Meet the Team

Sarah Thewlis
BA MML FCIPD FRCGP (Hon) FRSA
Managing Director

After graduating with a history degree, Sarah commenced her career in retail HR with Marks and Spencer PLC. During her twelve years there she undertook a mixture of high-level operational and strategic RH policy roles.

Following a secondment scrutiny from M&S she moved into general management when she was invited to join the staff at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) as Deputy Chief Executive, marking the beginning of seventeen years in the health and charity sector, fourteen of which as a CEO.

After three years at the RCP she took the role of Chief Executive at the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) for eight years. In 2002 she was appointed Chief Executive and Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council for six years. Sarah moved formally into Search as the Head of the Not-for-Profit practice, at Gundersen Partners (formerly Bucher Rugman) at the beginning of 2009. Following the decision of Gundersen Partners to withdraw from the UK and Europe, she set up Thewlis Graham Associates in 2010 with Robert Graham, one of the original team of Bucher Rugman.

Sarah is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners. She is a member of the Worshipful Company of Needlemakers. Sarah has a Masters in Medical Law and Ethics. She has held several non-executive positions including, Chair of a cancer support charity, Vice Chair of Phoenix Futures, a national charity providing programmes to reduce the impact of drug and alcohol-related harm. She was on the Board of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) for a number of years and in 2020 was elected as Chair until 2023, following a governance review.

In 2023, she was appointed by the Ministry of Justice as a non-magistrate member to the recruitment advisory committee for Birmingham & Solihull, Black Country and Coventry & Warwickshire Advisory Committee.

Lizzy Turek
BA
Client Research Associate

After graduating with a first class degree in Classics from Reading University, Lizzy began a 12 year career in housing management with the Peabody Group. She initially worked as a Performance and Policy Officer carrying out research, business planning and performance monitoring before becoming a housing officer in 2012, and progressed to managing a team delivering housing services to tenants in 2015. After further studies she was awarded a Diploma in Management by the Chartered Institute of Management in 2009 and a Certificate in Housing by the Chartered Institute of Housing in 2011. In 2019 she moved to the Greater London Authority to join the Transport Team as a Business Coordinator handling customer enquiries and complaints regarding transport related issues sent to the Mayor of London and Deputy Mayor of London for Transport.

Lizzy holds a Level 4 Certificate in Access to Housing, Chartered Institute of Housing Level 3 Diploma in First Line Management, Chartered Institute of Management. And an Interpersonal Mediation Practitioners Certificate, UK mediation.

Robert Graham
MA MBA
Associate

Robert has worked in Search for many years working with a broad range of domestic and international blue-chip clients within the FMCG, pharmaceutical, entertainment, travel, retail and industrial sectors. He is an experienced cross-border Search professional and some 40% of his assignments are conducted for clients and positions within continental Europe and beyond.

Robert has an MA from St Andrew's University and an MBA from Cranfield.

Fauzan Palekar
MSC, BA(Hons)
Associate

Fauzan was recently with the World Psychiatric Association-WPA (Geneva, Switzerland) as Director WPA Administration.

The WPA is an international Membership Association made of 145 Psychiatric Societies from 121 countries.

Fauzan took over the Secretariat during a challenging period and implemented a modernisation programme to streamline processes, upgrade IT Infrastructure. Fauzan recruited a dynamic new team following a restructure of the Secretariat. Fauzan led on the organisation and delivery of the triennial WPA General Assembly and elections (September 2023). He worked successfully with the Executive Committee and various WPA components building working relationships to ensure the effective delivery of WPA Secretariat functions.

Fauzan was previously Director of Professional Standards at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, where he led a team of 64 staff members. He was responsible for the overall strategy, development, and delivery of the Professionals Standards Department activities, including assessments, training, and formulating policy and regulatory frameworks. He has a proven track record of strong leadership, strategic planning and decision making, operations management, change management and performance management. Fauzan has facilitated workshops on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, customers service skills and team building.

Fauzan has previously worked at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health as Deputy Head of Examinations. Fauzan was also Director of the SQE at Kaplan, where is contributed to the development and operational delivery planning for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination.

Fauzan is an active Trustee and Board Member for Positive Behaviour Support for Learning an Autistic Charity that has established a Secondary School (Pathways) in North West London for children with Autism and Learning Disability. Fauzan is a Governor of Pathways School and advises on recruitment, development initiatives and Health and Safety.

Fauzan graduated with and MSC in Development Studies and also has a BA(Hons) in Modern Languages with International Studies.