BLNelson Group Launches In Dallas
September 21, 2017 – A new executive search firm, BLNelson Group LLC, has been launched in Dallas. The firm, founded by Blaine L. Nelson, will specialize in recruiting executives for the oil and gas and professional services sectors.
“After spending 40 years in professional services, I have a great network of relationships,” Mr. Nelson told D Magazine, a Dallas city magazine. “At the same time, the executive search firm business is becoming more robust, and there’s an enormous war for talent.”
BLNelson Group is made up of a loose alliance of search experts that specialize in energy, healthcare and technology. The firm includes Howard Hodges, a former Texas Instruments global sales manager. Through another member the firm also has access to proprietary software and multiple, extensive databases of C-suite job candidates.
Mr. Nelson formerly served as president and CEO of Cooper Concepts Inc. and CEO at the Cooper Institute. Before that, he was a partner with Deloitte. He has also served as chairman of the board for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and has been a board member for the United Way, the Dallas Regional Chamber and the Dallas Arboretum. He is currently a director of the Dallas Opera.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area has one of the largest concentrations of corporate headquarters for publicly traded companies in the U.S. Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the area include: Comerica Bank, AT&T, Energy Transfer Equity, American Airlines, HollyFrontier, Southwest Airlines, Tenet Healthcare, Texas Instruments, Dean Foods, Trinity Industries and Energy Future Holdings. Dallas is the third most popular destination for business travel in the country.
Open for Business
In recent months, a slew of new recruiting firms have opened around the world, a nod to boom times in the search industry. Here’s a look at just a recent sampling from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:
Anuj Dhawan, former director and partner at Positive Moves Consulting, an angel investor in a Seattle-based healthcare IoT business, has founded executive search firm Cognitive Talent Partners LLP. Based in Gurgaon, Haryana, India, the firm provides executive search services to private equity funds, banks, consumer lending clients and global technology corporations.
Veteran Edward Batchelor has launched executive search firm Hardman Batchelor International, LLC. Based in Austin, TX, the firm specializes in recruiting and assessing leading board directors, CEOs and C-level executives with a particular focus on cultivating the Austin market.
The U.K. office of global search firm Boyden has launched a new executive search and interim management business called Savannah Group. Savannah’s team of 50 includes 20 partners that are specialists in their fields, including board and corporate functions, financial services, hospitality travel & leisure, industrial, digital and media, sport & entertainment industries.
Search industry veterans Ian Macleod and Paul Atkinson have joined forces to form Atkinson Macleod Executive Search. The firm focuses on board and senior executive level searches for the private and public sectors. Mr. Macleod spent 16 years running the Scottish arm of Odgers Berndtson after serving for 10 years with the Norman Broadbent.
upLIFT HR has been launched in New York by veteran human resources executive Talia Salvati. The firm was created to partner with small and large scale companies holistically to create, structure and recruit its HR teams. It works with purpose-driven companies to find dynamic and nimble HR leaders who can drive their company’s vision and mission.
Wakerobin Partners has been launched in The Woodlands, TX, by Rick Lowry. As a boutique firm, Wakerobin specializes in recruiting corporate and regional leadership throughout the U.S., working in a myriad of industries and disciplines. Mr. Lowry has more than 15 years in the search industry, as well as many years in leadership positions in public and private companies.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Will Schatz, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
