Chris Stanford spent 35 years in the Royal Navy, before embarking on a second career in early 2002. He now heads the Healthcare Practice in Odgers Ray & Berndtson (www.odgers. com), currently the largest headhunters (executive search firm) by turnover in the UK. His job centres on finding people at CEO or director level (including non‐executives) to work in all areas of the NHS, government departments and agencies, charities, medical education and other areas. In the main, he works in the public and voluntary (not‐for‐profit) sector, although the company has practices that cover the entire private and commercial sector from life sciences to financial services.