About Us

A different standard of one.

NOT ANOTHER RECRUITMENT FIRM.

Substance was built on a simple observation — most recruiters talk well and deliver poorly. Fifteen years of watching that pattern, from both sides of the hiring table, was enough.

Talk to us about a role

Behind Substance.

Substance was founded by Deema Yanni Ma'at — an elite recruiter who has spent over 15 years inside the rooms where hiring decisions are made, and the ones where they fall apart.

She has billed as a top-performing agency recruiter across Morgan McKinley, Hays, and Reed — winning Top Billing Recruiter across APAC and EMEA for over a decade.

Former LinkedIn - She has led the APAC and MEA talent acquisition at scale inside Booking.com and MBCC / BASF Chemical — managing regional teams, building hiring infrastructure, and living with the consequences of every mandate she owned.

She holds an MBA from Trinity College Dublin and CIPD Level 7 in HR — not because the certificates matter, but because she has always taken this work seriously enough to understand it from every angle.

That is the person handling your search. Not a junior. Not a bot. Not an account manager passing your brief down a chain.

The name wasn't chosen. It was recognised.

The name Substance came from a conversation — not a boardroom, not a branding agency. Deema and her partner were talking about the quality gap in recruitment across different markets. He was searching for the right word to describe what was missing in so many recruiters. She said it before she even thought about it: Substance.

He stopped. "Yes. That's exactly it."

Not technical skill. Not charm. Not volume of activity. But Depth. The kind that comes from actually knowing what a good hire looks like, what a failing search feels like, and what it costs a business to get it wrong.

That is what was missing. That is what this firm is built to deliver.

We Don’t Optimise for Activity.

Most recruitment models are built to show progress — more CVs, more interviews, more updates. That works when hiring is low-risk. When roles matter, it creates noise.

Substance operates on a different constraint: if something doesn't move the decision forward, we remove it.

What We Choose Not to Do.

We don't send candidates just to keep things moving. We don't rely on junior layers or automation to screen. We don't expand shortlists to create the appearance of optionality. We don't push interviews when the brief isn't stable.

These aren't efficiency choices. They are risk controls.

THE WORK YOU DON'T SEE.

The biggest difference usually shows up in what we don’t do — who we don’t send, when we recommend pausing, when we say “this won’t land” before you find out the hard way.

Good judgment rarely looks impressive in the moment. It just prevents expensive mistakes later.

We have sat where you sit.

Every recruiter at Substance has delivered inside agency environments, owned hiring outcomes in-house, and worked under real headcount pressure, budget constraints, and delivery expectations.

We know what internal trade-offs look like. We know hiring politics. We know the cost of getting it wrong — not theoretically, but from having lived it.

That context shapes every recommendation we make. It is why we push back when we need to. Why we are direct when the market is not what you think it is. And why we will tell you early when a search is set up to fail.

This is a trade. Be clear about it.

You give up: Volume shortlists. Constant progress updates. Optional candidates kept in the pipeline to preserve the feeling of momentum.

You gain: Clearer comparisons. Fewer interviews overall. Faster commitment at the end. Less backtracking after an offer.

This model is not designed to feel busy. It is designed to hold up under scrutiny.

WHAT SUBSTANCE ACTUALLY STANDS FOR.

We don’t just talk the talk – we walk the walk.

No empty promises.

If we say we are on it, we mean it. If we cannot do it, we will tell you before you find out another way.

Judgement over activity.

We are not measured by how many CVs we send or how many calls we make. We are measured by whether the right person gets hired.

Directness as respect.

Telling a hiring leader what they want to hear is easy. Telling them what they need to hear takes conviction. We choose conviction.

Depth over breath.

We run a limited number of searches at any time. This is a deliberate choice, not a limitation. It is the only way to stay genuinely close to every mandate we take.

Human first.

We treat every candidate and client as a person with something real at stake — not a number in a pipeline or a fee waiting to happen.

Most recruiters will tell you what you want to hear. We will tell you what you need to know.

Start the conversation

A different standard of one.

NOT ANOTHER RECRUITMENT FIRM.

Behind Substance.

The name wasn't chosen. It was recognised.

We Don’t Optimise for Activity.

What We Choose Not to Do.

THE WORK YOU DON'T SEE.

We have sat where you sit.

This is a trade. Be clear about it.

WHAT SUBSTANCE ACTUALLY STANDS FOR.

No empty promises.

Judgement over activity.

Directness as respect.

Depth over breath.

Human first.

Most recruiters will tell you what you want to hear. We will tell you what you need to know.

The role is too important to get wrong.

We define “good” before we search.

You see fewer profiles. Each one earns its place.

The person you brief is the person who closes.

Have a role that's been open too long — or one you cannot afford to get wrong?

No pitch. No proposal. Just a straight conversation?

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