ARM is thirty!
As we enter our fourth decade in business, we’ve been reflecting on the people, relationships and experiences that have shaped ARM since 1996.
Few people are better placed to tell that story than our founder, Paul Huntingdon, and Leon Howgill, who joined ARM in 2000 and today leads the business as Chief Commercial Officer. Here, they share their reflections on thirty years of ARM.
Paul Huntingdon
Thirty years ago, after working for a competitor, I believed there was a better way to build a recruitment business: one that genuinely put clients, candidates and our people first.
My original ambition was simply to create a small team of good people who enjoyed coming to work, looked after one another and shared in the rewards of success. As we grew, so did our vision, but we never wanted to lose that family feel.
Thirty years on, what makes me proudest isn’t the awards or the growth, it’s the relationships we’ve built, the careers we’ve helped shape, the businesses we’ve supported and the lives we’ve positively changed. That’s a legacy worth celebrating.
What makes us proud
- Clients who have become lifelong friends
- Helping candidates secure life-changing career opportunities
- Watching graduates develop into managers, directors and business leaders
- Seeing employees achieve financial security, buy homes and raise families
- Welcoming the next generation into the business, including Paul’s daughters leading ARM International in Dubai
- Countless unforgettable reward trips, celebrations and memories
Looking forward
- Continue delivering exceptional service to clients and candidates
- Retain the entrepreneurial, family culture that has defined ARM from day one
- Keep attracting and developing outstanding people
- Continue changing lives through careers and business partnerships
- Ensure the next 30 years are even more successful than the first
– Paul
Leon Howgill
ARM was incorporated by Paul Huntingdon on August 27th, 1996. He wanted to launch a recruitment company defined by a focus on relationships, customer service and going above and beyond to solve problems for people.
When I joined the business in 2000, we had about twelve employees and an exciting startup culture. Although I was an experienced recruiter, I didn’t know a lot about hiring in technology recruitment. In a way that is typical of his approach, Paul trusted me to learn and develop, and gave me the opportunity to do so.
Old recruitment hands will know that the industry has seen a lot of change in thirty years, moving from an almost exclusively phone-and-email-based job through a variety of technology-enabled changes: job boards, social media, multiple messaging and communication platforms and so on. And of course AI now plays a significant role in recruitment, as well as being a thriving hiring sector in its own right.
But despite (or perhaps because of) the increasing part that technology plays in recruitment, relationship-building has never been more important. I’m proud of the enduring relationships we’ve built, and the talent communities we continue to develop in niche markets.
Many of our clients go back decades, and we’ve placed a good number of candidates several times over as their careers have developed, with many going on to become senior leaders and clients in their own right.
We’ve seen people build long careers here at ARM, developing with the business and building the lives they want. That relationship between our people, our clients and our candidates has always been fundamental to ARM. None of what we’ve achieved would have happened without the trust, loyalty and hard work of all three.
So, on behalf of the business, I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to all of you.
Over three decades, ARM has grown its capabilities, developed specialist markets, taken on major outsourcing projects and built relationships that have lasted. We’ve weathered significant challenges, made mistakes along the way, and learned from them. We’re still evolving, still ambitious and still excited about where we’re going next: growing internationally from our UK base and continuing to deepen our focus in AI, data centres, transport, infrastructure, various specialist engineering sectors, life sciences, cyber, SAP and more.
Paul started ARM on his own in 1996. Thirty years later, there’s a great team carrying that forward, and plenty more we want to do.
– Leon
Leon Howgill
Chief Commercial Officer (CCO)
