Emma started her sales and sales management career working for Haagen Dazs selling into the FMCG vertical market.
Emma was then recruited by Yellow Pages initially as a Sales Manager of an internal sales team of 10 people and after 18 months was promoted to a field sales role.
Emma wanted to get into the IT sector and joined Eizo/PDS Ltd where she sold CRT and LCD monitors to the Banking Community with clients such as UBS, Morgan Stanley and ING Barings. After 9 months, she was asked to set up an internal sales team to focus on building and maintaining the Reseller Channel. Emma and her team grew the channel by 60% and increased revenues with accounts such as Computacentre, Info Products and Compel.
Emma was then headhunted to join Network Associates to manage Computacenter on a European Level and won Gold Vendor Status within 3 months for NAI competing against Symantec and Trend.
It was in 2000 when Emma joined Ashley Coutts as a recruitment consultant that she really found her true passion in business.
In 2001 Emma established Matchsticks with her husband Tom with a view to offering a portfolio of talent management services to IT Software organisations looking to build winning teams across Europe.
Emma is passionate about personal development and enjoys cooking and gardening.
Emma is the Sales and Human Resources Director for Matchsticks
Caroline Berry
Caroline graduated from The University of Leeds with a BA in French with Italian.
Her first role was with a high-level Executive Search firm operating in Investment Banking as a Researcher. Caroline joined a niche Executive Search firm specialising in commercial roles with the Technology and Telecoms marketplace and moved from Research in to Consultancy.
In order to focus on the pan-European opportunities with predominantly US software vendors, Caroline joined Harvey Nash as a Consultant. There she broadened her client base and expertise to encompass Finance and Management Consultancy roles. Ultimately Caroline focussed on Board Level and VP roles across the Hi Tech and IT Services sector. Caroline then moved to a Finance-only Search & Selection company, where she focussed on high-level finance roles across all vertical markets, with a particular focus on Technology and Telecoms.
She is fluent in French and has a strong background in delivering pan-European searches. She has a very good understanding of the mechanics of the Search process and her expertise encompasses delivering complex, multi-role and multi-discipline searches at all levels.
Caroline enjoys working for Matchsticks because of the company’s genuine client focus and its belief in clear communication combined with its emphasis on delivering the best possible service to both Matchsticks’ clients and candidates.
Caroline is our Executive Research Associate.
Tom Hackforth
Tom was born in Jersey spent the early years of his life living in Spain and went to school in North Yorkshire. On leaving school he bought a round the world ticket and visited Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii and America. This trip enabled Tom to meet many people from different cultures, backgrounds and age groups.
Tom's career includes
- IT training sales for Systems Group and IBM
- Sales role as the Lotus Notes Product specialist.
- Manager of the affiliate programme for a gifting portal - itsmywishlist.com.
- Field Sales Executive with Einstein Network who produce online educational material for continuous professional development.
In 2001 he co-founded Matchsticks with his wife Emma. Having been on the receiving end of the interview process on a number of occasions it has given him an insight into what attributes distinguish a good recruitment consultant from an average one.
Tom has a BA (Hons) in Business Administration. He is an avid follower of Queens Park Rangers, enjoys all sports and is currently learning to speak Spanish.
Emma started her sales and sales management career working for Haagen Dazs selling into the FMCG vertical market. 
Tom Hackforth