Michael Williams

Talent Acquisition Lead ✦ RL100 Member ✦ Views are my own

Over 19 years experience and have previously worked at HSBC, UBS and BNY Mellon. I am very passionate about my work and have had the privilege to partner with Global Banks and Financial Institutions in the identification and attraction to hire senior leaders, ranging from C-Suite to Board level across the UK, Europe, North America and APAC. 

Experience working at the intersection of Executive Recruitment, Talent Intelligence, Talent Management and Workforce Planning, I support HR Leaders in building high-performing teams that drive growth and transformation. 

Core Specialties:
➝ Executive Recruitment & Talent Acquisition (C-Suite, CEO -1 and -2 level, MD, Board).
➝ Talent Intelligence, Market Insights & Competitor Benchmarking.
➝ Workforce Planning, Succession Strategy & Leadership Assessment.
➝ Senior Stakeholder Management & People Leadership.
➝ Direct sourcing & Vendor Management.
➝ Successfully built a TA function from the ground up.
➝ Built C-Suite Leadership teams via direct sourcing channels and networks.

Industry Focus:
➝ Banking, Financial Services, Wholesale Banking, Asset Management, Investment Management, Private Bank, Investment Banking.
➝ Front Office, Middle Office, Corporate and Control Functions.

Chartered MCIPD qualified professional who has a data-driven and hands-on approach, combining analytical insight with strategic execution to deliver measurable impact in leadership hiring and talent strategy.

Head of Talent

Recruitment Lead responsible for all lines of business hiring from entry to Board level, covering Corporate Functions through to the FrontI office. 

2021 Achievements:
→ Recruitment Framework & Governance Implementation 
→ IR35 Lead (Successful HMRC Audit)
→ Reduced time to hire to 41 days

2022 Achievements:
→ ATS Implementation 
→ Talent Management Framework Design
→ Gender Diversity recruitment policy implementation 

2023 Achievements (YTD):
→ Direct recruitment model implementation 
→ Direct Recruitment (91% YTD)
→ Internal Mobility (63% increase YTD)
→ Branding

Key Placements:
→ European Chief Risk Officer, London
→ Chief Risk Officer, Paris
→ European Head of Internal Audit
→ UK MLRO / European Head of Financial Crime
→ European Chief Financial Officer
→ Head of Market Risk & Reporting
→ Head of Credit Risk
→ Head of Enterprise Risk Management 
→ Head of Operations 
→ Head of Business Management
→ European Head of Banking
→ European Head of IT
→ Head of Communications - Europe
→ European Head of Treasury & Financial Markets
→ Business Manager to the CEO, IB

Global Banking & Corporate Functions Talent Acquisition | Natixis Corporate & Investment Bank

City Of London, England, United Kingdom (On-site)

Job by Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking

Director, Relationship Manager - Real Estate Structured Finance  

We are recruiting for this Chief Client Office UK CIB vacancy at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking in London, UK

Currently recruiting for the below Murex Support Specialist FTC at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking

We are recruiting for this new Director, Real Estate Finance - Relationship Manager vacancy at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking.

A great permanent opportunity for a Senior Murex Support Specialist (with FO module and experience of M 3.1) to join the team in London at Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking.

Senior Murex Support Specialist (Front Office)  

AdAge 40 Under 40 - CEO at Growth Skills - Fractional CMO - Search Engine Land SEO Innovation Landy Award Winner - 2022 U.S Search Best Campaign Winner - 2nd Degree Black Belt - Bare Knuckle Karate Champion

I’m a performance driven Growth Marketing expert. I help brands acquire customers and increase their value over time. I have a deep speciality in SEO & Content Marketing. I made AdAge's 40 under 40 for innovating in these areas. I'm a self taught marketer so I can talk theory but also do hands on execution. 

Philosophy: There are only two relationships in Nature. Symbiotic and parasitic. Humans and corporations can chose to be either. I’ve chosen to grow and nurture symbiotic relationships with friends, family, coworkers and clients. I also help connect people who I know would thrive together. 

Kyokushin Karate: I’m a bare knuckle Kyokushin Karate champion. I equate bare knuckle Karate to growing a start up. You have to embrace the suck, be fearless and stare the problem in front of you right in the eyes and solve it. I’ve learned that martial arts has very little to do with kicking and punching but everything to do with life.

Specialties: Business and Team Growth, SEO Management, SEO, Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, SEO Product Development, Social Media Marketing, PPC, Website Development, Video Editing, Video Production, Project Management, Partnerships, Negotiation, Sales, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, PR, Brand Building, Brand Positioning

Lavall Chichester

I'm speaking Digiday  Digiday Media Buying Summit Monday, March 2nd 2026.    My topic: Navigating the zero-click frontier towards an integrated search practice: 🎓 

In this session, we’ll unpack the shift to zero-click search environments and the emergence of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Discover what’s actually affecting sales and search performance, what to do about it, and how it might affect paid media.

I hope to meet you IRL there.

#aio #geo #aeo #seo #chatpt #cladue #perplexity #llms #searchengineoptimization #asnwerengineoptimization #ppc #googleads #digitalemdia

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🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

AdAge 40 Under 40 - EVP, BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media - Search Engine Land SEO Innovation Landy Award Winner - 2nd Degree Black Belt - Bare Knuckle Karate Champion

ChatGPT has invested heavily in SEO & Content Marketing. 💸 
I did an analysis for Search Engine Land of ChatGPTs SEO & Content marketing efforts and potential ROI. I showed how Perplexity and Claude are also using SEO, but not doing it as well as they could. ☠️ 

The Summary: 🎓 
-ChatGPT built a brand and amazing product. They cash in on that with 45 million searches for “ChatGPT” for their brand name.
-They built SEO into their user generated content creating content that drive traffic and conversions at scale
-Perplexity and Claude mess up basic SEO. Basic SEO works and should never be overlooked.

Read my article at the link below and watch the video in this post.

I hope you copy what ChatGPT is doing and take it to the bank. I’m rooting for you. 🥋 

#contentmarketing #seo #chatpt #cladue #perplexity #searchengineoptimization 

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

I made Claude, say”Holy Sh!t” out of excitement because of some results
from my short form video experiments on social. 📽️ 

I’ve been learning to tell short form stories using video on Instagram and TikTok. It’s a skill I think all marketers should know, so I’ve committed to learning it.

-I took a social media video course online 
-Applied what I learned
-Kept optimizing with length 6,12,30 and 60 second videos.

I write the concepts and scripts. Then use Claude to edit them to specific time.
Then readjust them to make sure that I can read them well. I’ll post one on LinkedIn tomorrow.

A few videos recently went wild with views, shares, comments, reposts and saves. I got over 200 new followers on Instagram in a few weeks. 📈 

I love SEO but this is way more fun. Making Claude curse is the cherry on top. 😂 

Follow me on TikTok and Instagram. @mrchichesterog let me know what you think of my experiments.

#socialmedia #videomarketing #instagram #tiktok #claude #contentmarketing #careergrowth 

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

Here is one of the videos that has taken off on Instagram and TikTok via me learning a new skill with video testing. It’s me expressing the philosophy of Kyokushin Karate and why I’m excited to have started training in it again. It’s taught me more about life than it  has kicking and punching. Any success I’ve had in my career is because I learned about focus, discipline, sacrifice and hard work; in Kyokushin. 💪 

Some of the best people in business are Martial Artists and probably have a similar story. 🥋 

I often stay that I do Full Contact Search for my clients, because the mindset is very similar. The fighting in the SERPs is fierce, there are great competitors and you have to always level up your skills.

Any fellow martial artists out there? Let me know in the comments. Osu!

#contentmarketing #seo #careergrowth #martialarts #karate #kyokushin

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

Great day one. Don’t burn your house down with AI. 🥋

”What I say about AI is, it's very much like fire – it can be used to cook food or to burn your house down," Chichester said onstage during the session. Digiday

The Digiday Media Buying Summit kicked off today in Nashville, TN 🤠 Here's a recap of Day One ... 

➡️ In our 'The view from the top' session, Ralph Pardo of Omnicom Media joined Michael Burgi to discuss how the media unit is moving forward armed with Acxiom, as well dealing with fee pressures, AI acceleration, consolidation and evolving client expectations.

"The pace requires us to constantly evaluate. The service will change; the models will change. We’re going to have to stay quite nimble for the next 18 months," Pardo said onstage during the session. 

➡️ In our 'Navigating the zero-click frontier towards an integrated search practice' session, Lavall Chichester of BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media chatted with Sam Bradley about the shift to zero-click search environments and the emergence of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), as well as what’s actually affecting sales and search performance, what to do about it, and how it might affect paid media.

"What I say about AI is, it's very much like fire – it can be used to cook food or to burn your house down," Chichester said onstage during the session. 

➡️ In our 'Have we reached peak retail media?' session, Jared Belsky of Acadia examined whether we’ve seen the retail media wave crest, and what might hold back further investment growth in this area – and how agentic and AI developments might alter strategies.

"There is friction, but here's why I'm not negative. This is the shape of [retail media] today. This is a better friction than the old friction," Belsky said onstage during the session. 

➡️ In our 'Transparency and independent strategy' session, Kaitlyn Mcinnis of CROSSMEDIA joined James Cooper to discuss how to use AI for media orchestration without surrendering the transparency that independent agencies are built upon.

"I think as marketers, we're overestimating AI as a feature and underestimating the trust factor with consumers," Mcinnis said onstage during the session.

Most people sleep on Bing for website traffic and revenue. I highly recommend you change that. Bing Web Masters Tools even gives you customer service. They fix issues and actually reply. Google and Google Search Console has a lot to learn from them. My client had a problem, I summited the ticket, it got a reply and a fix. Fixed in under two weeks. Bravo. 👏 

#bing #google #bingvsgoogle #contentmarketing #seo 

——————————
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

As New Yorker, I must confess that I'm in love with the midwestern work ethic, mindset, and manners. The magic in the middle made Frontier Airlines stock jump. Let's go! 

#advertising #agency #advertisingagency #work #barkleyokrp #missiononemedia
                                                          -------------
🥋 I'm Lavall EVP of SEO & AI Optimization at BarkleyOKRP & MissionOne Media. 
I’m a second degree Black Belt, Bareknuckle Karate Champion and do Full Contact Growth Marketing for my clients.
💰 My posts will help you increase search rankings, brand awareness and revenue using Growth Marketing. 
🎓 My posts will help you Learn How to Learn to grow your career and business.

Liked this post? Want to see more?
🔔 Ring it on my Profile
🔝 Connect with me

CEO at BarkleyOKRP | recovering CCO | Mom

Everything about our industry is evolving. Including the belief that you have to be on one of the coasts to be one of the greats. 
At BarkleyOKRP, we call it "the magic in the Middle."
And that magic is featured in today's The Wall Street Journal.
Thank you Katie Deighton for including us in your story and for shedding light on the momentum in the Midwest.
Sean Corcoran Nathaniel Swift Brenda Vaske Donahue Chris Cardetti Brad Jones Stephanie Parker Rahul Roy Asad Husain Demian Brink Reshma Karnik Jason Parks Lindsey DeWitte
Check out the full story here:

Open article: Madison Avenue Is in Crisis. Midwestern Ad Agencies See an Opportunity. by wsj.com

Madison Avenue Is in Crisis. Midwestern Ad Agencies See an Opportunity.

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol changes the game for e-commerce brands. Nelson Sarco who leads SEO and AI Optimization delivery for us explains it. Read his article on Search Engine Land and learn what brands need to do to use it. #seo #geo #ecommerce #google

Digital Marketing Leader 🔹 Collaborative Problem-Solver 🔹 Effective Player-Coach 🔹 Technology Enthusiast 🔹 Motivated Self-Starter

Most commerce leaders are still thinking in terms of channels.
Search. Paid media. Marketplaces. Owned channels.

Google’s Universal Commerce Protocol forces a different question: What happens when the “channel” is an AI agent making decisions on behalf of your customer?

If that question makes you pause, it should.

In my latest Search Engine Land article, I unpack what this shift means for enterprise growth, commerce, SEO, and AI leaders. Link below.

#AICommerce #UCP #AgenticCommerce #DigitalStrategy #SEO

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The Battle

Michael Williams

Lavall Chichester

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The Battle

Michael Williams

Lavall Chichester

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Michael Williams's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreLavall Chichester's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreMichael Williams's LinkedIn Performance