About Moxie

Moxie evolved from Numeric, a specialist search business that worked two parallel tracks: recruiting senior advisors for professional services firms and family offices, and supporting commercial businesses with specialist and executive finance appointments.

Today, we work exclusively with private, family and founder-led businesses, combining independent leadership advice with executive and operational search to help owners and boards make confident decisions about the people leading their businesses.

Private businesses naturally gravitated to us because we understood the advisory perspective. We could see the people implications of growth, transition, or capability gaps the way their advisors did.

Over time, we built deeper capability across operational and commercial leadership, not just finance. We also found ourselves working with owners and boards on questions that came before recruitment: where accountability should sit, whether existing leaders could grow with the business, and what management structure would support the next stage.

We rebranded to Moxie to reflect that focus. Executive search remains a core part of what we do, but our leadership advisory work now stands on its own — helping clients make practical decisions about existing leaders, future seats and the changes required.

We continue to work closely with the advisory community, combining nearly two decades of executive search and assessment experience with an understanding of the particular challenges of private ownership.

ABOUT MOXIE

Our standard

Good leadership decisions begin with understanding what the business needs to achieve, rather than assuming the answer is a new hire or accepting a role as it has always been defined.

That requires us to understand the business, challenge assumptions and establish what the pivotal leadership seats genuinely need to deliver.

In advisory, we examine the structure, responsibilities and capability already in place. We assess the evidence and consider whether the best course is to develop an existing leader, redefine a seat, change the structure or recruit externally.

In executive search, it means genuine market engagement, not a network trawl. We research and approach candidates directly, then assess their experience, values and behaviours in the context of the business and the outcomes the appointment needs to achieve.

We tell clients what we recommend, why we recommend it and where the risks lie.

Ben Kershaw

Ben founded what became Moxie in 2007. His early career spanned executive search and talent advisory across the UK, Australia, Asia Pacific, and New Zealand, giving him an unusually broad perspective on how leadership markets differ and what genuinely strong candidates look like across geographies.

Over nearly two decades, his focus narrowed to where the work felt most consequential: private and founder-led businesses making leadership appointments that carry real weight. He has led CEO, CFO, COO, and Partner searches across food and agribusiness, distribution, manufacturing, professional services, financial services, energy and construction.

Ben works closely with owners and boards on pivotal leadership appointments and questions of leadership structure, accountability and succession — particularly where growth has outpaced the existing team, owners are planning to step back, or the next appointment will have a significant bearing on the future of the business.

Carleen Thomson

Carleen leads executive and leadership search at Moxie, working with owners and boards across New Zealand on appointments where getting it right carries real consequence.

With more than 18 years of search experience across finance, accounting, and commercial leadership, she has placed CFOs, Finance Managers, Heads of Commercial, National Sales Managers, accounting firm Partners, and C-suite leaders including CEOs, COOs, and Country Directors. These are seats where financial discipline, commercial judgement, and accountability matter most.

Before search, Carleen spent six years at New Zealand Lotteries in territory management, regional leadership, and head of sales roles. That background gives her a grounded understanding of how commercial roles actually work in practice, not just what they look like on paper.

Based in Cambridge, working nationally.

Lauren Thompson

Lauren leads operational leadership search at Moxie, working with owners and boards across New Zealand on the appointments where execution, accountability, and delivery actually live.

Her placements span Head of Operations, Engineering Manager, GM Business Operations, Operations Manager, Global Sales Manager, Supply Chain leaders, Health and Safety and Compliance leaders, Senior Project Managers, and Financial Controllers. These are the seats where growth stalls when the wrong person is in them, and accelerates when the right one is.

Before search, Lauren spent nearly six years in HR and Health and Safety in the energy sector. That background gives her a grounded understanding of how operational roles actually function under pressure, not just what they require on paper.

Based in New Plymouth, working nationally.

Sheree Kershaw

Sheree has more than 20 years of experience in executive support and operations. She manages the systems, processes, and marketing that keep Moxie running to a high standard.

Holly Stockwell

Holly supports executive search and advisory across all Moxie engagements, from research and candidate coordination to market intelligence and project operations. Based in New Plymouth, working across New Zealand.

Julia Stockman

Julia from Revel is an experienced leadership coach and HR Business Partner. Julia works with Moxie as an independent associate, and has more than 25 years experience working alongside leaders and teams to understand what's genuinely going on and find practical ways forward. Based in Taranaki, working nationally.

Behind the name

Moxie means determination, courage, and grit.

It also means doing hard things with care: thinking before acting and making decisions that stick.