/AML remediation programmes across the UK. Prior to joining Simmons & Hanbury Lewis worked at a global recruitment business, specialising in the Financial Crime and Regulatory Compliance markets.


Professionalism, integrity and trust are integral to the Simmons & Hanbury offering which are important, but often overlooked, delineations for me when selecting Matt and his team for hiring projects across the full spectrum of roles. This coupled with their in depth understanding of our business needs and alongside the breadth and depth of their market knowledge makes them hard to ignore.

$20 billion AUM Asset Manager, Global Head of Compliance

I have used Simmons & Hanbury for some time as both a candidate and a client. On the client side, they have always found good candidates for any role I have hired for and they manage the recruitment process extremely well. On the candidate side, they worked with me to secure a senior role. I was very impressed with their knowledge, diligence and professionalism. I would not hesitate to recommend Simmons & Hanbury to anyone looking to change jobs or to hire for new roles in the legal/compliance sector.

Tier 1 Investment Bank, Managing Director, General Counsel Division