Graham Palfery-Smith has joined global recruitment company Robert Walters as regional UK and Ireland director.

He will be charged with the task of growing business at the company’s four regional offices in Manchester, Reading, Guildford and Dublin.

Best known as an industry deal-maker and entrepreneur, Palfery-Smith’s recruitment career has spanned over 20 years. He led the flotation of Harrison Willis and played a key role in the UK expansion of TMP during the late 1990s. For the past four years he has run a mergers and acquisitions and corporate development consultancy.

But he said he now relished a new challenge: “Personally I wanted something that I found interesting and exciting. Starting from scratch was not an option as I have already done that twice in the last 20 years.

“My aim now is to ensure that the group of operations makes a major contribution to the company’s profitability,” he added.