New firm for sport and forces people

If anything should go wrong for Jessica Ennis's bid for Olympic gold this summer, she could always consider banking.

The career change will be open to all Olympians after the launch of a new recruitment firm with a pool of employees made up exclusively of British sportsmen and women and the armed forces.

Add-victor was founded by the former England and Harlequins flanker Steve White-Cooper, who went on to found banking recruitment firm Apertus Consulting, and Tom Onions, a former executive director working on mergers and acquisitions at UBS.

It has 1,500 military and athletic candidates on its books, and its portfolio of clients includes the insurer Jardine Lloyd Thompson and asset manager Henderson.

One of the firm's first placements was Patrick Sanderson, a former England international rugby union player, who is being hired by the global transaction departmentof Deutsche Bank.

On the forces side, most of Add-victor's candidates are ex-officers.

Mr White-Cooper said: "There is no difference between business, sport and the forces in the way which one approaches an end goal.

"How do Alex Ferguson and Richard Branson plan ahead?

"It's about identifying a target, strategising and ultimately executing your plans."

Peter Dilnot, who as chief executive of Shanks Group is the youngest chief executive in the FTSE 250, said he was backing the firm as his previous job as an army officer had helped his career.

Stephen Frost, head of diversity at Olympic committee LOCOG added: "Leading corporates today cannot afford to ignore these talent pools if they wish to succeed in this rapidly evolving world."