
Introducing Your
Business Support Team
Aim High. Act With integrity. Make It Special.
Aim High. Act With integrity. Make It Special.
Whether you’re flying solo or guiding a team, you’ll likely need a co-pilot to help navigate your journey.
Our team’s mission is to help you achieve optimum performance.
With oodles of related and relatable experience between them, our team supports recruitment businesses of all sizes to save time, sell more, spend less, and stand out. From strategy to implementation, we’ll ensure you maximise your potential and have fun doing it.
Looking for a mentor? We’ve got you covered there, too.
Check out our profiles and get in touch today.
Recruitment Business Advisor

Simon Lewis
Recruitment Entrepreneur & RecConnect Founder
A former Sunday Times journalist, Simon began his recruitment career back in the day when mobile phones were shaped like bananas, CVs were faxed, and smoking in the office was encouraged.
For five fruitful years Simon built a reputation as an astute IT contract recruiter, before leveraging his burgeoning professional network to commence a noughties journey that included rec2rec, marketing and finance executive search, job board initiatives, and APSCo advisory.
Eighteen years, multiple awards and two successful MBOs later, RecConnect was founded to empower recruitment agencies to find an edge, work with purpose, and achieve goals. Skilled as a project manager, creator, collaborator, litigator, strategist, and mentor, Simon is passionate about mindset and leadership development and excels helping solopreneurs be more efficient, enjoy working, and reach optimum performance.
Super Powers
Sales Strategy
Business Healthcheck
Content Writing
Expert Events Producer
Expert Business Strategist

Jack Barton
Recruitment Growth Specialist
A big picture entrepreneur, Jack is an enigmatic business growth specialist with a mindset fueled by
positive psychology, high performance, clear leadership, and ethical business values.
Following a seven-digit MBO from the Built Environment recruitment agency he started in 2024,
Jack realized further exits before joining the RecConnect board to help business owners turn their dreams into reality quicker.
A technical, tactical, and back-office specialist, Jack works with recruitment leaders to develop the
groundwork and infrastructure to success.
With a genuine enthusiasm for early-stage businesses, Jack’s unique experience creates maximum impact.
Jack has featured in the Sunday Times Virgin Fastrack, been an event speaker,
and in 2025 his last recruitment business, Oyster Partnership, hit the industry award headlines for all the right reasons.
Sales Strategy
Business Healthcheck
Preparing Your Business For Sale
Business Growth Planning
Recruitment Operations Specialist

Maria Vavoulas PMP®
Recruitment Operations & Strategy Specialist
Maria’s unique blend of recruitment ops, strategy planning, leadership development, and critical thinking, dovetails effortlessly with her creativity, dynamism, and fearless focus to ‘get stuff done’.
For fifteen years Maria has helped business executives, leadership teams, and stakeholders achieve their objectives by holding them accountable from initiation through to implementation, providing objectivity, balance, and spirited endeavour that accelerates growth through context and collaboration. Providing platform, people and process support, Maria is an expert at the design and execution of business strategies, plans and procedures, achieving results every time.
RecConnect members benefit from Maria’s energy and passion for excellence, as well as her commanding (and entertaining) presence on stage at our live events and online workshops.
Getting organisations focused on continuous improvement.
Super Powers
Sales Strategy
Operations
Streamlining Processes
Bringing Teams Together
Customer Success & Marketing

Grant Bristow
Recruitment Marketing & Success Specialist
Following a successful career within job board sales, Grant’s natural flare for creative thinking and relationship management makes him a natural proponent of any marketing and customer success strategy.
A fast and pragmatic thinker, Grant deploys more than a decade of industry experience to help RecConnect members find solutions to the challenges keeping them awake at night. Blessed with an ability to simplify and segment even the toughest trials, Grant’s empathetic disposition inspires positive outcomes.
Grant is also well networked within the recruitment vendor space, so a useful person to know.
UPGRADE TO BENEFIT FROM OUR ADVISORY SERVICE
To benefit from our advisory service you can upgrade your Aviator package to Navigator, Once activated this service will be available to you
Our Purpose
Our Specialist Business Advisory TeamHave The Experience And The Answers Let Us Guide You To Success
