About

Christopher Lydiard-Wilson and Charles Fenton founded Potentiam following their experience of running a global energy consultancy acquired by Accenture with over 60% of their 300 staff in Romania and India.

EnergyQuote JHA, our energy services business had multiple service lines in procurement, risk management, data analytics, sustainability reporting and strategic consulting being delivered to international corporations globally.

Our challenge was how could we balance our ambitious growth plans with a limited management bandwidth , available talent and tight budgets.

By unlocking the power of offshore capabilities, Christopher and Charles were able to scale far faster than their competitors. Our offshore teams turned EnergyQuote JHA into a leading global energy services provider, and ultimately, a valuable exit to Accenture in 2015.

Teams in Romania and Bangalore enabled its founders to extract a far higher valuation without the need for equity dilution or debilitating debt.

Cost savings was a consideration, but in fact 5 times more value was realised from their offshore teams, in areas not at all evident at the beginning of our scaling journey. Our offshore teams transformed our business, and allowed us to:

Deliver our 5 year technology and data road map in 2 years,
Access to technical skills we could not find locally,
unlock the most valuable capacity of our senior staff by providing very capable resource earlier in their growth journey,
Innovate faster with new services with less risk
Confidence to expand globally resulting in a far more valuable exit.

This led to Christopher and Charles to start working for their network of business owners to scale their own businesses using their in-depth knowledge of offshore locations and best practises and so Potentiam was born.

Christopher Lydiard-Wilson

Founder Director

Christopher was an early adopter of offshoring in Romania and India at EnergyQuote JHA, an energy consultancy he founded serving over 400 corporations globally.

By the point of sale to Accenture in 2015 he had built up an off shore team of over 200 staff in multiple functions supporting a fast growing strategic team in the UK and Europe.

In 2016 Christopher founded Potentiam to offer the benefits of offshoring to small and medium sized enterprises from offices in Romania, India and South Africa.

Charles Fenton

Founder Director

Charles was the founder of the international consultancy at EnergyQuote JHA and an early convert to offshoring as the only way to provide a scalable global platform for a global energy consultancy.

As part of the Accenture acquisition in 2015, Charles went on to lead the European energy practice, developing an extensive multi lingual support team in Romania.

He has a BA Degree in History from London University

James Cadwaladr

Relationship Director

James joined Potentiam as Client Services Director in May 2023 following a 20 year career building and delivering global Human Capital strategies.

A business founder in his own right, James set up and scaled his own consultancy, focused on delivering Recruitment Process Outsourcing strategies to fast growth PE and VC backed scale up organisations. James’s work is focused on working with our partner clients to identify, implement and leverage their optimal offshore scaling strategies.

Anine Pretorius

Head of Talent Acquisition South Africa

With an Honours degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Anine has over a decade’s experience in HR and Recruitment. Her experience spans across a wide range of local and international industries, including call centres, retail and FMCG. She is passionate about helping SMEs accelerate their business growth by finding the perfect candidate for every role, and building strong, successful teams with cohesive cultures.

Tyrone Bester

Global Account Manager

Having worked in the UK and Europe for over 14 years, and with a background in set-up, registration and operational support of over 40 subsidiaries and offshore Companies, Tyrone’s extensive experience and knowledge of cross-border challenges is invaluable in helping Companies scale their organisation and core teams in offshore locations.

Currently based in Cape Town South Africa, Tyrone works with Potentiam’s existing key Clients globally to ensure they meet their operational goals through the coordination of Potentiam’s internal teams to support Client business scaling from both a long-term strategic planning and execution perspective.

Laurika Du Preez

Global Account Manager

Laurika holds a Bachelor’s and Honors degree in Psychology and has extensive
experience in leading effective operations, people and business development functions while providing a high
standard of service and value to clients by building strong relationships focused on operational excellence. Reputed for delivering strategic leadership by managing
opportunities consistent with the clients’ strategy for revenue growth. Commercially astute with a strong understanding of business, driving customer advocacy and fostering positive stakeholder relationships. Laurika’s professional background is mainly from the contractual labour and soft services industry.

Jill Hendricks

Global Accounts Manager

Jill is a seasoned Key Account Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the logistics and supply chain industry for the past 19 years. Skilled in Key Account Acquisition & Retention, E-commerce, Key Account Development, Business Development, B2B, and B2C. Jill possesses a detailed understanding of clients' businesses to offer solutions specifically suited to their needs. Known for creating long-term, sustainable partnerships with key accounts.

Jill joined Potentiam in October 2023. Her main focus is working with Potentiam founders and directors in partnering with SME companies to build relationships and assist these SMEs in building and scaling their world-class offshore teams in locations such as Iasi in Romania, Bangalore, and Cape Town.

Jyestha Tripathy

Head of Talent Acquisition India

Jyestha is a qualified HR professional with extensive experience in technical hiring, HR management, and candidate engagement. She has a proven track record of working with international SMEs and IT services to carry out specialized hiring.

Jyestha is passionate about ensuring a transparent and exceptional candidate experience throughout the hiring process. Her professional background is primarily in enterprise software, platform support, and professional services across various levels. She has extensive experience in setting up the hiring campaign according to business needs by understanding the talent pool and market trends in hiring.

Raluca Patrascu

Country Manager & Head of HR Romania

With over 15 years of experience in human resources, Raluca brings strong expertise in strategic planning, talent acquisition, and employee relations. Her skills include driving organisational change, improving workplace culture, and supporting employees' professional growth.

She is committed to fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as aligning HR initiatives with overall business strategies to achieve company goals. Raluca holds a degree in pharmacy.

Gabriel Lichentanu

Head of Talent Acquisition

With a solid BPO background, and over five years of experience in managing teams of up to 35 people, Gabriel joined Potentiam in July 2024. He has expertise in recruitment, talent management, and service desk operations. Gabriel excels in end-to-end recruitment processes, service transitions, project management, and process improvements.

He has led multiple talent acquisition initiatives, collaborated with senior management, and developed employer branding strategies. His background includes roles in service delivery, incident management, and technical support, showcasing his versatility and leadership abilities.

Who is Potentiam?

Where it all started