2iC Search

Chief Executive Officer

Forces Recruitment Solutions Group Ltd

Managing a recruitment business and offering advice, guidance and employment to ex-military personnel across a wide range of trades.

Managing Director

Forces Recruitment Services Ltd is a specialist recruitment consultancy for the Armed Forces covering all ranks, all services and backgrounds across the military spectrum. FRS has a network of offices across the UK. FRS covers vacancies in Defence, engineering, logistics, project management, training, ICT and administration

Manage a franchise network of ex-military Recruitment Specialists/Business Owners

Fitness Club Dynamics

Director

Bulldog Publishing

Set up and ran the leading resettlement magazine, Quest, for 3 years

Publishing Development Director

Hobsons Publishing

Hobsons in the leading education publisher in the UK.
Sold on a range of Hobsons titles including Graduate Studies, The Students Guide to Graduate Studies, Rethink, The Clearing Teletext service and latterly the Sales Manager for the FE team in Cambridge.

FE Sales Manager

British Army

Served as a Musician in 1RHF, serving at the Royal Military School of Music in1989 (instruments: trumpet, piano, cornet & bass guitar) with secondary trade as a medic. Operational duties in Op Granby 1991.

Lance Corporal

Why do I do this? ► I became the first ex-military recruitment specialist in the UK when I set up in 2001 because I believe our ex-military candidates to be the best trained workforce in the world and I am on a mission to help the next 10,000 servicemen and women into work. As an award-winning ex-military recruiter, I have been involved in sales and recruitment since leaving the army, including Sales Manager of The Officer & RAF In-flight magazines and setting up the resettlement magazine, Quest.

► EMPLOYERS come to me looking for managers and leaders who can make a difference and get stuff done. They are keen to avoid costly bad hires and want to find the right people who will stay, lead their teams and add value to the business. I set out to make bad hires a thing of the past. From employers who have used our Contribution Compass behavioural platform, we have only lost one candidate since 2019.

► HOW CAN WE HELP YOU? We have helped over 10,000 veterans into work (from the army, Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and the Royal Marines) from many trades and specialisms. 
My job is to help you to avoid the cost of a bad hire and make sure the fit is right.
Our fantastic team use our 3 pillars of successful hiring to find the right people:
1.	Skills & ability
2.	Natural behaviour
3.	Culture fit
We have a robust 6-stage interview process to ensure the best fit for both employer and candidate.

► WHAT DO VETERANS OFFER? Veterans offer skill, expertise and loyalty to the employers they serve. We have placed veterans into many positions over the years but the core of what we do now is to place mid-level Managers and board members into roles.

► WHO DO WE SERVE/HELP?
We place managers and directors into the following industries:
Ex-military recruitment
General Management recruitment
Logistics Management recruitment
Engineering Management recruitment
Facilities Management recruitment
Health & Safety Management recruitment
Warehousing Management recruitment
Supply chain recruitment
Telecoms recruitment
C-Suite head hunter
Training & education recruitment
Defence recruitment
Security Management recruitment

► A BIT ABOUT ME. As a military musician I have kept up my musical studies and I am now a Musical Director and Vocal Coach. I have 2 girls who are both passionate about music and theatre, making me a very proud Daddy! I also have fun working with Contribution Compass as a behavioural trainer and I love the people insight from that.

► BOOK A MEETING. Message me or email me at gbrown@forcesrecruitment.co.uk or book a meeting.
https://calendly.com/frs-gbrown-26

Welcome to the first Second-in-Command Newsletter. Over the coming months, we will share insights to help busy CEOs and business owners identify the right senior operations people and get the best out of them so their business can thrive.

Every visionary CEO has a secret weapon, and it’s not hustle, coffee, or chaos management.

It’s partnership.

The kind that brings structure to speed, calm to chaos, and turns big ideas into unstoppable momentum.

In this week’s newsletter, we reveal:
 ✅ The hidden superpower most founders overlook
 ✅ Real stories of how the right 2iC transformed growth and sanity
 ✅ Why hiring a COO isn’t delegation, it’s liberation
 ✅ Two standout leaders ready to power your next growth chapter

If you’re a founder ready to scale without burning out, this one’s for you.
👇 Read, reflect, and tell us, do you believe the Second-in-Command is the most underestimated growth role in business today?

Graham Brown

Ex-military recruitment champion, placing the best operations managers and directors in the UK.

View newsletter: The Second-in-Command Briefing

Every great CEO has a secret, and it’s not more hours, hustle, or caffeine. It’s partnership. Not just any partnership, but the kind that brings calm 

Open article: The Hidden Superpower Behind Every Great CEO by Graham Brown • 3 min read

The Hidden Superpower Behind Every Great CEO

Visionaries don’t scale businesses alone; they scale them with their Second-in-Command. Every fast-growing company reaches a tipping point, where vision races ahead of operations and the excitement starts to feel overwhelming.

That’s where the right Second-in-Command steps in. A trusted COO or senior operations leader brings structure to ambition, calm to chaos, and turns strategy into action.

Because the most powerful partnership in business isn’t just about leadership, it’s about alignment.

How do you build alignment between vision and operations in your business?

#Leadership #Veteran #Operations #COO #BusinessOwner #Director

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