Phenomenally successful head-hunter David Spencer-Percival was wealthy enough to retire at the tender age of 30. But then he got really bored really fast. "Money really does change your life," he says. "But it doesn't particularly make you happier." British entrepreneur David Spencer-Percival and his wife, interior designer Bonita excitedly tour the new Spencer Ogden Energy office in Hong Kong. Though designed as a place to do business, the interesting space looks anything but corporate.

Here, the floors are carpeted in a dense layer of green Astroturf; the walls are adorned with chalkboards drawn up with American rapper Kanye West lyrics -- "I don't know what's better, gettin paid or gettin laid" -- and Gordon Gekko's infamous Wall Street quote: "Lunch is for wimps". There are round tables for working, chairs and sofas to sink into and ¡V best of all - two meeting rooms designed as Gentlemen's Clubs, complete with a faux fire place, leather bound armchairs and full-scale prints of Andy Warhol's iconic Chairman Mao series.

Easing himself into a hard wooden chair at the head of an imposing table, Spencer-Percival, co-founder of the dynamic British energy recruitment firm, glances at the communist-era posters hanging on the wall. "At Spencer Ogden Energy we do things differently," he says. "When we started out I thought to myself that I never wanted to sit in a dull office again with blue carpets, grey cubicles and faceless white walls. I wanted to do something interesting for a change. The first office Bonita and I did featured a bespoke kitchen and an ?18,000 Ralph Lauren martini bar. I wanted to have cocktails at work, and be like [the popular American television series] Mad Men. We spent far too much; but we had the money and we didn't care."

At 42, Spencer-Percival, it seems, is a man happy in his job. He is, after all, at the helm of one of the fastest growing companies in the United Kingdom, and one of the fastest growing energy recruitment agencies in the world. He set up the London-based firm three years ago with business partner Sir Peter Ogden, the co-founder of ?3 billion turnover Computacentre, and has worked tirelessly ever since to ensure its global success. And a success it's been.

In its first year of operation, Spencer Ogden Energy turned over ?4 million and billed fees of ?1.6m. In 2012, the rapidly expanding firm achieved a turnover of ?30m, had a fee income of ?12m, and made ?2.5m in profit. This year the predicted turnover is a staggering ?53m.
"Our growth rate is phenomenal," explains Spencer-Percival. "Within the past six months we have opened offices in Houston, London, Singapore and Hong Kong. Other planned offices set to open this year include Dubai, Berlin, Rio de Janerio and New York. Next year we will be setting up in Kazakhstan, and then hopefully in top-tier cities in mainland China. There is at least another five years ahead of us before we can even think about slowing down.

"Singapore is our regional hub due to its proximity to Indonesia and Malaysia, while Hong Kong is our foothold into China," he continues. "As the largest importer of oil and gas, and the world's largest user of energy, China is a colossal market for us. But operating there has been very difficult for us. We have employed local Chinese speaking graduates who can work with Chinese national oil and gas companies, and place Chinese people into China. We are not looking to fly expats into energy from the West. We are looking to supply the local market with local people and that takes time.

"Being in Hong Kong is a way for us to enter China, until we can open our own offices there. We have to wait three years for a wholly owned foreign entity license before we can proceed."

Such aggressive global positioning means that Spencer Ogden Energy will be able to deliver comprehensive coverage to clients around the world, and across all sectors-oil and gas, nuclear, power generation, finance, trading and mining.

Alongside this rapid growth in locations has come a remarkable growth in head count. The new Hong Kong staff will be joining a global team of 250 employees, which is set to increase to 500 by 2014. The average age of the company staff is just 24 years old, the result of a policy Spencer-Percival has on hiring fresh graduates.

"This is our secret weapon," he says. "Graduates are proactive, focused and energetic, and they really want to succeed. But the real reason we do it is because we just can't find enough good recruiters on the scale that we need. We have our own graduate academy-three months of intensive training with a series of modules teaching them all that they need to know in order to excel in recruitment.

"I only hire people I like," he adds. "I will not work with anybody I don't like, no matter how good they are. I don't do technical interviews and I always ask inappropriate questions. I remember interviewing one girl, and I asked her what she did for leisure at nighttime. She told me she was a street car racer. She broke into warehouses, stole cars and raced them. I employed her on that basis, and she was good."

It is not surprising then, given his unusual approach to hiring, that Spencer-Percival is not greatly impressed by candidates with a stellar academic record. He himself dropped out of an English grammar school at the tender age of 16. "My school teacher once said to me, ¡¥you outgrew school very quickly'. I was a very confident and cocky individual and I just wanted to earn money. So I started to work for a bank, and hated it. Then I worked for British fashion designer John Richmond, which I loved. I had free clothes, went to the best parties and socialised with the prettiest girls.

"Then, at the age of 26, I was introduced to the world of recruitment by a friend. I didn't even own a proper suit and I had long curly hair. But within a couple of months I discovered that I could make tons of money as a recruiter, which is what I had ultimately been looking for. I came to the conclusion that we live in a capitalist society and I had the choice to either fight it or go with it. So I thought I would run with it and go after the money. And money really does change your life. It doesn't particularly make you happier, but it definitely changes your life."

He first flexed his entrepreneurial muscle in 2000 when he co-founded recruitment company Huntress Group. After building up the business for seven years, and turning it into an award-winning, multi-million pound company, Japanese bank Nomura acquired it for ?68 million.

"I had enough money to retire, but not to retire in the way that I wanted to. I didn't ever have to work again, but I couldn't get on a private jet and buy new sports cars every year.

"I was driven by money, but I had spent so much time chasing it, that when I actually got it, it was disappointing. I felt a little hollow and very old. I remember sitting in our amazing manor house in the English countryside with seven luxury cars parked in the driveway, and I just thought this isn't enough.

"I wanted to do it again, but in my own way. That was the key. After we had sold Huntress I was getting paid a fortune to stay on and run the company, but I couldn't make the decisions I wanted to make. I wanted my own company. I was at the top of my game and too young to just throw in the towel. When Sir Peter and I started Spencer Ogden Energy we said one thing we wanted to do is to have fun. And that is exactly what we have done."


WORDS ELIZABETH WOOD
The PEAK AUGUST 2013