Headhunter BNB will have a new full-time chief executive after a cadre of recruitment bigwigs offered cash and expertise to the firm.

Simon Grinstead, who has been acting as a part-time chief executive, will officially take the helm in May.

Pascal Guiessaz, Martin Pestalozzi and Roderick MacLeod are also set to buy into the firm if shareholders accept plans to buy headhunter Apollo for £1.2m.

Guiessaz, who runs Apollo and has had six years’ experience at Adecco – the world’s largest recruitment firm – will lead BNB’s management board.

Pestalozzi and MacLeod have a strong track record and were responsible for turning around the fortunes of Select Recruitment after they bought it in 1991.

Pestalozzi was formerly chief executive of Swiss-based Adia in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Adia later merged with Ecco to become Adecco.

MacLeod, who was also on Adia’s senior management team in the late 1980s, left with Pestalozzi and refinanced the then loss-making Select Recruitment.

BNB chairman Julian Treger said: “Combining the interests of MacLeod and Pestalozzi within one entity will bring added focus in the medium and long term.”

BNB’s board hopes the Apollo acquisition will allow it to cash in on a recovery in the UK and European market. The deal will see BNB, which has been struggling in recent years, receive a cash injection of £8m from the quartet.

Apollo turned over £10.9m in the 10 months to October last year but made a pre-tax loss of £479,000.