Caldwell Acquires Applied Behavioral Academy

November 24, 2021 – Toronto-based Caldwell has acquired Applied Behavioral Academy (ABA), a behavioral and cognitive psychometrics consultancy that leverages highly respected, results-driven tools to assess talent and to align people and business strategies. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Coincident with the acquisition, Caldwell expanded its alliance with The Predictive Index (PI), launching Caldwell Analytics as a PI Master Certified Training Center, delivering programs and workshops to train clients and other PI Certified Partners and their clients on all aspects of PI that initiate immediate transformation in their organizations.

“As Caldwell continues its transformational growth trajectory, the integration of the Applied Behavioral Academy team represents another important step forward for us,” said John Wallace, CEO of Caldwell. “Our focus and priority is to connect our clients with transformational talent, delivering long-term improvement to their enterprise, and increasing value to our shareholders. The added capabilities at both executive and enterprise levels that ABA brings to Caldwell will help our clients apply the same data-driven analytical rigor in their approach to talent acquisition and performance as they do in their financial and operational decisions.”

“Work is changing at a rate never seen before, and resilient organizations understand the need for people analytics to maximize the potential of their workforce,” said Chris Beck, president of Caldwell. ‘We have been consulting closely with the ABA team for the last two years to embed people analytics into our search process, amplifying our executive search teams’ wealth of relationships, experience, and rigorous competency-based expertise. In integrating ABA into Caldwell and deepening Caldwell Analytics, we look forward to providing a heightened focus on analytics for our clients and moving further into enterprise software and solutions, leveraging our status as a certified partner of The Predictive Index.”

Caldwell Analytics leverages validated, results-driven assessments to better align talent and business strategies. “This continuous alignment of talent and business strategy enables clients to deliver growth at scale, improve customer experience and drive operational efficiency to develop a sustainable organization focused on delivering business results,” Caldwell said. “The suite of diagnostics tools can provide context to better understand talent as it relates to the company, individual, strategy and culture.”

“Without the right talent, even the best strategy is just a wish list,” said Dan Courser, CEO of Applied Behavioral Academy. “I have been incredibly impressed with the whole Caldwell team and look forward to continuing to team with Caldwell Analytics’ founding partner, Todd Lingle, in pairing Caldwell’s extensive network and recruiting expertise with our data and tech-enabled approach to analytics, to drive change that matters from the C-suite to the front line for our clients.”

The acquisition does not bring an existing third-party revenue stream or additional costs relative to prior periods as ABA had been consulting almost exclusively to Caldwell over the last two years in helping design, launch and build the Caldwell Analytics offering. The firm anticipates that having ABA return to the enterprise sales market will increase client analytic solution sales, and that Caldwell’s new status as a Master Certified Training Center of The Productive Index will prospectively expand training revenue as a new service line.

Caldwell Acquires IQTalent Partners

Caldwell has signed an agreement to acquire IQTalent Partners. “For 50 years, Caldwell has been connecting clients with transformational talent. With this merger, we are setting our sights on transforming the world of talent,” said John Wallace, chief executive officer. “IQTalent Partners’ unique service model and innovative use of technology, paired with Caldwell’s expertise, network and resources will allow us to serve our clients in a more integrated fashion and allow us to have a greater impact on their long-term success, which remains our primary mandate.”

Founded in 2009, IQTalent Partners provides talent acquisition solutions to 300 corporations from Fortune 500s to startups across a wide range of industries and functions throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and South America. The firm recently launched IQTalent Xchange, a market concept using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) combined with human expertise to create a passive candidate marketplace. The proprietary platform includes more than 300 million global professionals, offering its customers unprecedented access to the most qualified candidates.

Joining the Caldwell Analytics team from Applied Behavioral Academy are Dan Courser, CEO and founder; Dr. Jeff Bondy, an industrial/organizational psychologist and a master trainer of The Predictive Index; Sonia Neameyer, a master trainer with knowledge of human capital analytics; and Morgan Golden, director of operations.

Mr. Courser’s idea behind ABA is to help clients improve individual, team and business-unit performance using workforce analytics related to organizational design, leadership, team dynamics, communication, motivation, talent management, and strategic execution. Mr. Courser is an active longtime member of Vistage, an organization of chief executives, serves on the PowerLink advisory board for women entrepreneurs, and serves as a mentor for both the University of Pittsburgh’s Entrepreneurial Fellows Program and the Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence.

Dr. Bondy has a long-held interest in human capital and psychometrics and has worked as a certified master trainer of PI since the program’s inception, leading hundreds of trainings for thousands of participants. Prior to joining Applied Behavioral Academy, Dr. Bondy had a 28-year career in HR and training, including 15 years at AT&T.

Ms. Neameyer’s passion for understanding human behavior and working with people led her from starting her career as a CPA in public accounting to running her own recruiting firm to becoming a certified life coach to now being a PI certified master trainer. Ms. Neameyer is an associate certified coach, and a certified public accountant.

Ms. Golden has a long-standing interest in using psychology and psychometrics to improve business practices. She is also the director of client services at Predictive Synergistic Systems, where she was an integral part of the company’s success before it was sold to PI.

Related: Caldwell Reports Extraordinary Year-End Results

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media