THE VELLA TEAM

Kirsty joined Vella in November 2023 as an Assistant Consultant. Having a background in specialist sales, Kirsty brings everything we are looking for in a Consultant – the ability to listen and truly understand requirements whilst coming up with tailored advice and solutions, the ability to provide strong research and insight into assignments and a mature and conscientious approach towards work. She will be working in our Town Planning team, covering private sector roles from the Graduate to Senior levels across the UK. Watch this space!

Outside of work, Kirsty likes nothing more than spending time with her family, especially her younger brothers. Kirsty’s dream is to travel around South East Asia.

Terri joined Vella in May 2024 and was promoted to Senior Consultant in October 2025, after consistently filling roles across Planning and Economics roles UK wide. Terri has a real skill in being given an extremely detailed brief to then research, identify and place talent with the roles. Just this year, she has placed a data-driven economic viability specialist, our first ecologist within an urban regeneration-focused consultancy and had two economic development candidates hired after finding such good people – our client had to have both!

Prior to joining Vella, Terri spent 3 years’ in specialist IT Recruitment, and most recently was the Director of her family Interior Design business for 5 years. Mixing her passion for recruitment and the housing market made it a simple decision to join the close-knit team at Vella. When not at work, Terri enjoys spending time with her 2 young girls, husband and Labsky, Bear. Travelling, Music and a lot of food are other passions of hers.

Scott is also one of the founders of Vella in 2020. He began his career as a Consultant working within the built environment recruitment industry in London. He has extensive experience working with candidates of all levels from Graduates to Senior Directors across the Town Planning, Economics and EIA sectors. Scott provides exceptional levels of service throughout the recruitment process to both candidates and clients, he especially believes in a thorough approach to attention to detail and building a detailed knowledge of the ins and outs of our roles, a perfect example of this was when he was solely responsible for the growth of a single client’s national NSIP/DCO team by 7 people over a 14-month period.

Scott lives in Kent with his partner, dog and cat. He can usually be found playing cricket in the sun or watching his beloved Portsmouth FC at the weekends.

Islay joined Vella in 2025 as a Recruitment Consultant, bringing over 3 years of experience in Stakeholder Engagement and Public Affairs, working in Development across London.

Previously, Islay worked as an Account Manager for Kanda Consulting, managing projects including residential, office, and mixed-use schemes. Her projects that achieved planning permission included large developments such as 176-178 York Way (Islington), One Silk Street (City of London), and 45-54 Saffron Hill (Camden). Islay is looking forward to utilising her experience in the planning world in her new recruitment career. Islay also gained Parliamentary insight and experience with the Kentish MP Gordon Henderson in 2023 as a Constituency Caseworker.

Islay holds a Bachelor's degree in International Relations and Politics from the University of Lincoln. Outside of work, Islay enjoys spending time with friends and family, baking and Pilates

Oliver is one of the two founding Directors here at Vella Recruitment. Having started his career in Town Planning Recruitment in 2015, he made the leap with Scott to set up Vella in 2020. Oliver remains highly dedicated to servicing a select group of clients with a variety of levels of appointment from Consultants to Senior Directors, across multiple service lines. Oliver’s client book heavily consists of award-winning private consultancies, PLC’s, national housebuilders, and multidisciplinary engineering agencies. His priority is forging close relationships with his clients. Currently, his top 3 clients have hired a combined 55 people, including a Managing Director through Vella in the last few years – with many more reaching double-digit hires. He regularly provides strategic advice and insight into the talent market directly to HR departments and the Board of Directors at these companies.