Our Story & Journey 

Pioneer was founded in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, a time of uncertainty, change, and disruption to the way we all worked. What some might have seen as the worst time to start a business, our co-founders, Kieran Singh and Robert Patrick, saw as the right moment to challenge an industry that had, for too long, been failing both clients and candidates.

 

For Kieran, the frustration was personal. He was working as a temporary warehouse operative, placed through an agency, and experienced first-hand how broken the system had become. He was often paid incorrectly, underpaid compared to directly employed colleagues, and subjected to constant calls from recruiters eager to move him to their next assignment to then being left ghosted. The experience left him questioning how recruitment could truly call itself a “people business” when so much of it felt transactional and careless.

 

Robert shared similar frustrations. Having faced poor treatment and unfair day rates, he too knew the industry was not delivering the value it promised. While agencies around them were making redundancies, Kieran and Robert decided to take the bold step of launching Pioneer Recruitment Agency (now Pioneer Talent Partners), not with years of recruitment experience, but with a shared conviction that there had to be a better way. Their vision was simple: build meaningful relationships, understand the real problems businesses face, and deliver solutions that were both effective and affordable.

 

In the early days, Pioneer quickly built a strong reputation among legal professionals in the Home Counties. In a market where law firms had often been let down by recruiters charging extortionate fees and adding little value, Pioneer’s relationship-led approach stood out. They weren’t chasing commission or racing to send CVs, they were listening, understanding, and delivering.

 

In 2021, Robert left the business to pursue his passion for football management, leaving Kieran to carry the vision forward. For more than a year, he personally supported both businesses and job seekers in the legal sector before making the decision to broaden his experience. In late 2022, Kieran joined a leading city recruitment firm, specialising in interim transformation consultancy within finance and technology. Over these following two years, he was part of a high-performing team of two that delivered over £2 million in billings by connecting clients with the specialist talent needed to drive change and transformation.

 

By the summer of 2025, Kieran was ready to relaunch the Pioneer business and rebrand as Pioneer Talent Partners with a renewed purpose. He had seen first-hand that the recruitment industry still struggled with trust, with candidates and clients repeatedly citing poor practices and transactional behaviour. Pioneer Talent Partners returned with a clear mission: to restore trust in recruitment by offering a boutique, affordable, and people-first talent consultancy. Our motto is Talent Solutions, The Way It Should Be.

 

With the addition of Haider Asif and Joseph Bradwell in 2025, Pioneer Talent Partners has embarked on a rapid journey of growth. Together, we are committed to partnering with forward-thinking businesses across our specialist sectors, proving that first-class talent consultancy can still be accessible, affordable, and built on genuine human connection.