Caldwell Records Q1 Revenue Decline of 26.7 Percent
January 12, 2024 – Toronto-based Caldwell posted Q1 revenues of $17.5 million (Canadian), a 26.7 percent decrease from a year ago. “From a revenue perspective, this remained a challenging quarter, as client focus on the uncertain macroeconomic environment continued to dampen and delay hiring decisions,” said John Wallace, chief executive officer. “With improving economic news and expectations of falling interest rates, our client conversations indicate increased plans for hiring with the new calendar year-in both our Caldwell executive search and IQTalent on-demand/RPO businesses.”
“From a profit perspective, we are extremely pleased that we favorably resolved IQTalent’s Nashville lease obligation,” Mr. Wallace said. “We had recognized a lease impairment charge of $8.1 million in the fourth quarter of the prior year with our decision to reduce our real estate footprint and sublease a substantial portion of the leased space in Nashville based on sublease market conditions at the time.”
“Effective November 30, 2023, we successfully executed a penalty-free termination agreement of the lease, which we will fully exit on February 29, 2024, resulting in a net gain in our first quarter of $9.1 million,” Mr. Wallace said. “Eliminating these future payment obligations gives us the financial flexibility to continue adjusting and investing in the business as needed and solidifies and strengthens our capital structure. The restructuring at IQTalent throughout the last fiscal year has had the desired outcome of stabilizing the business, to return to growth on both the revenue and operating profit lines in the second half of the year.”
“We anticipate improved demand conditions in calendar 2024,” said Mr. Wallace. “Our business pipelines are deep and growing, and we are forecasting an upward revenue trend for the remainder of the year.”
New Partner
Caldwell started the year by adding Rajiv Lulla as a partner in the firm’s data, digital & technology leaders practice. “We are delighted to welcome Rajiv to our global technology team,” said Jim Bethmann, managing partner of Caldwell’s technology practice. “His impressive and distinguished career – as an executive in the digital media industry, as a consultant overseeing digital transformation, big-data analytics, and cognitive computing, and finally recruiting transformational executives into private equity and venture-backed agile tech organizations – will be an invaluable addition to our practice.”
Related: Caldwell Recruits CISO for West Fraser
Mr. Lulla joins Caldwell from Egon Zehnder, where he led their global systems and engineering practices. In his prior role, he was lead account partner at IBM’s global business services, where he oversaw digital transformation, big-data analytics, and cognitive computing. Previously, Mr. Lulla founded and led Sanskrt Ventures; was CEO of NDTV, India’s leading cable-news network; and was a senior vice president at the Nexstar Media Group. He began his career in digital media at ViacomCBS (now Paramount).
Caldwell Acquires The Counsel Network
Caldwell has acquired The Counsel Network Inc., a Canada-based executive search firm specializing in the Canadian legal market. The acquisition of was an all-cash deal, and no securities of Caldwell were issued in connection with the acquisition. “The Counsel Network is the most respected, connected, and powerful legal recruitment firm in Canada,” said Michael DeCosta, managing partner of Caldwell’s professional services practice. “This combination brings together two strong executive search brands with exceptional reputations borne of a true passion for achieving the best results for clients and candidates.”
Caldwell also recently promoted Katherine Baker in the New York office to the role of partner. “Our purpose at Caldwell is identifying great people capable of leading and transforming organizations,” said Chris Beck, president. “This holds as true for ourselves as it does for our clients, so supporting and developing our own people is imperative. Katherine has continually demonstrated incredible dedication and commitment to her clients, candidates and colleagues. We are proud of her accomplishments, and it gives us great pleasure to recognize her importance to Caldwell and her impact on our clients’ success.”
Ms. Baker is a member of Caldwell’s insurance practice with more than 13 years of experience placing chief executive officers, chief financial officers, chief investment officers, chief marketing officers, chief underwriting officers, chief actuaries, and members of their teams at clients in property & casualty, life, and employee benefits.
Related: Caldwell Recruits CHRO for PFB Corporation
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor; Lily Fauver, Senior Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
