James O'Donnell

James is Emerging Talent Partner at Man Group, responsible for managing the end-to-end emerging talent lifecycle — from attraction and recruitment through onboarding, development, and retention — across the firm's Internship, Graduate, Apprenticeship and Career Returner programmes. James focuses on leveraging emerging talent opportunities to drive development and support social mobility within financial services.

Prior to joining Man Group in November 2024, James held Head of Department roles at Fitch Group, QA Ltd, and various training providers, consistently focusing on promoting apprenticeships to support widening participation and professional development within Financial Services and Technology firms. Before this, James began his career as a vocational assessor before qualifying as a Further Education lecturer, subsequently advancing to operational, sales, recruitment and management positions across the financial services and technology sectors.

A notable achievement includes reshaping the L6 Investment Services apprenticeship to better support Asset Management firms. James is also a qualified teacher and apprenticeship coach with extensive expertise in professional education, programme development and early careers talent acquisition.