Nine Twenty was founded in 2004 with a simple goal: to do recruitment differently. What started as a niche technology recruitment partner in Scotland has grown into a multi-sector specialist agency operating across the UK, with expertise spanning Technology, Sales & Marketing.
Along the way we've built something we're genuinely proud of: not just the placements, but the long-term relationships, the careers we've helped shape, and the businesses we've helped grow.
Our Journey
Nine Twenty began with 2004 with two people and a shared ambition: to build a different kind of recruitment business.
Following the sale of one of Scotland's most successful recruitment businesses, Gordon Brown and Wendy McDougall took the experience and inspiration from that journey and created something of their own. Their focus was niche technology recruitment in Scotland, and the name reflected it: I is the ninth letter of the alphabet, T is the twentieth. Nine Twenty.
From the beginning, we embraced innovation and challenged how recruitment could work. We became the first recruiter in Scotland to adopt Performance Based Selection, focusing on what someone could achieve in a role. Through our Assured Delivery model, we combined a structured recruitment process with digital employers branding, helping businesses tell their story and attract the right people.
That drive to improve recruitment also led us to develop our own applicant tracking system. What began as an internal innovation opened up two new chapters: Gordon led a management buyout in 2013, while Wendy went on to establish FireFish Software.
Our next stage of growth carried that same entrepreneurial spirit. We wanted to give talented people the opportunity to build specialist businesses, supported by Nine Twenty brand, infrastructure and experience.
Karen Stewart took our first franchise opportunity, building Nine Twenty Engineering & Manufacturing into a successful specialist business that operates independently. Karen also helped establish our longstanding partnership with SmartSTEMs, supporting young people across Scotland to explore STEM careers.
As technology & Digital Managing Director at Nine Twenty Recruitment, Chris specialises in senior technology appointments, executive search and helping businesses build high-performing teams. Beyond his commercial role, Chris chairs the WeDO Scotland Glasgow Advisory Board and is Co-Founding both Tech Talk X and The Scottish Marketing Network, two communities focused on connecting professionals, sharing ideas and creating opportunities for meaningful conversations. With a genuine passion for events, networking and brining people together, Chris thrives on building communities, creating valuable connections and helping individuals and businesses grow. He firmly believes that the best opportunities often come from getting the right people in the same room.
In 2024, Kerry McFarlane joined to launch Nine Twenty Marketing, extending our specialist approach into marketing recruitment. Alongside growing the business, Kerry has built the Scottish Marketing Network and contributes to the next generation of talent through her board role at City of Glasgow College.
More than twenty years on, our ambition remains the same: to stay specialist, embrace new ideas and create opportunities for people to succeed. Innovation, Agility, Integrity and Entrepreneurial Spirit continues to shape how we work, the relationship we build and where we go next.
Today, Nine Twenty operates across both technology and marketing recruitment, built on the same belief we started with: that real relationship matter. We're proud to be known through leaders in our sector and trusted partners in the communities we work alongside: Tech Talk X and the Scottish Marketing Network to SmartSTEms. Twenty years in, we're still a small specialist recruiter at heart, and that's exactly how we like it.