Conselium Appoints Partner

November 10, 2016 – Executive search firm Conselium has appointed Steve Harrison as partner. He comes to Conselium with over 12 years of experience in executive search, with a focus on placing compliance professionals in the financial services industry in the New York City and London markets.

Prior to joining Conselium, Mr. Harrison was a compliance recruiter at Michael Page Executive Search in both New York City and London. Since 2004, he has placed executives for clients, including HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Bank of Ireland, ING Capital Markets, Bloomberg, Cantor Fitzgerald, Och-Ziff Capital Management, Santander, SunGard Systems and Two Sigma Investments, among others.

Examples of roles Mr. Harrison has filled include director of regulatory compliance, director of commercial banking compliance, senior compliance officer, director of fixed income compliance and director Dodd-Frank compliance.

“After the passage of Dodd-Frank (Wall Street Reform) and the Yates Memo, the stakes are higher than ever for financial institutions to hire and retain top compliance talent,” said Maurice Gilbert, founder and managing partner of Conselium. “Steve’s track record of hiring exemplary professionals for banks, asset management firms, hedge funds and private equity firms perfectly complements Conselium’s global footprint as the leading executive search firm for compliance professionals.”

“We have always specialized in serving clients in highly regulated industries like pharmaceuticals, medical device, healthcare delivery, financial services, chemical and oil and gas,” said Mr. Gilbert. “Deepening our network in the financial sector is a logical extension for Conselium’s growth.”

“Conselium’s exclusive concentration on placing compliance executives in heavily regulated industries provides an ideal vehicle for my specialty,” said Mr. Harrison. “This is how they built their brand: they don’t dilute their expertise with searches in other professions. This laser focus enables them to consistently satisfy their clientele with successful results.”

Conselium is a global search firm that helps businesses manage risk by recruiting top compliance officers and compliance counsel. Clients are branded companies in highly regulated environments, including pharmaceuticals, biotech, medical device, healthcare delivery (hospitals), banking, financial services, chemical, and oil & gas. The firm has served Fortune 500 corporations in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Russia.

Compliance Leaders In Demand

Finding senior leadership within the regulatory and compliance functions is exceedingly complex today, as companies face intense pressure under the current regulatory environment. Leaders who can foster close collaboration between compliance and other corporate functions, as well as communicate to a more complex and sophisticated set of stakeholders, are in sharply rising demand.

According to a recent Heidrick & Struggles report, sharply rising demand for compliance talent, the absence of a clear career path in the discipline, and greater need for compliance executives with leadership and influencing skills are creating difficult challenges for organizations seeking to identify and retain talent in a world of increasing regulation. 

“The demand is so great for internal auditor and compliance executives that recruiters are looking outside the financial services industry for candidates,” said Michael P. Kelly, president of New York-based Michael Kelly & Associates, which specializes in financial services. “The skills sets are transferrable but there is a learning curve to understand the sector they are auditing.”

“About nine years ago companies that were in highly regulated industries like financial services, medical devices and pharmaceuticals saw a critical need to bulk up in the compliance area,” said Mr. Gilbert.

The result: Mr. Gilbert has seen a 20 percent, year-over-year growth rate for compliance professionals as a direct result of ongoing or potential measures being taken by the U.S. government to investigate companies they potentially deem as having behaved improperly or who have not been compliant with new regulatory measures.

“The chief compliance officer is there for a number of reasons, including conducting their own internal investigations — known as ‘self-disclosure,’” said Mr. Gilbert “They are there to educate and to develop new policies within the company so these types of problems and issues don’t occur in the future.”

According to Mr. Gilbert, senior level compliance officers can make anywhere from $500,000 to $1.3 million annually depending on the size of the organization being served.

Contributed by Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor, Hunt Scanlon Media