Our Team

Founder

James Vercesi

James has 20 years experience in recruitment since leaving University. He has covered many industries over this time and has experience placing candidates into more than 30 countries across the globe.
James set up Magnus James with the aim to provide not only a 1st class service to clients and candidates alike, but to create a great environment for people to work.

Being from a keen footballing family James has always played at a competitive level but recently since his knees and overall fitness has diminished has got involved more in coaching his children’s teams.

Director of Magnus James Property

Lisa Cortez

Lisa has over 10 years experience in Recruitment and Hotel Management. She brings a methodical and professional approach to recruiting and works around the clock to fulfil the needs of her clients and candidates. Having built an excellent network of contacts within the industry she is the go to for all of your Midlands recruitment needs.

Outside of work Lisa is all about family and loves spending time with her Daughter. She enjoys village life and when she gets spare time loves long walks that usually finish conveniently at the pub!

Director of Magnus James Property

Nick Harvey

Nick has several years’ experience in customer service and Estate Agency Sales. Having built up extensive knowledge and passion for the property industry he then moved into recruitment and hasn’t looked back. He loves building long terms relationships with both clients and candidates and is known to never sit down whilst he is on the phone.

Outside of work, he enjoys cruising to exotic new places and spending time with his wife (and two pugs). He is also an avid West Ham fan, so can often be found in East London on a Saturday afternoon singing “I’m forever blowing bubbles!”

Regional Manager

Hayley Zaire

Hayley has spent 7 years working in the property industry in both estate agency and property recruitment and has built up a wealth of knowledge across the industry.

She enjoys building strong relationships with her clients and can often be found nattering on the phone to them for far too long.

Outside of work Hayley enjoys her Sussex life with walks on the downs and the seafront with her little Frenchie! She never turns down shopping, wine, or chocolate. 

Regional Manager

Annie Bullimore

Annie has a background in Business Development and has covered the whole of the UK travelling to meet new and existing clients building longlasting relationships.  Working within the Property Recruitment Division she loves to get out and about and strives to find the perfect candidate for the role.

She has a bubbly personality and is a good person have around the office to keep spirits high.  She loves going on holiday and her favourite destination is Italy.  She enjoys a good bottle of wine with some cheese, and if its wine and cheese whilst in Italy she is one happy lady.   When she isn’t eating or drinking or out socialising with friends she can be found curled up on the sofa watching box sets on Netflix.

Regional Manager

Lou Jones

Lou has gained several years’ experience in the property industry in sales, valuing, listing and management, enjoying gaining and maintaining relationships with clients. She has a keen eye for detail and a passion for matching candidates to their perfect new job roles. Lou loves combining her friendly personality with a professional approach.

Lou is a mother of 2 teenage boys and refuses to be left behind when it comes to boyish activities and all things involving motor vehicles , she also has 3 animals at home, 2 cats and a house rabbit with a clear passion for anything furry.

Regional Manager

Samantha Gough

Regional Manager

Claire Birchall

Having spent over 15 years in the Estate Agent Industry both in the UK and the USA, Claire returned to the UK and joined a large Estate Agency and held the role of Residential Property Valuer. She prides herself on providing excellent customer service and her natural communication skills and attention to detail will transfer to the recruitment sector with ease.  Claire loves being part of the Magnus James team, with her hands on experience having worked in the Merseyside region for over 8 years, she helps clients and candidates come together across the North West.

Claire is an avid Liverpool Football Club fan, rarely missing a game! When not watching the football she enjoys tennis, (watching and playing), good food and good wine! On the occasion when she gets to completely down tools she loves to binge watch crime documentaries on Netflix.

Regional Manager

Warren Passey

Warren has 10+ years working within Estate Agency making him extremely knowledgeable of the property industry.  Warren heads up our Trainee / New to Market division and is dedicated to deliver fresh blood into the industry he loves.

He really gets to know his clients and candidates helping him create the perfect match.

Warren loves to walk at the weekends and has conquered many big hills and mountains. He has a love for football and has slowly moved his way backwards on the pitch to finally settle in goal after breaking most bones in his body!

Regional Manager

Lily Hill

Lily has recently graduated from university after completing her postgraduate study in English Literature, Television and Film. Shortly afterwards stepped into the lucrative world of recruitment for 6 months recruiting like-minded graduates eager to get their foot in the door. Not long after discovering her passion for real-estate, she joined us at Magnus James, enabling her to kill two birds with one stone!

She doesn’t shy away from a challenge and will be the first to put herself forward whether it being snowboarding down the black slopes in the French Alpes or up on-stage singing karaoke (badly) in her local pub. But when she isn’t being an adrenaline junky, you will find her cozied up on the sofa, with her cat and a glass of white watching classic rom coms.

Director of Magnus James Construction

Matthew Bliss

Matthew has over 10 years Recruitment experience and within those years has become an industry expert.  He has placed people in the UK and overseas and thrives on the hard to fill jobs.

He is a real character within the  Magnus James’ offices and leads by example, always having time to help and develop those around him.  If you can’t find Matthew you may find him at the kettle making one of his dozens of cups of tea each day!

Outside of the office he spends most of his time either dancing around his front room with his two young daughters or walking around with a power drill looking for DIY projects!

Regional Manager

Jamie Axford

Jamie has a real passion for all things construction! He really could talk about it all day and night. With his background in sales and customer service it was the natural move for him to join the world of recruitment. He strives for perfection and takes pride in his stats and would always rather send no CV’s than the wrong CV!

Even though it doesn’t look like it, outside of work Jamie plays a lot of football at a competitive level and never misses a Manchester United match on TV (he has never been to seen them in real life!)

Administration and Marketing Assistant

Nikki Fox

With 15 years marketing experience working for large corporate companies Nikki was brought in to move Magnus James’s online presence forward whilst making sure there is continuity in the brand. Always coming up with new ideas to create awareness and has been the ambassador for raising money for several charities.

When she is not harassing the company owners to spend money on marketing she enjoys outdoor adventures with her family and going on long walks with her Labrador. She also loves a summer holiday, exploring new restaurants and trying to keep fit!

Communications and Attraction Manager

James Martin

James has 11 years experience within the digital marketing arena, he has worked for online retailers, Amazon retailers, service providers as well as agency side – giving him a vast amount of knowledge across a number of industries.

Originally from South Africa James relocated to the UK pursuing a golf career after attending college in the USA – he fell into the world of online retail when spotting an opportunity in the market to sell Bluetooth sports gadgets with the release of Bluetooth v4 and the rest is history.

Away from the office you will find James on a mountain bike, playing golf, surfing, playing sport or games with his 3 children or having braai.