The Leadership Hires That Unlocked Carbon Market Growth
Executive searches completed
Executive hire completion
Individual contributor hire completion
Offer acceptance rate
How specialist search helped Abatable build the commercial leadership needed for growth
Abatable helps companies procure high-quality carbon credits and make informed decisions about their use. Its award-winning platform is supported by an experienced team of climate advisers.
The London-based business has worked with more than 200 companies and deployed 55 million tonnes of high-quality carbon credits. With a team of around 50 people, Abatable had reached a point where it needed experienced commercial leaders between the C-suite and the wider organisation.
We first met Abatable in December 2023. By the time the formal engagement began around 12 months later, we had spent months learning how the business worked and what mattered to its leaders. That understanding became important when the need for two senior commercial appointments emerged.
The challenge
Abatable needed to build a commercial leadership layer that could shape its approach to growth and provide clear direction to the wider team.
A Director of Commercial was needed to define and lead the company’s commercial approach.
A Director of Go-to-Market was required to take ownership of marketing and strategy.
Both leaders needed direct carbon market experience and the appetite to join an early-stage scale-up.
Without hires, Abatable risked stalling as markets matured.
Finding people with the right background was difficult. The carbon market was facing policy uncertainty and geopolitical pressure, yet Abatable still needed experienced executives who were ready to move into a scale-up environment.
Previous executive search firms had not delivered because they did not know the sector well enough. They lacked the carbon market knowledge and networks needed to find candidates who truly matched the role.
The solution
We worked closely with Abatable’s leadership team to understand how the business was evolving and where greater commercial ownership was needed.
This allowed us to define the remit of each position and agree what success would look like. We then developed a clear candidate profile for each role, based on the experience required and how the person would need to lead within the business.
We delivered:
- Two retained executive searches for the Director of Commercial and Director of Go-to-Market roles.
- Detailed market mapping focused on people with direct carbon market knowledge.
- A thorough search that looked beyond the most visible executives in the sector.
- Diverse shortlists aligned with Abatable’s values and working culture.
- Clear advice when the original brief needed to be challenged or widened.
“Brightsmith truly listen to us. They understand who we are, what we are trying to achieve and what people we need to make this happen.
Throughout the process, we acted as an extension of Abatable’s internal team. We represented the opportunity accurately and shared direct feedback as each search developed. Abatable highlighted this understanding as an important part of the partnership.
After completing both executive appointments, we continued supporting Abatable with retained skilled searches across the commercial team.
The results
The engagement delivered measurable hiring outcomes:
Two of two executive searches were completed successfully.
Executive shortlists took 4–6 weeks, depending on mandate.
Both executive hires completed within 10 weeks of launch.
Individual contributor hires completed within seven weeks.
Offer acceptance was 100% across all completed searches.
Retention was 100% across placements.
Repeat work secured across Abatable’s commercial team build.
Abatable chose Brightsmith exclusively for executive search.
The appointments created clearer ownership across the commercial and go-to-market functions. They also helped Abatable build a diverse executive team that works effectively together.
The value of the engagement extended beyond the successful appointments. Our understanding of the business allowed the relationship to develop into a wider talent partnership:
“They’ve become an extension of our own talent team and I’m proud to have them represent Abatable in the job market.
The lesson extends beyond carbon markets. Across the wider energy transition, growth can expose gaps in leadership and leave teams without the depth needed to deliver. Specialist executive search can secure the leaders who set direction, while a structured team build adds the capability required to turn that direction into results.
